OWEN AROUND THE WORLD: Into the Caribbean

Driving around Havana in Carlos's 1973 Lada!

Parque Nacional Tayrona in Colombia

I'm now in Mexico after making it through Colombia and spending a few days in Havana with Carlos... So far so good here, I've had my first 100% genuine tacos, and the beaches here really are splendid, especially here in Tolum where the beautiful Caribbean Sea provides a stunning backdrop for the Mayan ruins built right on the coast.

Things wrapped up well in Colombia. In Medellin, the reggaeton concert with Don Omar and Tito was quite an experience, the locals really were going absolutely mad and the arena had a really electric feel to it. After checking out more of the city centre there, the impressive Botero museum and listening to copious amounts of Juanes music (being from there, they play his stuff non stop!), I managed to escape to Guatape, a town a couple hours away which boasts a beautiful landscape created by the nearby dam...

Moving on North, I finally made it to the Caribbean! Getting to Cartagena was interesting, because it is such a beautiful city, similar in style to Havana, with so many colouful colonial houses and flowers everywhere, yet it does have a funny feel to it, lots of old foreign men looking for younger women, and lots of people trying to sell you this and that, so that overall it wasn't really my favourite city in Colombia even if its the most touristic city.

From Cartagena, I crossed through Shakira's hometown of Barranquila on my way to Sta. Marta, the village of Taganga, and ultimately the Parque Nacional Tayrona. Its a huge park made up of lots and lots of jungle and then some really beautiful beaches. You can sleep in hammocks on what is like a pier of rocks, a piece of land jutting out into the sea. Other highlights in the area are the Simon Bolivar tomb, Simon Bolivar being the main fighter for Colombia's independance and then the village of Taganga, a really pleasant village which is swamped with Israelis... I had an amazing time in Colombia, and the only problem I had was not having enough time to see more of it!

To get from Colombia to Mexico, stopping in Havana turned out to be a good option to enable me to catch up with Carlos a friend who used to study in Bristol and to meet some more of his family. It was definitely interesting to return to Cuba 4 years after my first visit and although things haven't changed much, you can still feel that things are evolving... I was shocked by Habana itself, mainly because the old part has now been completely renovated and is really clean... One of the roads we walked up was just mud during my previous trip! Having been to so many places in Latin America, I really can't think of one which rivals Havana in terms of beauty and character. It really is an amazing place.

And I'd recommend going soon if anyone has it in mind. If you could feel one thing during my few days there, it had to be that the average Cuban really is at a bursting point for change now. People can't take the communist system any longer, and it seems tragic that Cuba hasn't already followed in the footsteps of countries like Vietnam which have overcome their toying with communism. Ultimately change in Cuba is tricky though, you have the natives very anxious, you have the Cubans in Miami making their plans, countries like the USA and Venezuela putting forward their own interests, and the potential for the mix to explode is pretty high. Hopefully any change will happen after Bush has left office to avoid any more catastrophes...

One of the real highlights in Havana was driving Carlos's Lada around... It felt like being in a Walt Disney film with all these ancient American vehicles moving around alongside me. Luckily nothing went wrong!!! The time in Havana also gave me the opportunity of seeing Oscar and Irene, my cousin Cyrilles' friends, who had taken such good care of me all those years ago, although they were a little surprised to see me on their doorstep after all this time!

Friendly bar in Medellin