Bogota!

I expected to spend about two days in Bogota,the capital city of Colombia. I leave tomorrow, after my twelfth day in the city.

It's all about the people! I first met up with my Swiss-German friends Fabian and Matthias, who I'd met in Peru. Drinks were (of course!) in order, so we headed out for a big night (along with new friends Lucy, Tom and Lise). It was Thursday, apparently not a big night in Colombia - we doubled the head count of every bar we entered - but the drinking games had worked and we were drunk enough not to care.

Anyone who has ever traveled with me will know that I have the odd ability to always wake up early in the morning, no matter how late (or in what state) I went to bed. It is a gift and a curse...I never get enough sleep, but at least I have time to visit things. This usually involves me wandering around a museum or park with a big hangover, trying not to throw up on people or fall onto important monuments. The lucky winner this time was the Museo del Oro, or gold museum, which holds the largest collection of pre-Hispanic gold in the world, some 5,500 pieces. I was particularly interested in visiting because this is where much of the gold found in Ciudad Perdida has ended up. It might have been the hangover, but after seeing over 5,000 pieces I came to realise that my main interest in gold is owning it - and then trading it for something more exciting, like a surfboard, a hilarious clown, or a friendly tiger.

I then made a foolish mistake. I attempted to use the Colombian postal system. All I wanted to do was post a DVD of photos back to England. The clerk punched some stuff into the computer before asking me for...my passport. This kind of thing shouldn't surprise me by now, you need your passport for the most trivial transactions in South America, but I didn't have it on me. I trudged back to the hostel, still hungover, wondering whether I should start up a rival postal service where the only requirement to post something would be a postage stamp.

The others were getting up when I got back and I managed to persuade them to visit the Botero gallery later in the day. While they were getting mobilised, I made another attempt at posting the DVD. I triumphantly handed my passport over the counter and asked to post my DVD to England. Annoyingly, their photocopier had broken during the time it had taken me to return and they wanted me to go photocopy it myself. Even after asking six times, I was still not sure why I needed a photocopy of my passport to post a DVD. Before leaving, I asked how much it was going to cost to send. COP60,000 was the reply, about £25 for one DVD! And that was the cheapest option. Massive fail - I will wait until I get to Panama.

Fernando Botero is a Colombian artist who is famous for, according to Wikipedia,  drawing with exaggerated and disproportionate volumetry, accompanied by fine details of scathing criticism, irony, humor, and ingenuity. In normal person language, this means he draws everything as if it were fat. Here is his version of the Mona Lisa.

I'm not the world's biggest art fan but I like it when someone does something different and really enjoyed the gallery. Adding to my enjoyment was the fact that my hangover was wearing off, just as it was kicking in for most of the others.

The next day everyone was heading in different directions, so it was the last big night out together. This didn't quite go to plan - the six of us got split up into three groups! Myself and Tom ended the night in a nightclub on the 30th floor of a skyscraper, looking out over the Bogota nightscape, with some Colombian girls we'd met earlier in the evening. It was agreed that we'd won.

After an epic couple of days everyone went their separate ways. I'd decided to do some couchsurfing so put up an ad and got a few offers. One response jumped right out at me - it said "I can take you climbing", that was always going to be the winner. My hosts were Mandy and Guido from China! I have never met such friendly and generous people in my life. They really made me feel welcome and I have been staying in the spare room of Mandy's awesome flat for the last week.

We visited the Police museum, which houses lots of guns and Pablo Escobar's motorbike. This bike is now worth thousands, mainly due to the fact that it was decorated with solid gold "live to ride" plaques.

I also went up the Monserrate mountain, which borders the East side of the city - lovely views!

Next up were the salt mines at Zipaquira, working mines that have a large cathedral carved into them. The cathedral is carved from the black rock salt and features the 14 stations of the cross. The whole place is lit up with deep blue and purple lighting, which gives a spectacular effect. It reminded me a lot of the salt mines near Krakow in Poland. I guess salt miners are a religious bunch.

There is a great climbing wall in Bogota, which we visited a couple of times. It was awesome to get some climbing in, as it has been a while. This weekend we did some proper climbing with a few others at Puente Reyes! Great routes which you can pretty much drive up to, and for good measure there is a beautiful river running through the valley right behind the rockface. It is going to be hard to leave...

I also managed to get some salsa lessons in with Mandy's Colombian friend Michael, who is from Cali (apparently the home of salsa). I am still rubbish at salsa dancing, but a bit less rubbish than before! In an effort to repay their kindness, I have been doing some cooking. Mandy studied in England for a bit and mentioned that she misses curry, my speciality! Even though they don't really have all the spices you'd need in Colombia, I managed to pull off a pretty good Chicken Tikka Masala. I also made a full English breakfast - less difficult but just as tasty ;)

We had a big night out at a place called Andre's Carne de Res with some of Mandy's friends. I don't really know how to describe it - it starts off as a really awesome steakhouse and then turns into a kinda dancing club. There was also a band of ghouls and ghosts at one point, something which I was not expecting!

So, that's more or less everything I've done in Bogota! I leave tomorrow for Salento, in the middle of Colombia's coffee producing region. Bogota and the people I've met there have really shown me a good time. I will miss it all!

The hottest girl I've met so far!

The best food in Colombia - Lechona....

...which is suckling pig, pulled pork mixed with rice and spices, soooooo good!

The limited edition "gun guitar" in the police museum. Only four of these babies were ever made.

Confiscated guns in the Police museum. Imagine having to hide the one in the middle down your trousers!

Down the salt mine, they have a problem with water flowing in and eroding the salt walls. This could lead to a collapse of the mine and therefore the water is directed to a certain place. The water dissolves the salt and then deposits it out where it evaporates, creating this huge waterfall-like wall of salt!

The main square, with some pretty wacky buildings!

There just so happened to be a protest when I was wandering around the square. I say protest, but it was really like a party. There was a stage, a band, and people selling great food. The riot police didn't have much to do!

A nice church in La Candelaria, the old town.

Mandy is a die hard Liverpool supporter. I would not normally approve of this, but I guess no one is perfect. I survived the trip in the 666 car by the way!

I am just about to attempt to negotiate this huge overhang. It was not pretty.