I had a very early start this morning. I booked with a door to door tour company, and they told me they’d get back to me with the departure time, and when they did it was to tell me that I would be picked up between 4 and 4.30am. So I was up at 3.30, and the guy was there to collect me on the dot at 4 o’clock.

Although as we drove along the Caribbean coast for the last time with me as a Cartagena resident, leaving was made a bit easier because I had never warmed to that apartment, and so it wasn’t too bad leaving it. My landlady was sad to see me go. We didn’t interact much at the beginning, and she only really got to know me in recent times as my Spanish has improved. She took me by surprise last night by giving me a big hug as I said my goodbyes.

The journey today was long and on extremely bumpy roads. At some stages we were just on narrow dirt roads that didn’t feel they could be the route to anywhere.

But eventually at about 12 (so after 8 hours of bumpy travel) we got to the little ferry that told me we couldn’t be far away.

There is something very relaxing about floating across the river in a car and watching the slow moving river out all windows.