I know that some of you are following my route and you may be a little bit confused about where I am now and how I reached this place as my reports have been jumping around a bit.

I am currently living more or less in the middle of Colombia, about an hour outside Medellin and I am working on a permaculture farm for the next five weeks. We have no access to the internet unless we walk for about thirty minutes down muddy lanes and then tackle the nearby town’s free Wifi in the central park, so you can have a bit of a breather from my adventures.

sugar white buildings of Popayan

After Peru I galloped through Ecuador so that I could travel into Colombia with M. Once in Columbia we steadily worked our way up through the country. Our first stop was at Ipiales with its fairytale church and then we went just a few more hours north to the town of Pasto. There is not a lot in Pasto itself – it is just like any other large town in Latin America but it is the jumping off point for some really good countryside. We stayed an extra night so that we could watch the lunar eclipse and then we went on to Popayán. The Semana Santa festivities were in full swing at this special little town so we decided to stay an extra night before moving on to Cali.

Depending on which report you read, Cali is the fifth, seventh or tenth most dangerous city in the world but it is also the capital of salsa. Me and M parted company here for a week whilst I moved in and stayed with a family and she did her own thing although we did meet up a couple of times and I am pleased to say that we stayed here without incident

it looks modern but is ancient.

We joined forces again at the end of that week and then we took a bus to Armenia. This town is one of my favourite large towns to date and it is the perfect hub if you want to visit the coffee region. Whilst here we did trips out to Salento and Buenavista; we rode horses, hiked lots and visited a coffee finca. I could have stayed here for another three weeks or more but I had a prior appointment on the permaculture farm and M had to get to Bogota and the airport. We explored Medellin for our final couple of days and then on the Sunday after a journey by bus and then a jeep I settled into my new home which is where I shall be based for the next month or so.