From Cali we travelled to the coffee region, or the Zona Cafetera, to a beautiful little town called Salento. The countryside is so green and lush, not unlike good old Britain, although the massive wax palm trees are a constant reminder we haven´t accidentally ended up in Wales!
We stayed in a lovely hostel called The Plantation House owned by an English guy and his Colombian wife. It used to be a coffee finca and is set on the top of a hill at the side of town with incredible views (especially from the hammocks at the bottom of the garden!). He also recently bought a coffee farm down the lane that we visited which again is stunning. One of the benefits to staying in the hostals here is free great coffee available 24/7, although having consumed about a gallon between us on our first day and not getting a great deal of sleep we learned to moderate our intake! 
We took one of the local jeeps (that take the place of buses in this rural area!) out to the Valle de Cocora and did a lovely hike (if a little muddy!) up to a place called Acaime.
There`s a simple little cafe set in the cloud forest and there are hundreds of different coloured hummingbirds constantly buzzing around.
On our final night the owner asked if we were going to head into town to play `Tejo´. He explained that it was like boule or petanque but things are made more interesting by the addition of little paper triangle targets that are filled with gunpowder! Hearing this we decided we needed to try it out, the added bonus being it´s free to play as long as you buy some beer! We walked down to the Tejo bar with a couple we´d met a few minutes previously (hello Siobhan and Anthony!) who were also filled with intrigue to find the owner only too willing to show us the ropes (and ply us with beer!). The game is great fun (even better when you modify it by adding a few more triangle targets to make bigger explosions!) and makes me think that the French really need to re-write the rules of petanque!
We then bussed it from Salento up to the once infamous city of Medellin where we stayed last night on our way up to the Caribbean coast (and a few weeks of lazing around in the sunshine!). From the little we´ve seen of Medellin it´s no longer the danger zone it once was and everyone we´ve met seems really welcoming and friendly. In fact Colombia as a whole has, so far, been so welcoming and great to travel round!
Keep on keeping in touch!
Lots of love,
Jo and Al x x
Al is at the front with a blue helmet and I´m sensibly it the back in yellow.
It was a pretty bad museum but has to be done for the photos! We also visited a better museum next door that is apparently on the actual equator and randomly bumped into some friends from our Galapagos trip (Ed, Lynne and Andrew!). Here we had some demonstrations of water running out of a bowl both clockwise and anti-clockwise depending which side of the equator the bowl was placed.
Our friends kindly gave us a lift back into Quito and we stopped on the way back to go up in a cable car that climbs up to the top of a mountain giving amazing views of the city.
They also very kindly took pity on us as we were having credit card issues and took us out for a meal in the evening (thank you so so much!).
The journey was made slightly more hair raising when Jo attempted a 3 point turn in the end of a tunnel on a bend, after this she was relegated to passenger/navigator duties, but this didn´t make for any more of a safe journey as she made repeated efforts to grab the steering wheel and plenty of shouting about my flawless driving.....(Jo is daring me to make some comparison with her Mum here, but I´ll refrain...) 
We could actually climb (following an impromptu bit of caving!) up so we could stand behind the water as it came thundering past which was amazing.
Unfortunately the train that makes the precarious journey clinging to cliff edges was broken so we had to get another bus further down the line to a place called Aloisi. From here we could take a funny little one carriage tourist train down the most scenic part of the route, made more fun by the fact that you can sit on the roof!
After boarding we were served a nice big Christmas lunch .However, just as we were finishing the mains there was a loud knock followed by the sound of glass smashing and I turned to see Jo clutching her head in pain. A glass light fitting had fallen from the ceiling of the boat and had caught her right on the head (fortunately it had smashed on hitting the floor rather than her head). She´s a pretty tough girl though so there was no fainting but unfortunately quite a bit of blood appeared and it was apparent that we´d have to go to hospital to get it checked out. By this time we´d set sail so we had to be dropped off at the nearest port right at the northern end of the main island of Santa Cruz where a taxi took us down to the main town at the southern end, Puerto Ayora.
So after a bit more discomfort for Jo we left to rejoin the Darwin with Jo a bit light headed but determined to still make the most of the trip. Unfortunately the Doctor had advised us that Jo should not snorkel which was something approaching disastrous when that´s one of the main daytime activities on a cruise. However after being a compliant patient for a whole one day, suffering watching everyone go off snorkeling, we had to try and come up with a way to mean Jo could get in the water but keep her head dry. The best option was a small duty-free carrier bag which just squeezed over Jo´s head, with the added bonus of a borrowed wetsuit hat! The end result had Jo looking like an elite fighter in the SBS but it was remarkably good at keeping her head nice and dry.
The rest of our time has been spent drinking the most amazing fruit smoothies, eating pan au chocolate, drinking cocktails...(Montanita has a street dedicated to cocktails!)... 
and taking silly photos on the beach!!!!
Great news is that we have managed to get a last minute deal to the Galapagos Islands so we fly there tomorrow (Christmas Day) and will spend the next 8 days on a boat cruising the Islands. We will be sure to let you know how we´ve got on. 
We also went into the centre of the city to the Plaza de Armas and got there in time to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace. There was loads of riot police around (apparently they´re present every day for the procession!) and we witnessed a mini-protest (only a very small bit of tear gas used).
We headed back south along the beach (not as nice as Bournemouth beach!) from Miraflores back to our hostel in time to catch the fish restaurant before closing!
This turned out to be a wise choice as we managed to find a hostel with beautiful little beach front cabañas just outside town. We had a lovely 2 days chilling by the beach and one boozy night on the rum! And randomly we bumped into two friends (Jim and Tom) from the Inca Trail.
Al drinking rum and trying to look like a pirate....