Santa Marta is where Colombians go when they want sun on their backs, sand under their feet and rum in their glasses. It has a famous colonial past as one of the continent's oldest cities, and is where Simon Bolivar died after a heroic attempt to make Latin America one united republic.

We visited the hacienda where Bolivar spent his last days and died . The impressive main house has been meticulously preserved, with many of the original furnishings. Morbidly, even his deathbed is proudly displayed. The lush surrounding grounds were beautiful and full of lazy iguanas. Downtown Santa Marta had an affable, local and untouristy feel. The only other site worth mentioning in the city itself was the massive white-washed cathedral, claiming to be Colombia's oldest church.

We used Santa Marta as a base for visiting the surrounding area. Minca, a small village 600m up into the Sierra Nevada, was a great place to escape the heat of the coast. We had a very slow-paced day there tasting coffee at La Victoria plantation, enjoying a very fresh swim at Pozo Azul and trying to avoid the rain. Back on the coast, we spent a day at Bahia Concha in the beautiful nearby Parque Nacional Tayrona.

We also organised our trek to Ciudad Perdida, the great pre-Hispanic city of the Tayrona...