5th Nov - Medellin to Tacanga

Up at 8. Oh good Lord, I was suffering. Flamin! Stumbled around, packed, found a taxi to get me to the airport. Turns out I'd to catch two flights today, one from here to Bogota and then Bogota up to Santa Marta. Aim is to get in around 2.30 then book the Lost City tour starting tomorrow.

Scammed my way into the lounge for some other airline's VIPs in the airport so managed to get some juice, water, yogurt on board. Then the flight was delayed for an hour. Stress as i might miss my connection. But got to Bogota on time but my flight there was delayed for an hour and a half. Ah crap. Hangover really kicking in now, felt really bad. Got on flight to Santa Marta and it was practically empty so I could relax. We were coming into land and pilot spoke quite quickly in Spanish but I caught "welcome to Barranquilla"... what the hell! We're supposed to be in Santa Marta! Apparently Santa Marta was temporarily closed as they'd had heavy rain... short runway... danger... yadda yadda yadda. So we got deposited on the extremities of the airport in Barranquilla. No shops, uncomfortable seats and no one had the first clue what was going on.

Room from hell

A plan emerged eventually that they'd wait an hour to see if Santa Marta was now open and fly up there. But I had apparently booked with ChavAir and these chavs refused to accept any of this, and surrounded the poor staff and started screaming abuse at them. This went on for an hour. Meanwhile I was feeling as bad as I have for months. Stomach in utter bits. This was the day from hell.

Here's the chavs on the rampage:


Eventually I managed to separate one of the air hostesses from the rabid pack and when I was polite to her, the poor thing started crying on my shoulder! Oh right.

Anyway, she told me that the flying to Santa Marta dream was over and we'd be catching a bus at 6.

Ended up being a long 3hr bus with all the chavs shouting and roaring and I trying not to puke with the hangover, got in at 9. So it took me 13 hrs to get there. The same as the bus from Medellin would've taken. Nightmare.

On that 3 hr bus, all the chavs had eventually fukked off to their ghettos and I was advised by the driver and his co-driver to stay on so they'd drop me somewhere better.
Plus point was that I was actually on a bus, negatives were that it was dark, had no idea where I was, found the Spanish of the driver impossible to understand and I'd no guidebook, phone numbers, Internet access so if the drivers tried to rob me, I was in trouble.

Shouldn't have worried, driver was dead on, dropped me off at a taxi rank and negotiated an excellent price to my hostel!
Landed in the hostel and they'd a dorm room thankfully. And a restaurant. Had steak. Turned out that a Dutch guy runs the restaurant and has by far the best food I've had in south america so far. I ate so so slowly to savour every single bite. Had horsed down a bottle of Malbec too before I even realised. Drunk again. Bed time - end of a horrific day.

4th Nov - Medellin Day 3

Shattered obviously after the craic last night but got up around 10 cos wanted to say goodbye to the Irish girls who were off to Salento, the place near Cali I really wanted to see! I was sorely tempted to go with them but couldn't justify backtracking six hours each way on myself so left them off. But it did give me the kick up the arse I needed to get my trip to the Lost City on track. Bus would take 13 hours to get up to the Caribbean coast and cost about €50, flight would be 4 hours and cost less than €100. No brainer, I looked up flights for the following morning and booked them! Excellent!

So this was my last night here in Medellin and although it's a bit of hassle, I decided to move hostels anyway. Only about a 15 minute walk and my backpack weighs less than 10kg so no bother to move. Bizarrely, in the middle of this lovely residential area, passed a police cordon cos someone was just shot dead. Ah well.

But it's usually such a lovely safe area!

Struggled at one stage to find the hostel and was stopped at a crossroads. Asked a lad walking past where it was, he struggled to answer so a lad on a motorbike waiting at a red light chipped in. Then a lad selling fruit across the road offered his opinion! Everyone's so helpful, they'll do anything for you!

Found the hostel anyway and it was bang in the middle of the Zona Rosa aka Craic Central! And the hostel itself was simply incredible. By far the best hostel I've been in so far in South America! Bit of a balls cos I'd like to stay here for a few nights but my flight's already booked for up north.

Went out to a local shop to get a snack and afterwards headed for a stroll around the Zona Rosa to see what it was like. It was great! Lovely bars, restaurants, clubs all around. And in the middle of it all, I came across possibly the tackiest restaurant in the world: Hooters. Hooters is a chain of American bars/restaurants where all the waitresses wear tacky tight orange shorts and tight tight t-shirts to emphasise their... assets. I'd eaten already and was going to  have dinner later. Then again, this is Colombia so the waitresses could be v pretty! Yerra I'll treat myself to dessert... I'm on holidays like...

It was like watching a catwalk show! And as per usual, they were Colombian so not alone were they beautiful, they were v v friendly.

Had a dessert, then a quick beer, overall a very enjoyable hour in there, then back to the hostel. Met the lads I was sharing a room with - they were stone mad for the cocaine. Mad for it. And told me stories about how they'd each gone on a coke-fest and "shagged these local birds in Bogota back in the dorm room... kept everyone in the dorm awake all night... ha ha ha"... Yeah that's hilarious lads. As our hostel closed at 2am, the plan for tonight was to go out to this club they'd heard about where it was €12 in and then it's free drink all night... and then "get some of the local muff back here (the dorm room) before 2 and ride them all night". It was like being in an episode of the Inbetweeners with a bunch of teenagers!

Went out for dinner on my own cos the other lads had eaten. Went to some fake American diner, and got wings for starter and a burger for main. Gobshite of a young fella brought the 2 of them out together. I was on my own like! I gave him a right good piece of my mind before tucking in. Ape.

Back to hostel and turned out everyone was heading to that club with the free drink because it was apparently full of women who can't get enough of backpackers. I'm always sceptical when I hear this nonsense. How many clubs have any of us been in where women outnumber men 2 to 1 and they do all the chasing? Not many I'll bet. I didn't mind though, I'd a few drinks with Anke and Mor and all the clubs round here in the Zona Rosa look great.

Turns out the club wasn't actually around here, it was 15 mins in a taxi away, the club finished serving free drink at 1.30, the vodka tasted like paint stripper, the club was 80% men (obviously!) and the girls there were mainly under 18 and very very pikey looking. Kryste. Plus, a story was doing the rounds about 2 Aussies who pulled girls in here the previous week, went home with them and got drugged and robbed of everything they owned. Kryste. Only option was to get demented to take the edge off. An option I selected with gusto.

Two positive things though, the sound French lads from Cali turned up unexpectedly and there were so few women there that my room mates failed in their bids to bring some local ladies back to our dorm.

Got to sleep for around 4, demented. Have to get up at 8 for taxi to airport. Kryste.