Lost city cont.

OK, you´ll be pleased to hear we made the bus. It took us to Cartagena, which is ´The Jewel of the Carribean Coast´. Which sounds very nice, I think you´ll agree. We´ve not really had much time to explore yet, but it´s good so far - a big metropolis, but with a beautiful old town with walls + stuff.
Anyway, previously I was in the middle of telling you about our trek to the LOST CITY. Big abandoned place left by the Tyrona people in 1500-odd, in the middle of the jungle. AMAZING. There was a group of 12 of us who set off with our intrepid guides William and Juan Carlos last Thursday. A nice mixture of Dutch, Irish, Canadian, Israeli (described himself as Israelian, which worried us a bit initially) and Americans - lots of funny characters. A broken car took us up a road full of holes and dropped us at a little village at the edge of the jungle.  From thereon in it was just us and the donkeys, walking for 5 or 6 hours a day up and down tracks through the trees. In the evenings we stayed in these little wooden huts, in hammocks, and were fed (extremely well) and watered. From time to time we had to do things like jump Tarzan-style into big waterfalls and cross rain-swollen rivers in rickety little boxes on ropes. Lush.
After three days we reached the final 1300 stone steps that lead up to the ruins and emerged up into the cloud-shrouded beauty of the city. Also lush. It rained a great deal then, but we had a good chance to look around, and rest our tired legs. Then, the president´s wife arrived in a helicopter - which was unexpected. She had a stroll around and chatted to us a bit about the security situation and our nationalities. We gave her access to The Irish which was almost a disaster, but they were quite well behaved in the end. She flew away after a while, and we headed back down through the jungle on foot.
Upon our return to Taganga we spend a little time reminding ourselves about beer and rum, said our goodbyes to our new-found friends, and then it was off on the aforementioned bus to Cartagena.
Tomorrow we leave for Playa Blanca, a beatiful beach on an island just off the coast, and then on Monday we catch a flight to Letitia, on the border with Peru and Brazil, from where we begin an expedition up the Amazon. Also, lush.
All our love and best wishes to everyone back home.  Hope all´s well!  Send us some news if you get the chance :)
xxx