Colombia to Panama to Miami (USA) to Antigua (in the Caribbean) and back to Panama

This may take a while, so you may want to grab a cuppa, and even a pork pie (yes, that is what I´m, worryingly, hankering for).

Our last couple of days in Colombia were spent back in Cartagena. Where, finally, we managed to visit a gold museum. Had our first proper mud bath and it just happened to be in a mud volcano, standing at a mighty 20m. And we went for a lovely meal sponsored by our good friend McLeod, thanks again - below is a pic of us raising a toast to you.

Then we were off to Panama City, and saying goodbye to South America. At the hostel we met such a friendly bunch of people we hardly did anything, except drink, for the first couple of days.

So thanks to: Simon of Blackheath who was motorcycling from Alaska to Ushuaia for a Fragile X charity (here is his blog), Omar of Israel who was motorcycling from California to Ushuaia (see the hilarious hair chopping on his blog), Tsvi of Israel who was coming to the end of his travels of SA, PJ of Belgiumland who was at the end of a 2 week holiday, we hope to see them all again soon(ish), Cassi of Oz the competer, Gaya of India hoping to undertake her thesis here, and Eric from the States who will crush you.

When we finally did make it out we headed for the Miraflores Lock at the southern end of the Panama Canal. Quite impressive, the container ships were especially so as they were stacked so high they apeared to be spilling their loads over the edges of the canal which were only 2 foot away.

After discovering a few months ago that Hannah´s brother Ben would be getting married in Antigua we had been trying to find the cheapest way of getting there. This turned out to be from Panama City via Miami and actually worked out cheaper than doing it from the UK (even with the death of the pound, 1.68 you´re ´aving a laff).

So rather than spending a few hours in Miami airport, which we´ve done before, we decided that we would spend some days chilling, shopping, people watching and partying. We stayed on South Beach in the Art Deco quarter, watching the posers (even the manikins have implants here) and freaks (picture man in cat woman suit), lounging in the hotel jacuzzi and eating 2000 calorie burgers.

After a mince about our surroundings we headed for a mall, Adventura Mall 30mins out of town, where the shopping onslaught began. And the best bit is jeans fit me good, I´ve now lost the rotten shoes that have been haunting me since the Pantanal (week 4 for those who don´t remember), I now have swimming shorts (I accidentally left mine in the Amazon and have been using pants for the last month), and I now have normal shorts with a crutch.

The following day we hired a car to visit the Everglades. Where we flew round on a airboat and watched a croc show, Hannah even had a go at handling Snappy.

Visited downtown by skytrain, and ate at the Forest Gump (), Bubber Gump Shrimp, Restaurant. In the Jacuzzi that eve we met some Russians who were keen to improve their English language skills and insisted on an advanced crash course in swearing and pulling. And later I found out that this years ISA allowance has been swallowed by the crash of ICEsave, bugger!

And then we were off to the Island of Antigua. The timing for us was great, as we would get to see some familiar faces halfway through the trip, but the season being dominated by hurricanes meant we would have to be patient with the weather.

We stayed at the Jolly Beach Resort, this is where the Soul to Soul crew do their once a year week long beach parties, so we knew the entertainment would be good, and we were pleased to find out that the staff were friendly too.

Shirley Heights, beach cricket, dancing like Madona, water polo, shell art, games of pool with Pedro Collins (who took a shine to Hannah, she wasn´t bowled over thankfully for me), swimming in the sea at 3am, male lap dancing, and lots of boozy nights were enjoyed by Hannah, Tom (Hannah´s 2nd eldest brother) and me.

The wedding, of Ben and Sasha, was on the Tuesday and was blessed with good weather, and the boys and Hannah started the day with a bottle of Dom Perignon(). The wedding was held at a lovely palm gazebo on a spit of land surrounded by stunning beaches, and undertaken by a poetic registrar. All in all an excellent and memorable day was had by all. And Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Butler!

During Wednesday night Antigua was indirectly hit by hurricane Omar. We woke at 5am to the sound of torrential rain and watched an amazing thunder and lighting show, and whilst the trees were bending you could tell it wasn´t going be be a disaster. And at 9am when we finally arose things had calmed down, but we were surrounded by water. What followed should have been on an episode of Eastenders. Everyone, bar us as we were hungover again, were mucking in to clear up the flood water, cook, wash up and even serve tables as the hotel staff were unable to get through the flood waters from their homes. The main pool was now black, the sea brown and the beach green.

We did, however, have a throughly excellent time! Cheers Ken!

What should have been 2 easy days of flying back to Panama turned in 1 day in the airport at Antigua, waiting for the plane to be fixed, followed by another night at the Jolly Beach when they gave up then up at 5am to fly to Miami via Puerto Rico and finally arrive at 9pm at our booked hostel in Panama City and find out it is closed.

Anyway, we are off to the San Blas tomorrow for some more Caribbean.

And despite all of this I´m actually missing you all - well, most of you, Tx