Cartagena's old city, El Centro, is the most beautiful town we have been to on this trip so far. Surrounded by walls, nearly 500 years old, the city is a maze of cobbled streets, leafy plazas and wide balconies, from which beautiful flowers tumble. The colonial architecture is all around, horse drawn carts pull tourists around the city and open air cafe's and restaurants fill the square's. At night it feels like you have been transported back in time. A time of pirates and fairytale. Yes, it is touristy, but in a nice way. (Though there is the odd person that tries to sell you drugs but they soon leave you alone if you give them a firm ´"no" - they have business cards with names of satisfied clients on the back, names like Steve from Sydney, Barry from Brighton, all very pleased with the service, it's quite funny actually.)

At night it is lantern lit but in addition at this time of teh year the place is also awash with Christmas fare all over town . From the large old Spanish Armada style ships in the ports whose sails are lit like Christmas trees, to the wonderfully lit plazas in El Centro to the handmade decorations in the streets in Getsemani, where we are staying at a lovely B&B with a nice pool. In Cartagena it is celebration time. In Getsemani they have used blue and white plastic bags attached to washing line like ticker tape across the rooftops and down the streets, it actually works and adds to the charm of this part of town. It is a residential area of locals and there seems to be a party around the Trinidad Church every night, a local band plays and food stalls sell cerveza and corn. The Havana bar in Getsemeni is a great place for cocktails, Salsa and Meringue, and to hang with the locals. It doesn't look much from the outside but inside it is really smart, there is a smattering of westerners in there too, who are clearly in the know.

Cartagena is also probably the most expensive place we have been to but sitting on the city walls watching the spectacular sunsets of deep orange and purple over the Caribbean you feel like you never want to leave . It is a place to stow away the guide book and just stroll around. Learning about the pirate attacks on visits to the forts, the Cathedral and churches is really interesting. The most famous was by Francis Drake in 1586 and after he looted the town for 40 odd days the Spanish decided to build fortifications and the city wall to try and protect it, it didn't really work. it was looted numerous more times. Not only has the city had to deal with numerous pirate attacks but the devil apparently visited the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, the cities oldest church in the centre of the old town, and twisted the tower. That devil can be a right vandal.

The weather has been 30 or so every day, rarely a cloud in the sky and there is usually a much needed refereshing breeze blowing through the alleys. I have done numerous runs along the beach front in the evening as the wind picks up and the sunsets, it's thirst-quenching but revitalising at the same time.

We have done a few day trips . We visited Playa Blanca on the Isla de Baru, about 50 minutes away by boat. It is a gorgeous beach but it gets very busy in the afternoon. You get your boat from the port and have to barter for two things: the price and what type of trip you want. We wanted a direct boat to the beach as many take in other spots, go snorkeling, offer lunch and also visit the aquarium leaving little time at the beach. You can pay anything between 30,000 and 50,000 pesos per person, we paid 35,000 each for the direct boat, which took us 45 minutes and gave us from 10am until 3.30pm on the beach. It is a 'free for all' at the port but worth it once you are on the beach. The trip back in the afternoon gets a little choppy, so if you get sea sick it is worth taking a pill or two. We also took a trip to the mud volcano, Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, a 15 metre high (yes just 15 metres!) brown cone that holds a small pool at its top. The mud is said to be therapeutic. It is a very strange sensation, it feels like triple thick cream and is extremely buoyant, feels like you have a lifejacket that vovers you whole body, it is difficult not to be pushed horizontal . Afterwards you get to wash in the nearby lagoon where local women will help you wash the stuff off. You have to do it as a day trip from Cartagena, it costs 45,000 and includes lunch, fresh fish, at a nearby fishing port. A unique day, afterall we have never jumped into a live volcano before.

There are some fantastic restaurants in town (the Quebracho Argentinian steak house is awesome!) and you can find some cheaper places, particularly in the San Diego area, which is more residential than El Centro, they merge together and you don't really tell that you have passed between them. It is full of bright coloured streets and pretty flowers. The modern area of town is the L shaped Bocagrande, just south of El Centro and is where all the high rise is. It has a very, very busy party beach, music blasts from the beach front bars and numerous restaurants and designer shops line the streets within. It is also the place to book tours, for the life of us we could not find a tour agency in the centre but in Bocagrande, at the heel of the L shape there are many, from here we booked the volcano trip and a Rumba Chiva for New Year's Eve .

The Rumba Chiva is an open sided booze bus that cruises round town with a local band. It is a tight squeeze but after a bottle or two of the local rum you are soon everyone's best buddies - and like everyone else we were determined to get our 25,000 pesos worth. We invested in some Maracas and got with the rhythm. At the end of the trip at around 11pm it drops you at a local discotheque, which at that time is totally dead so we headed into the old town to get a spot on the wall from which to watch the fireworks.

From our spot on the old city wall we and thousands of others gathered and were able to witness three separate displays, one over the old town, one in Bocagrande and one taking place in San Diego. It was a great atmosphere, tables lined the closed streets and the cars lined the beach front where everyone was having their own picnic party. It was crazy busy but really friendly. Julie and I armed with our maracas danced through the streets shaking them as we went much to the enjoyment of cheers of numerous tables of revellers. That local rum dows funny things.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the elegance of Cartagena and head to Santa Marta and Taganga for a couple of days, from there we take a 8 hour bus to cross the border into Venezuela on the 4th. Getting to Venezuela by bus has been a nightmare to organise, you can't book online, or at a tour agency. It was also very difficult to find out any coherant information online too. You can only buy bus tickets from the station from which you depart, so as we leave from Santa Marta we can only buy the ticket from there, which we will do as soon as we arrive tomorrow, we just hope that there is space on the bus on the 4th as it is high season and for this part of the trip at least we have a schedule to keep.