A bicycle ride in Bogota

Hello all. ·In case you missed the memo, I've left a job I love to travel South America.

My plans of buying a one-way ticket to Colombia were slightly foiled at the airport in Toronto when the Air Canada agent told me you are required to have a ticket out of the country. I told her I was taking a bus to Equator, but she wasn't budging. Panic mode set in as she told me the flight was closing in 15 minutes and I had to go buy a ticket out of the country. I promptly "borrowed" a baggage cart from a Japanese tourist in the executive line, did the 100 meter dash to the end of the terminal where the agent got me a cheap ticket that is fully refundable. Did the dash back where I shot to the front of the line. This was followed by a 3 hour plane delay, but we were all given $8 to spend at Tim Hortons. I chose the garlic cream cheese bagel in hopes that my bad breath would mean I would have the arm rest all to myself. 3 movies later and I had a Colombain Imigration official winking at me. Welcome to Bogota.

I'm not a fan of arriving at places late at night, by my 11:30 pm taxi ride to the hostel was very colourful. At one point my driver locked all the doors, then stopped for a lady of the night to cross in front of us. He let out a whistle - she was wearing a very short dress (tank top) that showed her entire bare ass. Hostel was fine and I was suprised when I was invited to a club - but they weren't leaving til 3 am. Feeling old and tired I chose bed.

The following morning at 8 am I met Rocky from Holland who lives in London. He was going on a bike tour of the city so I tagged along. While i was picking up a banana and an empanada for breakfast from a local market, we ran into some British guys who were still up from the night before. I've learned there are day travellers, and then there are night travellers. They were very entertaing, but so was our 5 hour tour of the city. On Sundays, the main road north to south closes to vehicles, so it was a great way to see the city - lots of churches, a stop for bbq corn, and a little bit of rain. Following that we took a cable car up the mountain to a church and a great view of the city. 5 million people - the city is massive.

On Monday morning I took in the free Botera museum - a Colombian artist famous for his sculptures and paintings of pleasantly plump people. I enjoyed the entire place to myself before checking out the visiting Andy Warhol exhibit. Weird that I would get to see his famous soup cans in Colombia, a very welcome suprise. I packed my bag and caught a four hour bus ride to a small colonial town - villa de leyva. I've realized I better learn Spanish soon or I will end up on a slow bus to no where paying way too much. My beautiful guesthouse is up in the hills about a ten minute walk from town. I was famished by the time I arrived, only to find no food up here. Thankfully a nice couple shared their spaghetti with me. Robin is from Ottawa and Jun is from London - i've paid them back through the use of my netbook and the free wireless here. I packed it in early because of a massive headache and feeling nauseous - which Jun diagnosed as possible altitude side effects. A ten hour sleep and I am good as new - we spent the day in a small town that sounds like shakira with an R - known for crafts and pottery. Sorry Lena - I wasn't planning on shopping so soon, so you better make room to take a few things back for me. You wouldn't want to disappoint my nephew. Anyways, I should take a quick rest in the hammock before we make dinner. Adios.

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