It is mid January and after shipping the vehicle from Panama to Colombia with our friends pawsontour.com to bypass the Darien Gap, we're on our flights on our way to the port city of Cartagena.
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Far Out Overland unloading, Cartagena Port.
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Pawsontour unloading, Cartagena Port.
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Final inspection before our vehicles are released from the port.
​The first step in South America and already one of our favourite countries so far. We flew directly into the beautiful city of Cartagena. The old town is beautiful with many colours, flowers and art. As we walked through the streets we couldn't help but feel at ease and we realized how lucky we were to be on this journey.

​We were finally visiting a country that had been for us a thought of uncertainty for safety. We took this time in to unwind and treat ourselves to a beautiful boutique hostel in the heart of the town. We loved everything about Colombia.
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The walled town of Cartagena.
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Amazing art mural in the city of Cartagena.
The hot weather and the desire to explore, we decided to make our way to the beach of Playa Blanca in Baru, located about 40 minutes from Cartagena. The sun was hot and the beach was beautiful but packed with tourists and boats docked close to the beach. The beach is extremely popular for sunbathing and swimming but for us, as Overlanders we tend to enjoy a more peaceful, out of the way secret beach to explore. Nonetheless, Colombia has amazing beaches.
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Santa Marta, Colombia
Our friends pawsontour and their beloved Miro & Sheelah which we adored were waiting for us in the town of Santa Marta, where we would spend a week or so to work on the truck and plan our next move north. Milo spent the week in the underground garage to give our truck some loving. We ended up having the best views and a really nice beach for our time spent there along with spending time cuddling these two cuties.



We continued north to meet up with Pawsontour our friends from Switzerland driving a 75 Land Cruiser and Turtle-Reisen, a couple from Germany driving a 78 Land Cruiser, for some desert fun and remote exploring in the north of Colombia called La Guajira. The sand dunes, the beaches, the remote locations was one we will never forget. 

Check them out:
pawsontour http://www.pawsontour.com/iea/ 
turtle-reisen http://www.turtle-reisen.de/Willkommen.html
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Miro
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Sheelah
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Too much fun in the dunes near Punta Gallinas, Colombia.
At the time of our visit, there was not many people around other than the locals as the area is pretty remote. Driving the beaches, remote lunch spots and cozy quiet evenings near the water accompanied by stunning scenery and great company is what overlanding means to us.
Wheeling isn't fun unless you get stuck. This was definitely an evening of winching, there was no way we were getting out of these tidal flats alone.
We made it to Punta Gallinas, the most northern tip of South America.

Amazing beaches, beautiful desert landscape, locals and driving the vast plains we loved every part of exploring this area. 

After spending some time here we were planning our next adventure and mapping the next areas we would explore.
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One of our many pit stops along the way near Punta Gallinas