Everything seemed like it was going to plan. We had Ruby back, we were excited about setting off in her and we had a lovely evening out with Guillermo and his family the night before we were due to leave. They met us outside a shopping centre near where they live. Outside the shopping centre were lots of different dance classes where people of all ages were taking part and ...wow...could they dance! Guillermo`s daughters really took to me (Jen) and linked my arm and we chattered away in Spanish as we walked back to their house. They were asking me about music and when I asked if they liked One Direction, they began to scream very loudly and so I joined in! The scream level went up a notch when I showed them a photo on my phone of One Direction live at the X factor concert a few years ago!   We reached their house and it was lovely to meet everyone. About 15 family members lived there, at least 3 generations. This is common in Colombia. They gave us the best seats in the house-2 rocking chairs, a glass of coke each and some chocolate cake. It was great to meet them all. Then we caught a bus and went for a walk around the old town at night. We really enjoyed spending time with Guillermo and his lovely family and hope to stay in touch with them.

The following morning we had breakfast with our super Air B and B host Jack, before putting the final bits and pieces of our stuff in Ruby ready to set off for our first destination as a trio! We got in, turned the key and.........nothing.......nada! She refused to start. Gav thought it was the starter motor and whilst he has fitted one before, it would have taken him a lot longer than a mechanic so we looked on i overlander ( a brilliant app written by another overlander which lists all sorts of useful info for overlanders) for a mechanic. We found a brilliant guy nicknamed " Freddy Toyota" in the back streets of Cartagena. The solenoid on the starter motor was broken and he and Gav went to loads of car parts shops down town to look for a replacement. They returned with a replacement solenoid but it was the wrong size. It was at this point we told him we had a spare starter motor ad he looked at us in disbelief as if to say " why didn`t you tell me this before?"!! He fitted the spare but we still had problems. It turned out we also needed a new battery so we went off with a  young lad and bought one. All then worked well and to date, we have had no further problems!

We set off for Santa Marta and had a lovely drive of about 150 miles. We noticed a lot of soldiers at various places along the road, all of them giving us a thumbs up, to which I responded with very enthusiastic thumbs up of my own. We have since learnt that the thumbs up has been adopted by the military as an easy way to let people on the road know that everything is safe. After years of not being safe on the roads with guerrilla control-this is a welcome sign for Colombians and anyone else travelling on the roads.

In Santa Marta we booked a 4 days tour to the Cuidad Perdida and then drove to Tayrona National Park. One of Colombia`s most popular national parks, Tayrona lies along the Caribbean coast with beautiful beaches and jungle at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is home to 56 endangered species such as the tiger cat, armadillo, primates, boa constrictor, rattle snake etc! It also has 27 species of flora and fauna that are only found in this region.

We had a lovely time and wild camped here for 3 nights in the car park entering through El Zaino gate. Well what an experience for our first wild camping of the trip. This was the jungle and with it came the creatures and noises of the jungle! It went dark about 6pm and just before that, the bats came out to play! They were so low flying that I thought they were going to land on my head! We went to bed shortly afterwards and slept surprisingly well for all 3 nights although waking sometimes in the night could be a little exciting and there was no way I was getting out of the roof tent if I needed a wee! It was incredibly humid-so we opened the side doors on the roof tent whilst keeping the mosquito nets firmly zipped up. We had also bought 2 small fans in Cartagena which provided an adequate breeze.

We walked through the rainforest to Arrecifes, a beautiful beach where the rainforest meets the sand. It took us about 2 hours in the hot and very humid conditions but was most certainly worth it for the variety of trees and plants and insects we saw.

So after 3 nights camping in Tayrona, it was time for our trek to the Ciudad Perdida (Lost city) for 3 nights and 4 days. We met the other 7 on the trip and our guide, Nicolas, on the road outside Tayrona and we followed them to the start of the trek. Part of it was off road so Ruby went into 4 wheel drive and headed up the mountain with big drops off the side of the road! Our guide then negotiated with a farmer so that we could park Ruby up for 4 days and she ended up in his yard being admired by the farmer, his family and friends!

The trek was spectacular, taking us through some of Colombia`s best tropical scenery. We walked for about 4 hours on day 1 and Gav and I quickly realised we were the slowest by far and also the oldest! Once we got used to this fact, we were happy to go at our own pace and come in last! Our guide gave us a talk on evening 1 about the recent history of people living in the mountains, in relation to the Coca plant which is part of the indigenous peoples` culture.Coca is also grown by non-Indian settlers as the raw material for cocaine. Colombia has long been dubbed the cocaine capital of the world, and its production has had devastating consequences for the indigenous population.

The lower slopes of the Sierra have been occupied by colonists growing coca for the drug trade that funded much of the armed conflict between guerrilla groups and paramilitaries in the country’s long-running civil war. Despite the Indians’ peaceful nature, they have frequently been caught in the crossfire between the army and illegal armed groups, and many have been killed or forced to flee from the quasi-civil war raging on their land.

However, the government and military have now taken back control of the area and are trying to help former coca farmers develop legal businesses. On the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, people who once grew coca are now selling coffee, honey and cocoa, and running eco-lodges.

We also met some of the indigenous people who live in the mountains, the Kogis and saw their houses. The Kogi have clung to their traditional way of life in these mountains since the Spanish conquest 500 years ago. In recent decades, they have been caught in the crossfire between guerillas, paramilitaries and cocaine traffickers. As a result of this violent contact with outsiders, the Kogi call the rest of the world "little brothers"—children who are ruining the earth with their greed for its resources.
Their shamans, or "big brothers," believe they are the guardians of the earth, and make offerings at sacred sites throughout the mountains to restore a natural order ruined by our mistakes.

They have maintained a traditional way of life.Boys and girls look very similar both having long hair and wearing similar clothes. One way of distinguishing them is that the boys carry a bag and the girls wear 2 necklaces to the boy`s 1.
Nicolas also made it very clear that we had entered natures territory and should respect it. He explained that there were poisonous snakes and scorpions and that we should always use a torch at night and shine it around to scare off snakes!  You should have seen my torch shining around madly! We also had to check our shoes in the morning for scorpions and snakes. We slept in bunk beds lined up next to each other, covered in mosquito nets, outside! What a brilliant experience and we were so tired from hiking that we slept like logs. Nicolas woke us daily at 5am  for breakfast and we would be trekking by 6am to beat the heat a little.

On day 3 we climbed 1200 stone steep steps to reach the Cuidad Perdida. It was worth every minute of the trek, set in spectacular scenery and containing such history. Ciudad Perdida (Spanish for "Lost City") is the archaeological site of an ancient city in Colombia's Sierra Nevada. It is believed to have been founded about 800 CE, some 650 years earlier than Machu Picchu.

Ciudad Perdida was "found" in 1972, when a group of local treasure looters found a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside and followed them to an abandoned city which they named "Green Hell" or "Wide Set". When gold figurines and ceramic urns from this city began to appear in the local black market, archaeologists headed by the director of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia reached the site in 1976 and completed reconstruction between 1976-1982.
Members of local tribes—the Arhuaco, the Koguis and the Wiwas—have stated that they visited the site regularly before it was widely discovered, but had kept quiet about it. They call the city Teyuna and believe it was the heart of a network of villages inhabited by their forebears, the Tairona. Ciudad Perdida was probably the region's political and manufacturing center on the Buritaca River and may have housed 2,000 to 8,000 people. It was apparently abandoned during the Spanish conquest.
We also met the shamen who gave me a blessing and a bracelet.

On the last day Gav and I set off first as we were the slowest. This meant we were first on the trail at 5.45am and no-one had trodden the path before us and disturbed any wild life. I walked past a bush and suddenly spotted a large, fairly thick black snake curled up. We went past (quickly!) and I told Gav what I had seen and he went back for a very quick peep and then we hurried on!

It was a tough last day with a couple of long, steep uphill sections which were even harder in the heat and humidity. My tummy had started to feel a little poorly and I thought I might need an emergency stop towards the end of the trek. We had almost reached the end of the trek when I stood in mule poo. I said to Gav "Oh no, I`ve got shit on my shoe". He turned round with a look of pure horror on his face as he thought I had said " I have shit on my shoe", bearing in mind my dicky tummy from earlier! As if Gavin!

After the trek we were filthy and tired! We decided to head back to Santa Marta and we booked into a lovely 4 star hotel for 3 nights and parked Ruby outside. We spent some time on the lovely roof top pool, we got laundry done and we drove into the mountains to Minca. Here we did a small trek to a waterfalls and saw a baby rattle snake on the way back! 2 snakes in a week!
 Next we head away from the Carribean coast, where we have been for a month now and head for the area of Santander. We will stop being plastic overlanders and start camping again...I promise! But....ooohhh...that hotel was wonderful!

Our time in Cartagena is drawing to an end. Ruby is nestled safely in a secure garage and we have moved into an apartment across the road which is very comfortable, although it is missing the spectacular views of our first apartment. Let me back track.
We have continued our relaxing routine of walking, supermarket shopping (bright green trolley in tow) and spending even more time on the beach watching the world go by. It has continued to be very hot and humid and we have started to acclimatize, however we both still look like we have been doused with water whenever we go anywhere. We are sweating so much (none of this glowing thing that women are meant to do, I am full on sweating!!) It is so hot that the milk we bought from the supermarket had curdled by the time we got back to the apartment about 20 minutes later! The weather also brings the most fantastic storms across the Caribbean sea. We have sat and watched for a couple of nights with the lights off, in awe, as the huge sheets and forks of lighting are in force over the sea. It has been spectacular to watch!

We  took a taxi with a lovely driver called Wilfredo, to the Convento de la Popa and Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. The Convento is on a small hill and is the highest point in Cartagena, offering great views. The Castillo is a huge fortress and the guidebooks say that it is the greatest fortress ever built by the Spaniards in any of their colonies. Wilfredo was very chatty and he and I had a none stop conversation in Spanish, of which I understood about 50%!

The Copa America football tournament has started since we have been here and apparently it is one of the most prestigious and widely viewed sporting events in the world. It certainly feels like that here, with nearly every Colombian and their dog, wearing their yellow football shirt on match days and all the restaurants, bars and even shops showing the matches on TV.  Colombia have won their first two games against USA and Paraguay, so they are through to the quarter finals. The commentary is hilarious-it is very loud and fast, like the commentary for horse racing!

Getting Ruby back was reasonably straightforward, but not completely! We had to sign some more papers in Spanish and get them witnessed by the notary. We then spent about 3 days in a row catching a taxi down to the customs agency who were managing our shipment. We went one day to sign some papers and then had to return the next day to sign the same paper in a different place! We met some lovely people there, in particular Jasmin who spoke English and was so helpful in translating what was going on. Also Guillermo who had been back and forth to our apartment to collect various papers and who really helped us on the day we got Ruby back.

On one taxi ride to the agency, we were hot and tired. The taxi drivers always seemed to struggle to find the agency address and on previous occasions we had got out and walked the rest of the way! Gav has a great sense of direction and sat in the front as he knew the way. The taxi driver started to dither around when we were almost there. Gav suddenly started to shout " erecto, erecto" whilst pointing his arm ahead with vigour. I stared on in horror and the taxi driver burst into giggles. The actual word for straight on is "recto" and this is what Gavin thought he was saying.  But erecto means exactly what is says on the tin and coupled with his forceful forward pointing arm action, well you can guess the rest!

We had to move out of our wonderful apartment on Tuesday morning as new people were due to move in that day. Jack, our wonderful host, has been a star. He invited us for beers and pizza on our last night and we met a couple of his friends. They were all lovely and we got some recommendations of places to visit. Jack is also letting us use his garage which is undercover, secure and can fit Ruby in. After a bit of a disappointment on Saturday when we spent the morning waiting at the customs agent hoping to get Ruby back, we were told that it would not be until after the bank holiday weekend! So Tuesday came and we were in the process of packing up to move to another apartment over the road. We got a skype message from our agent in Bogota to say we had to go immediately to a warehouse near the port where Umberto would be driving a truck with Ruby`s crate on it! 4 strong men would also be there to help us with the rooftent! We left our luggage in Jack`s apartment and caught a taxi to the warehouse near the port. We were both really excited!

The security guard took our ID and checked our footwear for health and safety reasons. Gav had his boots on but mine were in the landy so I had my trainers on. He asked me in Spanish whether they were strong enough. Now there was no way on earth that I was going to be left outside whilst Ruby came out of the container. I decided to prove how strong my trainers were by kicking the wire fence. Hard. Ouch. But I showed no pain and was subsequently let in by the bemused security guard  ( with gun!)

We were delighted to see the friendly face of Guillermo there, and it all happened pretty quickly.  The truck backed the container onto a ramp, the seal was ceremoniously cut with shears, the doors were opened and there she was. We were so pleased to see her! Gavin squeezed into the container to reconnect the batteries. The man that had disconnected them for us was very slim. Gav said that he managed to squeeze in OK but when he tried to get back out he was stuck!! He said his only option was to get into the landy, pray she started and drive out! I had told everyone the name of the landrover and she came out to many voices saying "hola Ruby"!

He drove Ruby out, the 4 strong men helped lift the rooftent on, whilst I gave directions in Spanish! We then drove out of the warehouse and followed Guillermo on his motor cycle all the way back to our garage.  Later in the afternoon, we took her for a spin to the supermarket and did our daily shop.

So today we did our daily checks on Ruby and began to pack the rest of our stuff. She looks well and it is great to have her here. We will move on, on Friday and then the adventure will really start!

I  forgot to mention that we signed up to the Colombian landrover club on facebook and have received such a warm welcome! We have been invited to their landrover show at the beginning of July and have decided that we will go!

At long last, Monday 23rd May 2016 arrived. Our day of departure! We left Mum and Dad`s at 6.30am following a bit of a debacle with the airport taxis when 2 turned up! Mum saw us off in her dressing down whilst Dad was just determined to see us off! We decided to fly to Cartagena in Colombia via New York because it was cheaper than flying via Europe and also New York is not such a shabby place to spend a couple of nights to start our trip!

The flight was great and even the process through immigration was not as laborious as we had expected. We decided to stay near the airport rather than head into Manhattan, because our Colombia flight was first thing in the morning a couple of days later. We checked in , ordered a takeaway and made use of the superfast wifi!

We had 1 full day in New York so made full use of the jet lag and got the metro into Manhattan at 6.30am! We still managed to get caught up in rush hour traffic-with packed trains and standing room only for the 45 minute journey. We spent the morning in the 9/11 memorial museum, and saw the  two huge pools and waterfalls that are on the sites of the original twin towers. We then walked and walked! We went through Greenwich village and then to the REI camping store (which we have been looking at on line as we have none in the UK). It was brilliant-sorry Go outdoors etc! We bought a small bamboo table which folds very small. This will fit nicely into the roof tent so we can put drinks, etc on it. We then walked the high line. The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long New York City linear park built in Manhattan on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line. It was lovely-a real oasis of calm above the streets of New York.

We finished off in Times Square and just sat and people watched for ages. I was most interested in a man who was sitting balancing a pineapple on his head, who eventually got up and jogged off with it still place!  And then we spotted the Naked Cowboy.  Gav told me that his sister, Leona, had tried to find the aforesaid Naked Cowboy when they were in New York over 10 years ago. She was really disappointed not to see him. It was also Leona`s birthday on the day we were there so we did what any good brother and sister in law would and got him to sing Happy Birthday to Leona with me (Jen!), which Gav videoed and sent her on facebook! She was delighted! We have stated to write down everything we are spending, so that we can make sure our money lasts us for as long as possible. We have blown the budget a bit in New York and if we carried on spending at that rate-are likely be home in 3 months!

We flew to Colombia with Avianca airlines the following day. The flight was about 4 and a half hours and very pleasant. It was so easy to enter Colombia. We got a 3 months tourist visa upon entry and don`t know how long we plan to spend here-we will go with the flow! As we got off the plane in Cartagena-the heat hit us! It was about 34 degrees and very humid. We took a taxi to our air band b which is in the Bocagrande area of Cartagena. We are in a wonderful apartment on the shores of the Caribbean sea  and a little local beach. The windows are huge to make full use of the views-so we can see the sea out of every window except the bedroom. I couldn`t imagine a more lovely place to start our trip. The shower is interesting as there is no blind and if I can see the little boats and people bobbing in the sea when I shower then I am sure they can see me! I have been performing all sorts of contortions to avoid this happening!!  

We are here for 12 nights and have settled into a lovely, relaxing routine. We walk fairly early  in the morning for an hour before the heat becomes oppressive. Then we either do some chores, sightsee or relax on the beach for a while,  visiting the local supermarket  late afternoon for fresh produce. We have eaten so well! Fresh fruit, veg, salad, fish on a daily basis cooked by Gavin, who is a super cook. We are such regulars at one supermarket that we decided to buy a shopping trolley (in bright green!). Now we can be seen most days wheeling it from the supermarket back to the apartment! I have not seen anyone else with one but we don`t care-it saves us lugging heavy bags around! A lovely traffic policeman who tends to be at the same spot every afternoon, always giggles when he sees Gav  come around the corner pulling the bright green shopping trolley! Unfortunately Gav managed to wheel it through dog shit this evening  (Bob, dog shitgate part 2!!) and the trolley is currently in the shower having a wash!

The area we are in tends to be frequented by Colombians on vacation so has many high rise apartments and restaurants.  We have already experienced 1 Colombian bank holiday (Monday 30th May) and there are 28 per year-what a great idea! The beaches were extra busy with loads of families on them, enjoying music, food, the sea and just chilling out together.
The guy who owns our apartment, Jack, is North American and lives in the upstairs apartment.  He is brilliant-he gave us such helpful information when we arrived , has cleared a secure parking space for Ruby when she arrives and bought us some local fruit to try a couple of days ago. He has also said he has a contact that can help us if things don`t go to plan with getting Ruby back. This is so reassuring for us as a backup in case things don`t go to plan. We know many things will not go to plan on this trip, however because we have just started, we are really grateful to him for this safety net. We highly recommend this place to other overlanders who are waiting to ship either to or from Central America, or indeed, anywhere else.

We have visited the old part of Cartagena which is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is very picturesque with many beautiful buildings and plazas. We took a free city tour and this gave us a great overview of the history of the place. I don`t intend to write about the history of places in this blog, as it is possible to read about it from many other sources. We have become used to the good natured sellers offering us a variety of goods: panama hats, sunglasses, jewellery, Cuban cigars, fruit, beer or water,  or day trips to the islands! I (Jen) went to Spanish school in Ecuador 10 years ago and my rudimentary Spanish is fast returning, at least to have basic conversations and to turn down the aforementioned sellers.

So  where is Ruby the landy whilst her owners have been having such a lovely time in Cartagena? The good news is that Ruby arrived in Cartagena port at 2am this morning (31st May)-we tracked her in on the internet! We feel like a long lost relative has arrived , however we have not actually seen her yet! We have spent some of our time here sorting out the paperwork needed to get Ruby back. This has been an education! We have lovely local agents called Angela and Daniel who are in Bogota and we communicate with them via skype. On the day after we arrived they sent us 6 forms, in Spanish to fill in. They quickly realised this was going to take us ages to do, as we would have to try and translate the forms first, so they completed them all for us. We then went to the business centre in the nearby Hilton hotel and printed everything off as we need to give copies to customs. We also had to take and send a photo of the building we are staying in and send a copy of our bank statement. Once we had done all of this, we took a taxi to the old town to visit a notary. The notary is a legal bod-who confirms your ID and witnesses you signing the papers and takes your fingerprints for the papers. This seems to be very common here as lots of people were waiting for various documents to be witnessed. It cost us a couple of pounds!

The customs officer arrived at our apartment to take these papers and then today, a representative of our agent in Bogota came to witness us signing the most important documents-the bills of lading. We ended up having a conversation via google translate which came up with some interesting translations! He was trying to tell us something in Spanish and google translate turned it into were we visiting an aquarium! We then went to Banco de Bogota to withdraw the money to pay the fees this end. Another lesson learnt-you can only withdraw a maximum of £60 a time in the ATMs here, so it took us about 13 transactions! I then lined up inside the bank to pay the cash into our agent`s account and managed to do this without any problems, or so I thought. The cashier had misread one of the numbers I had written down so I had not paid as much as was necessary. I thought she had given me too much change back! So I got back in the queue and she spotted me and waved me to the front. After shouting `Lo siento` (sorry) to all those waiting in the queue, the cashier rectified the amount paid. Then the customs officer returned to our apartment and took all of the papers away, saying we are likely to be able to collect Ruby in 3 or 4 days! Angela, our agent, messaged to say she will also provide 4 strong men to help us lift the roof tent back on when we get Ruby back!

So all in all a really good start to our trip. We will certainly miss the comfort of our apartment here, however we are both itching to get Ruby back and start the road trip properly! Famous last words!