City of extremes Bogota, Colombia

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After a 10 hour daytime busride from Cali we arrived around 8 PM in Bogota. Our Footprint travelguide recommended a good hostel in the Candelaria area, called Platypus. What a shithole this was!!! We got put up in a house next door which is best described as a hangout for squatters. No door to the patio, a cat following us around everywhere and a room full of dust and that smelled awful because of the dampness and the cat. To finish it off, outside there plenty of glue sniffing junkies hanging around.... To make us feel even more welcome the hostel was full of warning signs: ¨Keep the door locked at all times, people from the streets will try to get in!!¨ This hostel was not in Canderlaria at all. Just a few blocks out, but this makes an enormous difference in Bogata. Nice and bad area are very close to each other!

We immediately made the decision to move out of this place the next morning. We changed room into the front room, which smelled a little bit less bad. The downside was, we could hear junkies banging on the front door all night long..... It´s an understatement to say, we didn´t sleep to good......
At 2,500 metres above sea level, it was freezing at night and the thought of snuggling up to their blankets wasn´t a very nice thought.
During the day it was vetry difficult to determine what to wear because of the temp difference; between 10-25 degrees.

As said, we moved out early next morning and after 4 attempts to get a taxi, we found a taxi driver who took us to our next hostel. This place was great for us. We could walk the streets without watching our backs all the time, helpful staff and clean rooms. It´s funny how much you can appreciate such basic things after a stay in a dodgy hostel.....

Candelaria is a beautiful area, full of colonial buildings. It was here where the spanish conquistadores settled in the 16th century. There are loads of universities. Therefore the area has a real buzz, with plenty of bars and cheap restaurants. Important for us, since we are trying to keep our cost down a bit...


We walked around the area a lot and started to see the other (beautiful) side of Bogota. It has to be said the Colombians are in general very helpful and nice people.
The diiferences in areas within 1-2 streets of one another is incredible; one minute you could be in the ghetto with glue sniffers, rubbish littering the streets, derelict buildings and homeless aimlessly wondering the streets and within 2 minutes, you´re within an area rich in restaurants, colonial buildings and cool cafe bars!

After two nights we took the night bus to Pereira. Our next destination: Villa Martha, a coffee farm in the Zona Cafetera.

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