In Ushuaia, at the very beginning of our trip, we shared an "asado" with a Colombian couple - Nacho and Angie. It was our conversation with them that had a big say in our decision to cycle across Colombia rather than stick to our original plan of taking a boat in Brazil and arriving at the Caribbean via Venezuela. Nacho has since been extremely useful in helping us plan our route and allaying any lingering safety concerns we harboured about their country. Furthermore, when we arrived in their hometown of Medellin, he was kind enough to put us in contact with his friends and family and, hence, we spent three very enjoyable days in their city. We were treated to a lovely lunch with his parents, Juan Ramon and Clara, as well as his cousin, Ximena. With our hostel not having the best of atmospheres, we regretted not having also taken up their offer to stay in their apartment; we had previously thought it best two smelly cyclists didn't impose themselves after four days on the road!

That evening we met up with his friend Camilo who took us on the newly constructed cable car to the outskirts of the city so we could watch the sunset. Medellin sits in the Valley of Aburra and, hence, the cable car provides an ingenious link to the central metro system from the poor suburbs, which are situated on the hillsides and in many ways resemble what one would picture when you think of Brazilian favelas. The obvious increased standard of living surrounding each cable car station is, in my opinion, evidence for the success of the system and these concentrations of development are in stark contrast to other poor areas we saw where poles are used to indicate land that is currently too contaminated to be built on.

One hour, a few beers and a hot dog later I found myself with my Tottenham shirt on in a 6-a-side match with Camilo, Pascual (another of Nacho's friends) and nine more of their mates back in the posh end of town on a lovely astroturf pitch. Camilo aptly described it as, "like another world" and this really does some up much of what we've witnessed in South America where the population tends to belong to one extreme of the wealth spectrum with very little imbetween. After the game Ximena and her friend Natalia picked us up in her car "Lennon" to take us to "Berlin Bar" where we relaxed before setting off the following day for our final stint to the Caribbean.

The next day we had our last climb of the trip; this took us out of the valley cut by the River Medellin and into the lowlands beside the River Cauca. As we ascended, it didn't take me long to realise that four hours sleep, a hot dog, and several beers are not the best way to prepare for a 25km steep climb. However, my grumpy mood was quickly eradicated by the now common friendly interactions with locals who stop us in the road for a chat and to hand over some water. One guy even stopped his car to try and hand us each a pair of gloves for what he thought would be a chilly pass that we were approaching!

The flat lowlands of Colombia which brought us to the coast and away from the Andes were extremely hot and humid. With the equatorial sun hitting the Pacific, late afternoon/evening thunderstorms are a regular occurrence and we managed to experience one while cycling. The rain, which cooled us to begin with, quickly became so hard that it almost hurt to cycle and we decided to dive for cover in a roadside restaurant much to the amusement of the people sat drinking beers.

After six days on the bikes we finally arrived in the historic seaport city of Cartagena. Situated on the Caribbean coast this was a key hub of activity for the Spaniards and their trade ships. As a result it quickly became a target for English, French and Dutch pirates including one notable raid by Sir Francis Drake who disembarked at night and took the city at dawn; he forced the inhabitants to take refuge in the neighboring village of Turbaco, burned the houses and destroyed a nave of the Cathedral. In response to many similar attacks, the Spaniards eventually succeeded in constructing a large wall and defensive weaponry around what is currently referred to as the "Old City". We spent three days relaxing and wandering around this area of town and taking pictures of some of the colonial buildings before deciding we'd cycle on to Taganga to end our trip on a quiet beach.

During the two day coastal cycle here to Taganga we stopped off at a remarkable 10m high mud volcano where we soaked in the crater's goo before washing ourselves in the nearby lake. While we were waiting to jump in, we were approached for our third TV interview of the trip. This time the crew were Canadian and were at the start of a three-and-a-half month journey around the world following a travel writer. The other notable event on this part of the trip was our first proper crash. We quickly found out that the tar they use to repair Colombian roads becomes extremely slippery in the wet and I managed a slow-motion replay of Dave's tumble 10m in front of me. Luckily, we suffered no more than a few scratches and were both quite amused by the incident!

Yesterday, we arrived in the 2,000 strong town of Taganga and celebrated the end of our trip with several well-earned beers. We'd like to say thank you to everyone who has sponsored us and encourage anyone else who has enjoyed following our adventures to check out the "Charity" page on the website and make a donation to Headway Oxford.