Blogs from Bogota, Colombia, South America

Some photos of another weekend day-trip to the mountains, this time around a village about one hour to the east of Bogotá. I managed to convince a few others to come with this time, which is a good thing seeing as James (who came with me last time) is out of action for the foreseeable future having had surgery to fix a twisted knee! The weather wasn't as good as last time, I think we were still a little close to Bogotá so got largely the same weather. However, it was a beautiful place for sure and we followed a narrow path through over-grown semi-jungle to get to some pretty spectacular waterfalls. Along the way we got some great fews of the sheer cliff face opposite us appearing and disappearing in seconds as the mist came ... read more

So I've finally got some photos to post of general living in Bogotá, to give you a flavour of what day-to-day life is like here. Sorry its taken so long...foreigners walking around with their cameras out are generally asking for trouble so its taken until now for me to feel a little more savvy than the standard tourist and to feel comfortable taking photos! Anyway, I'm living in a barrio called the Candelaria which is the oldest and most traditional part of the city, and despite being part of the city centre is actually right on the east edge, pressed up against the mountains. Since being founded, the city has expanded mainly to the north and south and a little to the west, but is obviously hemmed in by the mountains to the edge, so the ... read more

Hello! Hoping everyone is well and continuing to enjoy the many engagements, "big" birthdays, baby having, wedding type malarky that seems to be cluttering up my Facebook of late! It's all go! So the next installment of the wild and wonderful adventures this side of the pond was Colombia baby. School was absolutely mad the last couple of weeks before end of term with reports and special weeks and "green" things happening - the usual. We were all in great need of a big break! Sara, Lucinda, Doug and I went to Colombia together with the first stop in Bogota. It was SO nice to get out of Venezuela where we could use our "real" money and meet other English speaking travellers and walk around without fear of muggings/kidnap/etc. Some kind and random person has commented ... read more

De rit van Manizales naar Bogota was weer een waar avontuur. Omdat het goede vrijdag was had ik uitgezocht of en zo ja wanneer er een bus ging. Tien uur in de ochtend was de beste optie. Toen ik rondt negen uur op het busstation aan kwam liep er gelijk een man op mij af en riep "Bogota direct". Het bleek om een taxibusje te gaan wat op het punt van vertrekken stond. Slechts 5.000 cop (ca 2 euro) duurder dan de grote bus. Ik redeneerden dat dit busje sneller zou rijden als de grote bus en ook nog eens ca één uur eerder vertrekken. Het leek mij een prima deal. Waarom werken die prima deals van mij vaak niet erg goed uit? Deze chauffeur kan zo de formule 1 in. De bus rit was prima ... read more

Friday 2nd March - Tunja to Bogota Having procured some foil bowls and granola from the local 'Exito' (Tescoesque) we continued our theme of cheap eating for breakfast. Our 3 hour bus ride to Bogota was the 1st we've had to date that hasn't been held up by an accident. On arrving in the capital I then further incurre3d the wrath of Stacie after squeezing us in to a tiny public bus to take us 10km into the centre of the city rather than take a taxi for 10 extra bucks. For me, making these decisions is partly the money saving but also partly the adventure and challenge of doing something that most tourists don't bother with and who take the easy option of jumping in the 1st taxi that comes along. Taxis generally aren't even ... read more