Cartagena, you’re not how I pictured you

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else’s heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone…

A day in Tayrona National Park

“Parque Nacional Tayrona?” The bus driver looked at us blankly. Staying in a little village only a few miles down the road from the park entrance, we thought our journey should be simple enough. “Just flag down any bus, they all go past there”, we were assured. It wasn’t till we looked around that we…

In search of ‘El Pibe’ in Santa Marta

“Could you drive us past the statue of Valderrama?” “Ah, El Pibe!’ smiled the taxi driver. “Si, claro!” You can’t go far in South America without finding a statue. On a hill, in a plaza, at the border – statues. Santa Marta was the last resting place of Simon Bolivar, liberator of much of the…