Zig-a-zig-agghhhhh the 90s are back

We all know that fashion decade trends make a comeback, I didn't bat an eyelid when 70s(?) gypsy clothes came in, or 80s (leggings are now a staple) but 90s. Woah. Hold on. Shut the front door. I'm 29 and it is TOO SOON. When an era is "in" it comes back as a sanitised version leaving the terrible parts where they belong, in the past. I stepped into Miss Selfridge the other day and it looked like frigging Bay Trading. No one wants a return of that.

Trust me I loved the 90s. I am all over the RnB comeback, love spaghetti strap tops and if a channel could play repeats of Streetmate, Live & Kicking and Gladiators I'd be happy as Larry. But quite frankly this trend has gone too far. Here are just a few things that I've noticed have comeback....

1. Scrunchies

I noticed this on my recent travels that girls would wear mega high ponytails with scrunchies. I know they think they are dead fashionable and cool, and I've faced the cold hard facts that they probably are. But my inner voice was just screaming, "Pffftt I was all over that s*** in 1997 when I WAS Sporty Spice."  Which leads nicely onto...

2. Sports clothes

Back in the 90s it was cool to wear sports get up when you had absolutely zero intention of any exercise. Thankfully that trend has since passed. That is until I counted THREE MEN wearing Ellesse t-shirts in one weekend. Ellesse?!! Yes Ellesse that peaked in the mid-90s. I remember someone bought my brother red Ellesse trainers as his very first pair of shoes. The now equivalent of Nikes or Converse, for a 1 year old. You might as well just light a match to forty quid because they'll get approximately three wears of them before they're covered in food/crayons and grown out of. Anyway, where were we. Sports stuff for non sports activities. No. No. NO. Hopefully Ali-G will also come back to remind us Reebok ain't cool. Also come bonfire night it was an enormous fire hazard with that much flammable fabric. Let's just hope and pray that poppers don't come back. And no I don't mean drugs, I mean trackie bottoms with press studs down the outside of each leg. Need I say more.

3. Denim, denim, more denim. 

I went to a pub in Shoreditch last weekend. You can only imagine. It was like Bewitched meets NSync on acid. Denim was everywhere. Oversized jackets, dungarees, dresses, shirts you name it. Even white denim is back. Denim is a classic look, don't get me wrong, I'm not burning all my jeans. But probs worth checking with your mates you don't look like you're off to a rodeo. And that they're not wearing denim too so you don't actually resemble a 90s boyband.

Photo taken from style.mtv.com 

4. Jelly shoes

Yup. Really. Back. Someone was high as a kite when they invented these bad boys but I used to love these with frilly socks. I'm pretty sure anyone over the age of 13 is too old for these which is why I keep seeing them in bargain bins in clothes shops. Not that I've been tempted or anything. Ahem.

5. Crop tops

Way back when I was 8, me and all my mates went to Redcar high street and bought crop tops with the coca cola logo on. We thought we were the actual bollocks. Matching crop tops?!! We OWNED that high street. And worryingly consumerism had got the better of us already, though I'm pretty sure at 50p each they weren't official Coca-Cola merchandise. And now crop tops are back in a big way. So. Much. Belly. AGH. But it's like chocolate covered pretzels, I just can't decide how I feel about them. I decided I'm just about slim and (look) young enough to carry one off (though my inner self is going PAHAHA, who are you kidding). Too late, I bought one. But obviously I'm not going the whole belly-button-out hog and can just about stomach (teehee, see what I did there) about 2 inches of upper midriff showing so wear it with high waisted stuff. That's how Taylor Swift rolls and she dictates cool right now. Plus I'm doing it whilst still in my twenties* (*ok just). And obviously I'm hoping this trend dies out as quick as wearing silk pjs in public did. In fact I'm not sure this ever came in, just Rihanna did it once and Grazia said it was a thing. (It wasn't).

Since this 90s comeback isn't going anywhere I guess I'm forced to embrace it... I'm off down to the charity shops to find some Boyzone cassette tapes, Spice girls wedge shoes and a choker. It's vintage innit. 

I found a Polaroid from 1996 whilst hunting for embarrassing photos of my brother (the one blocking my outfit) but you can just make out I'm wearing a crop top with a denim dress and silver glittery jelly shoes and my friend Vicki is wearing Adidas joggers. An explosion of cool. 

Darwin's land... The Galapagos and a smidge of Ecuador

Día veintitres, Pasto to Quito, crossing the Colombian/Ecuadorian border

Big day today, the border crossing! AKA one epic faff. I naively assumed there'd be a cash point (didn't work) or an exchange place (non existent) when I got to Ecuador. Gagh. I had to find a cambio man and make sure the dollars were real, not making the classic car booty fail. Once in Quito I attempted to navigate the local bus system. ERROR. But, 5 buses, 3 taxis and 12 hours later I arrived at my hostel.

Which was one of the worst hostels I've ever been to. My "room" has a tin roof, there's cold showers - it ain't no Caribbean coast temperates. It [Vibes hostel] was recommended to me by some guys I met briefly, who must've hated me. I met some cool people though and had an Ecuadorian dinner/tea not before asking the owner if he had any recommendations,"There's some s*** round the corner." Cheers mate.

I didn't go out out as later got a lovely bout of food poisoning and spent most of the night throwing up. Not fun on a top bunk. Nor was it sitting next to the bathroom as a couple were getting friendly at 5am in the communal lounge. Well glad to hear someone's having fun. Oh and my airline have sent me an email to say my flight to Galápagos has been cancelled. Whaaa.

Día veinticuatro, Quito

Today was a right off. After getting the gossip about the night before and sorting out my Galápagos flight I moved to another hostel (Revolution). Which was, thankfully, heavenly. I slept under one of those cosy Bolivian blankets most of the day and a bunch of us watched a film- Mazerunners (I'm still confused about this btw) but just what I needed.

Día veinticinco, Quito

Feeling lots better phew, though nothing a few local buses can't help bring back the queasy feeling. Me and Katharine (a girl I met on Friday) go to the Equator! It was a mish to get to and a bit of an anticlimax but we had a laugh. There's an impressive monument, Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world) dedicated to the French expedition that in 1736 deemed it latitude 0° 0’ 0. Then with the advent of GPS turns out the real spot is 240m north of here.... awkward.

Tomorrow s***s going down as I'm going to the Galápagos aghh!

Día veintiseis, Quito to Santa Cruz, Galápagos Islands

I'm up at 4am for my flight. SO excited! It's like a mini holiday within a holiday. You have to pay $120 at the airports before you've even done anything. Eeshh. This is a huge tour/cruise place so I feel like a tramp with my backpack. The taxi driver can't find where I'm staying and I may have come close to tears and suddenly he calls his pals and found it. Being an emotional wreck certainly does come in handy in some situations.

I've lots to cram in in five days but a guy I met did me an itinerary which was SO helpful so I waste no time in going to Tortuga Bay (Tortuga=turtle in Espanõl) The 45 minute walk there was bizarre, it was so noisy. Birds and lizards everywhere. I was baffled as I've never been anywhere in the world where birds don't fly away if you go near them apart from the scally ones (pigeons and seagulls). The wildlife own this place more than I like to own a dancefloor.

Once I get to the Tortuga Bay it's surreal, glowing blue sea and sky, and white sand. I stumbled across a fat old marine iguana and got so excited then I saw about thirty of them under a tree. Round the corner I see... Nowt. Clue is in the title of this beach right?!! No turtles anywhere. Hmmmff. Yeah it's a gorge beach and I have a cheeky swim but whatevs I wanna see a turtle.

Día veintisiete, Santa Cruz y Isabela island

Up bright and early and off to Ranchas di Primisia, a turtle ranch. Or tortoises, I'm not sure what the difference is. If I don't see Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo and/or Michaelangelo I'm kicking off. I get a taxi there and they wait for you or to come back but this bloke is dead friendly and just comes with me, fair enough, I'm pretty cool. We don wellies and go trudging round in the mud and jackpot, turtles!! Some are smaller (females) but my fave is huge and having a nap. My taxi man, Angel (apparently a standard South American name- they must love Buffy here) tells me he's probs 110 years old and about 230kgs! I also went to a lava tunnel which is pretty average and I'm not even sure if it's the right one, maybe he just wants to get back and catch up on Buffy episodes.

After I got a water-taxi or otherwise known as a boat (they do things like this to confuse people like me) and do quick hike (or longer if you get lost ahem) to Las Grietas - volcanic crevices where the porous stone allows water to filter down from the highlands so the water is lush. Really beautiful and refreshing to swim in after the sweaty walk to get there.

That afti I got a ferry to Isabela island. "Ferry" my arse. It was a tiny boat and you spend most of the 2 hour journey either feeling or being sick. Isabela island is the biggest one (and where the most recent volcanic eruption happened) but the town there is lovely- a lot smaller, less touristy and has sandy streets. I met lots of people that night and went a barbie on the beach. Which sounds cool but there were way too many hangry (hungry+angry) people for food and I had the tiniest pork sarnie at 10pm. The woman running it was off her rocker and that night got her first two tattoos from a random bloke there so probably shouldn't have trusted she was the best host.

Día veintiocho, Isabela

I did a day tour to Los Tuneles (the tunnels- my Spanish is getting good). We got a boat to huge lava rock formations with cacti on, perfect for blue footed boobies to nest (birds but I still giggle at this every time). We go to an area to snorkel and jump off the boat and everyone's swimming like flipping dolphins. Me on the other hand who last did snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef in I think 2007? I'm just flapping about. My flippers appear to be preventing me from swimming and I basically go blind, choke and drown in sea water every time I try to snorkel. Some bloke takes pity on me and shows me what to do and I've soon got the hang of it, phew. The water is shallow and I see lots of beautiful fish and straight away huge SEA TURTLES! I didn't have a camera as only brought my phone here but I loved it so much and took in the experience more rather than trying to get the perfect video/photo. We also saw a seahorse and a penguin, but no one goes to the aquarium for a seahorse. The guide took us to a cave and he pushes you under the cave and I see about FOUR sharks. YES!! This is what I'm talking about. They're white-tipped and don't bite in case you're thinking I'm hard as. As I was swimming round the other side of the cave a shark swam past me!! I'm buzzing after this.

That afti a bunch of us chilled at the beach and everyone gets excited about sea lions which I think are pretty ugly and slimy. Are they in the UK as I'm pretty sure I've seen loads before?! I also had a few cocktails because y'know, I almost got eaten alive by a shark today.

Día veintinueve, Isabela to Santa Cruz

I decide to do my own thing and go explore and hire a mountain bike. The bloke at the shop tells me the straight forward route and how to work a bike, pfft I'm all good ta. Off I go and the bloke comes after me on his moped(?!) to tell me I've gone the wrong way through the gears and I'm about to turn the wrong way. Good one Soph. Once on the right path I go to a turtle breeding centre. As they used to be hunted and the introduction of humans along with goats, donkeys, dogs, cats killing them, they also breed them in captivity to keep the population going. I hear a really weird loud groaning noise and see two mating. Ha! Then I cycled to a lake and saw bright pink flamingos! Like real life Flamingo Land without getting eaten by wasps! (A theme park in north east England in case you're not lucky enough to have been.)

Then I do the cycle route through the beach, wetlands and forest. It takes a good few hours and it's mainly uphill but there was lots of small paths that take you to various wildlife bits. Near the end there's a load of steps you can climb up. I was a mountain of sweat after cycling in the heat but the view was well worth it. I felt insignificant amongst the never-ending sea of green and I have one of those moments where you think life is pretty sweet.

At the end of my cycle route is the the Wall of Tears built 1945-1959 by prisoners in the penal colony on the island, many died during it's construction. Bit dark. But I saw a turtle too! The way back was SO much fun. Basically all downhill and impossible to stick to the 20mph speed limit. Rebel innit. I don't think I killed any rare species en route anyway.

I got a boat back to Santa Cruz (the main island), and at the lovely lodge I stayed at the first night and my new mate I made on Isabela, Juan from Madrid, is next door. He's hilarious so it's nice to spend my last night in the Galápagos having a good laugh and gossip.

Día treinta, Galápagos to Quito

I have just enough time to visit the Charles Darwin research centre and see the other iguana species native to Galápagos which were a yellowy orange. I also visited Los Gemelos, two giant volcanic craters. I was so sad to leave as I've barely scratched the surface of this magical, heavenly, beautiful place ... AND I finally have a tan!! Gah. I think the gods took my wish too literally as my flight was delayed and I was stuck at the tiny airport for five hours. Blugh. I read a good book though (Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed) and balled my eyes out in the airport.

Día treinta y uno, Quito to Baños

I want to see a bit more of Ecuador so along with a German couple I met get on a bus south from Quito to a town called Baños. No not named after toilets as I thought but called baths from all the thermal springs. I met some lovely Canadian girls, Mel and Cass, in my room as well as two lads who were the real life Dumb and Dumber. Fresh out of boarding school on a gap yah and had the common sense of a potato. They wanted to know how to ask for tap water (not necessary unless you want a dodgy belly), didn't know who Che Guevara was, asked us the same inane questions and when I told them don't put your small bags under your seat on the bus met with a look of confusion, "People WILL steal your stuff" ... "Really, but we've got a lock"... "Yeah, they have knives. Also looks like you've got something to steal." Pretty sure they will be on the news soon accidentally smuggling coke because they thought it was flour.

Día treinta y dos, Baños

Baños is the adventure town of Ecuador and Cassie and Mel are keen to do some ziplining so I tag along. None of us really know what it entails but I'm imagining ziplining round some trees. I wasn't imagining an enormous canyon and hurtling towards a cliff face at 80mph but it was so much fun. Then things got weird. We had to walk across a suspension bridge which was had big gaps between the steps. I was terrified but slowly did it despite a guide jumping on the other end making it sway. You can make out on the video me smiling through gritted teeth saying I will kill this bloke. Then we have to do "a short climb" to the next zipline. Now when someone says climb I'm thinking a hike, NOT climbing up a f***ing cliff face with metal rings on for 20 metres. I had to do some proper yoga breaths to get through this. Cassie was first and I was second, at the end we've a few steps to go and she summed the whole experience up perfectly, "So... today has escalated quickly." I laugh deliriously and my heart is racing like I've had five jägerbombs. Never have I craved a G&T so much by 11am.

That afternoon we get a taxi to the edge of the world swing -  a treehouse with a swing on with a  mountainous view. The swing isn't quite as safe as I thought and the treehouse is actually at the edge of a steep hill so if you did fall off it wouldn't be pretty but after this morning nothing's fazing me. We were naughty and went on it twice it was so much fun.

Día treinta y tres, Baños to Quito

It's raining cats and dogs, so what better excuse to gatecrash Cass and Mel's plans to go a spa. Once we arrive the bloke first have to do a walk around the grounds barefoot with various instructions to get rid of negative energy- scream at the hills, hold hands and then hug it out. It sounded really wanky but it turned out to be a good laugh. Then we got in steam boxes, literally a box with steam and you leave your head out. We didn't have our cossies with us so they lent us some that I think had been made for 12 year olds and put on 100degree wash so the only thing that made it less relaxing was coming close to flashing a bum cheek and/or nipple. Every 5 minutes you get out and have buckets of ice cold water thrown over you and get in an ice cold bath. Brrrr. After we had lovely hot stone massages and definitely don't feel like I'm backpacking though it´s a fraction of what it'd cost at home.

That afternoon we bussed it back to Quito and I met up with my mate Owen finally!

Día treinta y cuatro, Baños to Quito

So Owen has already done a few things and neither of us were sure what to do in Quito so go up the Teleferico (the cable car). It had a depressingly empty theme park and at the top you could do a volcano walk but neither of us can be arsed. That afti we brave the markets and attempt to buy pressies for our families but instead end up buying huge alpaca blankets. Whoops. This should be fun cramming it in my already full backpack. We had a lazy night and watched a Liam Neeson film- Non-stop which was fun but defied a lot of logic and physics.

Día treinta y cinco, Quito to Bogota

Owen is off to the Galapagos islands (well jeal) so I do a walking tour of Quito which is pretty cool. I do zone out a bit and my main memory was the 19th century Ecuadorian president was killed by machetes for shagging some bloke's wife. We went to the food market and I finally had cerviche here which was delish! Then I fly back to Bogota via Viva Colombia (owned by RyanAir) who charge me $15 to check in and hand make me a boarding pass. I arrived to my hostel though and I'm reunited with a towel I lost here on my first day in Colombia ohh yeah!

Día treinta y cinco, Bogota to London baby

So it's my last day!! Let's hope I don't jinx it and get robbed or kidnapped in my last few hours here. I haven't been away long and whilst I'm sad to come back I'm looking forward to wearing make up, not staying in a Homer Simpson sunken in bunk bed and eating something other than plantain. 

Ta to everyone for reading and thanks to everyone I've met along the way who've made my time so much more fun. I'm so glad I made a trip to the magical Galápagos Islands... even though I first had no idea they were part of Ecuador (pretty sure I should get a refund on my geography degree.)

Ciao amigos X

For more photos and the tortoise mating video if you're as mature as me my Instagram is @sophiebennett1

Last leg of Colombia

Día catorce, Medellin

I felt rather swish as I got a flight to Medellin from the coast and avoided a 14 hour bus and got a sweet view. The city is pretty developed for Colombia, it has a Metro! Turns out there's a football match on - Cali vs Nacional (a Medellin team). I was jealous of my family off to see Boro at Wembley (though we know how that turned out :-s ) so I was excited to see some footie. Getting into the stadium was a mish, lots of security, no bags, no flags... Yet inside it stank of weed?! No clue how people managed that. The atmosphere was brill - drums, singing, banners, dancing... Just my luck we were directly opposite this lot (season ticket holders doh). Our area was a lot more chilled, or stoned, but the match was good, 3-3, so the goals got people going. There was a crowd near us all shirtless (sadly no David Beckham lookalikes-sob) who sang and jumped non-stop and a column of police penned them in. We assumed these were away fans but chatting to a Colombian guy turns out there are no Cali away fans allowed after last time a huge fight erupted after the match and someone was murdered and also set fire to their bus and the fans either burnt or stabbed. Oh. Awkward. The shirtless guys are just the poorer Nacional fans who started fights so they moved them from the rest. I wonder how they separate them, "One ticket for the topless stabby zone please!"

Día quince, Medellin

The area my hostel is in (Poblado) feels safe and it's a nice temperature, apparently Medellin is the "City of eternal spring" (or the peak of British summer at 25 degrees). So I went for a run! I was very excited about this, so much so that I fell over and added some grazes and bruises to the mix, nice one Soph. I met two lads at the footie, Tom and Kieran, who bought motorbikes in Chile and have been driving them up South America, pretty cool and somewhat dangerous given how people drive here (no comments on my driving please). We wander Medellin and go up a metro owned cable car which you would think would take you to the top but it ended up going into dense forest for a worryingly long time. Genuinely might be going into FARC territory. Blatantly conning tourists into going into the abyss subsidies the rest of the Metro. After I went to the huge Botanical gardens and I saw an enormous iguana, jackpot! That night I freaked out as SOMEHOW I'm head to toe covered in bites (I'm on 80+). No one else has and then some bright spark tells me they're bedbugs. Oh. ARSE. Knowing they're bed bugs makes me want to scratch my own skin off with a Brillo pad. Shudder. This girl wouldn't stop banging on about bedbugs and did I want to see her scars? Oh yeah!! Because that's gonna make me feel better. How about bore off. I did laundry and told the hostel, luckily the girl on reception spoke English even though I was prepared to act out bed bugs biting me. 

Día dieciseis, Medellin to Salento

So I was meant to do a walking tour this morning but I bailed as I realised I wouldn't get to my next town before dark (a key safety factor, I'm not actually Cinderella- though I did have 2 stepsisters at one point). The tour was mainly about Pablo Escobar (politician then cocaine warlord) ruling the city. Basically Medellin became the coke capital and a war zone for most of the 80s, a lot of violence and murders. Escobar was shot down by police on a rooftop in Medellin in 1993 and a load of investment the city is now one of the safest places in Colombia. 

I know is this a blog or a free history lesson, you are welcome. I'm guessing that's the gist of the 4 hour tour anyhow. Kinda makes sense my parents were bricking it about me coming to Colombia. It's like me having kids and in a few decades them saying "Hey I'm going travelling round Afghanistan!" Not to say Colombia is safe now but I've avoided a mugging or kidnapping so far- high 5. Anyway I bussed it to my next destination Salento, well they threw me out on the middle of the highway to Armenia and showed me which bus to get to Salento (a small village) and I made it before dark. Whoop. 

Día diecisiete, Salento 

I love this place! Proper village feel, kids playing on the street and lots of animals. Still wary of the dogs don't you worry. Me and a couple I met, Becki and Chris, go for a walk to a small coffee farm, Don Elias. There's a really old guy who is so adorable I want him to be my Colombian granddad. The guy hat gives us a tour has spent most of his life in New Jersey so he says cwaaffee! I know nowt about coffee so am intrigued by the whole thing. My fave facts: 

1. Coffee isn't indigenous to Colombia! News to me. It came from Africa when the Spanish brought slaves over. 

2. You can rarely find good coffee in Colombia as government regulations mean most of it is exported at a set price though they get to keep more locally as it's organic and in a tourist area. 

3. (My fave), the crap coffee beans they still kept in another pile and sold to Nescafé! 

There's no gas in the village this weekend so we went out and had the classic Salento dish, Trucha! Trout fyi. In case you're interested Colombian food is pretty nondescript and bland- rice, meat/fish, fried plantain (with EVERY meal in various forms), beans if you're lucky. They seem to never eat veg though fruit is in abundance. 

Then we played the almighty Tejo!, a traditional Colombian game with a clay pit with mechas (triangles) you have to hit with a tejo (a big rock). The USP is the triangles are filled with gunpowder so if you hit it with enough force they explode! We got stupidly addicted and if it wasn't for the whole lack of health and safety and every 5 minutes you think there's a terrorist attack I'm sure it'd be huge elsewhere.  

Día dieciocho, Valle de Cocorra 

Time for a hike to see the tallest palm trees in the world! We got jeeps to the valley and I met a load more people including the lads I did my paragliding with. It's about 5 hours and the way up was so steep, by the time we reached the top of the mountain it was so high and the view was mainly, well, clouds. Still I did it! Right at the end and bottom of the route you see the palm trees. So basically you don't have to do the hike to see them. And now I'm a sweaty mess for photos. But a great walk still and the trees tower over at an average of 50m so an incredible sight. 

That night - more Trucha and tejo! Though the combo of wine and hiking meant our tejo efforts were pretty, well poor. Oh and despite me slathering on moisturiser like it's butter on a crumpet my skin is peeling off big time from sunburn last week. Yup. My body has literally turned into a CHICKEN. My hopes of going home looking healthy are at this point as likely as Kim and Kanye naming their new baby Barry. 

Día diecinueve, Salento to Popayan

Another bus day! 7 hours. Obviously the one day I wanted to follow the playoffs I had no wifi. I arrived at Popayan which is known as the "White City" nothing to do with people before anyone jumps to racism just a colonial town with lots of white buildings. 

Día veinte, Coconuco 

I woke up stupidly early with the sound of monks singing and then clicked my hostel is attached to a cathedral, phew I didn't accidentally join a nunnery. I go and visit some hot springs in Coconuco about an hour away. Once I arrive by bus in the village you have to get on a mototaxi to get there. Or otherwise known as sitting on a motorbike with some random bloke, no helmets and him checking his texts. I probably should have been more scared but it was so much fun and I felt pretty damn cool. I arrived in one piece and I see a sign saying you're not allowed to have err relations in the springs. But you can rent out cabins by the hour. Oh dear god. Have I entered some sort of 50 shades territory?!? Luckily the place was empty apart from a few other travellers I chatted to and despite stinking of egg was relaxing. It's a hard life being unemployed don't y'know. 

Día veintiuno, Popayan to Pasto 

Another fun bus journey. The roads were windy, full of potholes and the driver drove like a maniac. He drove so fast and overtook everyone including at blind corners until we reached a toll point and all the cars we almost died overtaking are right behind us anyway. Ah the adventure! 

Día veintidos, Laguna de la Cocha 

Apparently there's a pretty lake to see near Pasto, But I got to the lake, it's chucking it down and I saw diddly squat. I meet these Colombian women and next thing I'm getting in a boat to an island in the middle of the lake with them. Let's hope they're not kidnapping me as I actually have nowhere to go if so unless I suddenly become a mermaid. On the island it's basically a forest/jungle and a great view of err cloud. I ended up going for lunch with them which was hilarious, only one could speak a bit of English in her late 30s (guessing!) and then her friend and her mum. Her mum complained it was too cold and got the bloke to erect a FIRE next to us in the restaurant. She had serious standards and brazenly went into the kitchen to make sure it was clean and the fish was fresh, I'm sure if my Scottish grandma had been Colombian she'd have done this. This was my last day in Colombia as tomorrow I'm attempting to cross the border so it was a perfect end to my trip to spend the day with Colombians (who also insisted on paying for the boat trip) and were so kind to me despite me being a total stranger and my embarrassing Espanõl. 

As I haven't mentioned it yet the drug scene is obviously still huge in Colombia and worryingly evidenced by so many people in cities doing/selling coke (don't worry mam I didn't go near it!) but generally local communities it's frowned upon to go near drugs (even weed). Colombian people want to move forward and not have their country be or be seen as dangerous and drug laden. Already in 20 years it seems to have done a huge turnaround and hopefully the future will only improve for this beautiful country. 

So there you have it my Colombian experience summed up, would encourage anyone to visit here. Next stop border crossing to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands eek! Wish me luck x