A new year, a new continent

South America at last! When we set out on our trip last April we thought we would be in Mexico for about two months at the most and in Central America for two months at the most. What we didn't know was that all these countries had so many wonderful places of interest, beautiful scenery and amazing wildlife to offer, not to mention the friendly, welcoming people. So, there was every reason to take our time and not just keep on driving through.

With Lucy safely tucked up in her container, we flew from Panama City to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast on Friday 23rd December. Now, Cartagena is apparently Columbia's number one tourist destination and we'd had some trouble finding ourselves somewhere to stay, it being the busy Christmas period. Eventually, we had booked what was described as a small internal room without a window so Sue had visions of us living in a broom cupboard for the duration of the festive period.

In the event, Casa Alejandria turned out to be a really sweet little hotel right in the centre of the old city with lovely, helpful staff and our room, whilst it did not have a window, had everything else we could have wished for. It was not at all small compared to some rooms we have occupied, it had its own fridge to store our wine and beer and it had a very nice bathroom with probably the nicest hot shower we have experienced on our travels. Sue tends to rate our accommodation according to the quality of the shower and we've seen them all: functional, non-functional, cold, hot, intermittent, dribbling, flooding, occupied by spiders and cockroaches and accessed by muddy jungle tracks but this one was perfect!

Our bedroom door opened out onto the most delightful little courtyard where we could sit and enjoy our evening bottle of wine whilst putting the remainder of the world's problems to rights, as is our wont. The courtyard was for general use but we mostly had it entirely to ourselves.

Christmas day was a quiet affair as they say in Lake Woebegone. We started by opening our presents, very thoughtfully sent by Sally, which included a remarkable tee shirt with a dirty Land Rover on the back for Alan, some posh chocolates for Sue, some Yorkshire tea and of box of Christmas crackers. We then managed to Skype all the children and even managed to talk fleetingly with all the grandchildren and whilst we couldn't smell the Christmas turkey we felt the Christmas cheer and were happy.

After that we went out into town, strolled around, took some photographs, had lunch at a Cuban café, strolled around some more and then in the evening we went to the Montmartre restaurant and had an exceedingly nice supper.

Street in the old quarter, Cartagena

Street scene, Cartagena

Fruit sellers, Cartagena

Colonial buildings in old quarter

Balconied houses in old quarter

Typical ornate door knocker

We were surprised that Christmas day in Cartagena seemed very much like any other day, at least two thirds of the shops were open and the streets were full of people milling around. Then in the evening the restaurants were packed, families gathered in the squares and little children raced around with their new Christmas toys and it felt very festive.

Christmas in Cartagena

Chasing bubbles

Boxing day was spent walking the city walls (built after a particularly costly attack by, you've guessed it, Francis Drake) and meandering around the maze of cobbled streets with their fine colonial buildings and vibrant bougainvillea draped over archways and balconies. We can understand why this city is such a magnet for tourists, it is quite beautiful.

That's not a gun, this is a gun

Sue on the city walls

Lucy's ship arrived in port on Boxing day and early on Tuesday 27th December Alan went off to the port authority to start the tortuous process for getting her released from the clutches of the Columbian customs officials. It took two full days of playing round and round the rugged rocks with various forms, officials, sub-officials, minor functionaries and receptionists.

Alan lost track of all the various steps that he had to go through but it involved passport, driving licence, bills of lading (temporary and final), permissions to export vehicles from Panama and permissions to import vehicles to Colombia and a variety of other forms which seemed to be largely designed for the confusion of people who don't speak Spanish.

All the forms required photocopies, five of this one, three of that one, two of the other one. To get the photocopies entailed walking about two kilometres to the photocopying place and back, this in addition to the various route marches between the customs and other offices, all in the searing heat. The photocopies had to be checked and then stamped by someone else and then signed and then taken to another office to be checked again and then taken to the bank to pay the fees. Every so often someone would go off for a siesta or for lunch during which time absolutely nothing whatsoever happened.

Just before five o'clock on day one the Senora at customs pronounced herself to be completely satisfied with all the paperwork and the five gringos who were involved in trying to get their vehicles out then did an impromptu rain dance in the middle of the reception area, much to the amusement of the Colombians.

Alan returned to the port authority for 8.30 am on Wednesday where more officials pushed more bits of paper around, then he was allowed to back Lucy out of the container and then there were more siestas and lunch breaks. So the five gringos all stood around for a bit longer and then came the vehicle inspection which comprised a man looking at the chassis number engraved on the inside of the windscreen. Some inspection!

Lucy waiting to be free

Eventually at about 3 pm, after a great deal of sweat and shoe leather, Lucy was released  and all was well.

We bid a fond farewell to Cartagena on Friday 30th December and made our way north eastwards to the village of Minca on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, renowned for being a birdwatchers paradise.

Minca is surrounded by beautiful forest clad hills and all the buildings in the town cling to the sides of the precipitous slopes and there is virtually nowhere flat. We tried two or three different places that apparently had camping but we couldn't fit Lucy into the space available so we ended up at a small hotel about a kilometre north of the village.

We managed to arrange an early morning walk and were up at five o'clock on New Year's Eve morning to meet our guide at six o'clock. However, he was on Columbian time and turned up at six thirty but all was forgiven because we had the most wonderful morning. To be up in the early morning was a pretty magical thing. The sunlight touched the tops of the trees and then crept up the side of the hill, warming and waking everything as it went.

Dawn, Minca

Guard dog, Minca

The place was phenomenally good for birds and we both agreed we had never seen so many different species in such a small area. Among those that we can remember were toucans, toucanets, araucaris, oropendolas, a tree creeper, humming birds, a squirrel cuckoo, a broad billed anis, motmots, tanagers and oriels. One of the hummingbirds we saw was busy building a nest the size of half a walnut out of spiders web and lichen. There was also a very large unidentified eagle which we briefly saw and which must have had a wingspan of seven or eight feet.

Blue crowned motmot, Minca

Unidentified bird, Minca

Hummingbird building its nest, Minca

Hummingbird on nest, Minca

Waterfall, Rio Minca

Grumpy old man, Rio Minca

Having got up so early in the morning we didn't actually manage to stay awake long enough to see the New Year in although we enjoyed a few glasses of wine and exchanged 'Feliz Ano Nuevo' greetings with the happy, noisy crowd of Colombians around us.

We set off on New Year's day in a southerly direction and had an entirely uneventful day's driving on mostly straight, well tarmacked road, then stopped off for the night at a place so forgettable that neither of us can remember its name.

Next day the drive was much more interesting. We soon turned off the tarmac road and then we took the golden road to Santa Cruz de Mompox. Alan named it the golden road because firstly it was a yellow, dusty, dirt road but also because it was lined with the most glorious golden yellow and occasionally mauve trees which were in full bloom.

On the golden road

Further along the golden road

The road itself was quite interesting, there were a couple of potholes that were designed to send the shock absorbers through the bonnet and then after crossing the Rio Magdalena on a ferry (for which the ferryman tried to charge us five times the going rate) we arrived at the town of Santa Cruz de Mompox. Its name sounds like a rather unpleasant tropical disease but it isn't, it's a very attractive colonial town situated on the banks of the river.

Ferry crossing on the Rio Magdalena

The town used to be quite an important port for the distribution of goods to the interior of this part of Colombia but apparently the Rio Magdalena silted up and now no large vessels can get here. What remains are its very attractive colonial houses and churches, many of the houses with internal courtyards and featuring absolutely massive timber doors some twelve feet high.

'Walt Disney' church, Mompox

Steptoe without son, on the Malecon at Mompox

Market stall, Mompox

Girl in a window, Mompox

We spent a very pleasant couple of days pottering around the town and along the river front and, of course, we had a boat trip. We managed to organise a boat and a boatman all to ourselves and enjoyed a four hour trip which took us down river and then into one of the backwaters built by the original indigenous tribes of the area. From here we snaked through ever narrower channels into the wetlands where we saw an abundance of birdlife. Whilst we were able to identify many of the birds ourselves, unfortunately our boatman, whilst being able to navigate his way perfectly through the myriad of channels, did not have a clue about birds so we could not be sure what they all were.

Iguana, Rio Magdalena

Probably a caracara, Rio Magdalena

Male ringed kingfisher, Rio Magdalena

Female ringed kingfisher

Fisherman, Rio Magdalena backwaters

Kingfisher on a mission

Communal bath time, Rio Magdalena backwaters

Fisherman with casting net

Probably a limpkin, Rio Magdalena backwaters

Groove billed anis

Flowering water plants, Rio Magdalena backwaters

Fishermen in dugout canoe

Black vultures on floating corpse

View of Mompox from Rio Magdalena

Mompox from Rio Magdalena

Although we planned to leave on Thursday our departure was delayed by a day due to Sue having a small dose of Montezuma's revenge. Luckily, she was in good order by yesterday morning, Friday 6th January, and so we were able to get on the road again.

Our journey south was pleasant enough. To begin with we were driving through wetlands and large expanses of water on an elevated roadway and there were lots of interesting birds, including ibis and snail kites. The morning was also enlightened by what we think is probably the most unusual 'freight' we have ever seen on a motorbike. What we saw was a 100cc motorbike with a man on the front and a woman on the back, nothing unusual there you might say. However, between them were two pigs and we are not talking small weaners, we are talking full scale bacon size grunters. They were trussed up with a piece of rope around their mouths to prevent them from biting anyone and one was stacked neatly on top of the other between the driver and the passenger.

After a forgettable lunch at a forgettable restaurant in a forgettable town we continued on our merry way with the road climbing up and up. Eventually, we came to a big traffic queue in a small town and then came to a complete halt. We soon found out why. A carnival came along with a float resembling something a bit like a large floppy puppy followed by lots and lots of dancers, male and female, all dolled up to the nines and most of them carrying bags of flour which they threw at people, including us. We captured both the carnival and the pig freight beautifully on camera but Alan inadvertently managed to wipe the photos before we could download them so you will just have to take our word for it.

Ultimately, we got through all the festivities and after seven hours of driving arrived at the city of Bucaramanga where we are now staying. Today is a rest and recuperation day and Lucy has had a bit of attention getting her wheels balanced and the large splatterings of flour from yesterday washed off.

All being well, we shall be on the road again tomorrow, Sunday 8th January, to the mountainous area of Santander and the white waters of the Rio Fonce.