24th June, Bogota, Colombia

24th June, Bogota, Colombia

Much like the previous day, we spent the morning booking some flights and planning our next few days. Back at the hostel, I couldnt believe it when a small skinny guys walked into the place, wearing what looked like a costume out of Harry Potter. He was wearing a huge cone head shaped purple hat, and a purple cloak!!!!! He was obviously a breed of hippie I have never seen before. He was selling soya bean burgers and samosas for 2,000 pesos each. We bought some and they were quite nice. He just looked surreal to me. Although I shouldnt have been surprised as our hostel was like the meeting place for all the hippies in the town. They play their banjo's (Ive no idea if that is what their instruments actually are!) infront of a roaring fire every night, and sit around making necklaces from what looks like dog bones to me.

Afterwards we head out and walked uphill to the large mountain behind us. At 10,000 feet, the Cerro de Monserrate gives you stunning views of the city. We took a cable car to the top for 7,000 colombian pesos (2 pounds) each. At the top there are two restaurants. We walked past lots of souvenir shops, and then some food stalls. Jake, as usual grabbing the chance of free samples, tried something thinking it was chicken. It was infact some sort of tentacle off an octapus!! So while I stood paying for my corn on the cob, Jake was spitting it out behind me! Opposite Cerro de Monserrate, you can see Santuario de Monserrate, a huge 17th century figure of Christ. As usual, it rained on us, and in the pictures we took, you can see the huge dark clouds hanging over us... But the views were spectacular, so it was worth it.

We came back down, and Jake made me get on a llama for a picture! A guy just walks round with his llama on a lead, and makes a fortune off us tourists who want pictures with it. He wanted 6,000 pesos from us, but we gave him 4,000, which was still too much!

We headed through the city towards La Candeleria, which is Bogota's colonial quarter. There's a university, museums, and lots of small cafes. It's stone-cobbled streets all the way, with a nice atmosphere. We ended up back at Plaza de Bolivar, which is great for pictures of all the architecture and the home of thousands of pigeons! I think I stunned some policeman by asking for a picture. I'm not sure its asked of them very often. I put my arm through both of theirs, which shocked them more I think, maybe they thought I was reaching for their guns! But they were friendly, which makes a nice change to the police in Buenos Aires, which you just wouldnt approach, not even if you're in danger!

That afternoon, we visited Museo del Oro (Gold Museum). Admission is only 2,800 pesos, about 80p, This was the best musuem I'd been to. It has the worlds most impressive collection of gold. More than 34,000 pieces! It was great, as it was in English and Spanish, unlike alot of the musuems we'd visited around South America. The top floor was amazing, you go through a door, abit like something in Star Trek, which spins open, and then shuts leaving you in darkness thinking what's going on! This room is called the 'gold-room' and dimmed lighting with weird tribe background music plays, while you are teased and shown small collections of gold at a time. Almost like a spotlight affect! Very impressive.

We made our way back to the hostel, for more hippie action. (Oh noooo!) I dont think my parents need to worry about me coming home with piercings, tattoos or dreadlocks! No chance!

For dinner that night, we went to a nearby restaurant called 'Coffe Shop'. It was only small, located near the Las Aguas Transmilenio stop. But inside we had one of the best meals we'd had in a very long time! I ordered pasta for under 12mil (about £3.50!) and Jake got lasagne for the same price. We got given some free garlic bread too! It was good because it wasnt expected, there was 2 members of staff, the chef and the waiter, and 5 tables. The music came from the waiters laptop! The meal was so good that we broke from tradition and tipped a whole £2 (20%)!

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