Welcome to paradise...

...if paradise consists of the following:

1. Glastonbury-style toilets
2. Overpriced and underwhelming food
3. Sleeping under a bin-liner for the princely sum of £20
4. 90's Techno music waking you up at 6am.

Okay - so the Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona is a stunning stretch of rainforest hugging the Caribbean coastline with its pristine sandy beaches. But they could do something more with its beauty and make it feel less like an over-priced pop festival where the tourists are fleeced for all the money they have for little in the way of comfort.

We spent three days in the park, walked from one beach to another, chilled on the beautiful beaches and swam in the warm waters. But it was a relief when we had finally got back to Santa Marta and the relative quiet of our hostel in a slightly dodgy part of the city.

Santa Marta is the oldest town in South America. But its past colonial glories have faded somewhat and it is now a Colombian version of Brighton and all that goes along with a seaside holiday town.

Within hours of arriving we had booked ourselves on a dive trip with two really nice Colombians - Diego and Julie. The dive was interesting. No visibility above 10 metres and then suddenly you hit a cold water current which comes up from the Antarctic and the visibility is great and you start seeing huge moray eels and massive bowl-like coral. Quite weird.

We've only been in Colombia a few days but we have already made some Colombian friends instead of just fellow tourists. Which is funny because that hasn't really happened anywhere in South America. Following the dive we were dancing in a sweaty Colombian nightclub with Diego and Julie to the sounds of salsa and reggaeton and at the national park arrangements were made to met up with another group of Colombians in Cartagena.