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South America » Colombia » Quindío » Salento
January 25th 2013
Published: February 5th 2013
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Botero's BirdBotero's BirdBotero's Bird

What happen's when birds do steroids.
The Colombian chapter of our South American adventure got off to a very slow start. Slow is an understatement, we didn't move for 2 whole hours at the border. There as no explanation forthcoming but the queue for immigration didn't move an inch. It turns out the staff we taking it in turns to work, rather than all working at once. Crazy. We been on the road from northern Ecuador since 8am, and didn't make it in to Colombia until gone 2pm...it was less than 150km to travel. To compound the misery once across the border there were no buses travelling to our preferred desitination (Popayan), well none that would arrive at a feasible time and we had to change plans and head to Cali, arriving at 6am. This probably ranks as the worst journey for me in South America, even the 17 hour trip from Puerto Madryn to Rio Gallagos was more tolerable.



There's really nothing to say about Cali. It's a party town but we weren't here to party, and the rest of the city is just unforgetable. We caught up on sleep, went to the cinema and ate a crazy amount of fruit. First thing the next day we were on our war to Salento in Colombia's Valle de Cafe. The village is popular with Colombian tourists and was jumping when we arrived on a Saturday lunchtime. It was just nice to not be in a city and the warm, humid climate there means the landscape is green and pleasant. There was a laid back vibe to the place, which is kind of odd since everyone is drinking coffee from morning to night! And the coffee is wonderful, we found a place called Jesus's Coffee shop (or something similar) and their black gold was full of flavour, smelt like heaven and, best of all, reasonably priced. Plus, it was a cool place to relax for an hour or two. We'd met an Australian couple (Jack and Caitlin) on the bus here and went walking in the national park nearby. The Corcovardo Park was a mixture of palm trees and jungle which was a bit odd and there is a shack there that sells Hot Chocolate and Cheese, a distinctly Colombian delicacy. The shack is also home to hundreds of hummingbirds, just buzzing through the trees. It was refreshing and reinvigorating to spend the weekend here,
Humming BirdHumming BirdHumming Bird

Look at that tail!
the coffee helped and the mixed grill (which nearly finished me off) was a real treat! The town plaza has numerous, carbon copy, eating tents. As is so often the case in South America, these places all sell the same food for the same price, it's such an odd concept, but makes it easy to make a decision on where to eat lunch! The specialty was a huge caserole dish full of trout, prawns and cheeese sauce, served with a gigantic taco. Despite the wonderfully tranquil nature and the coffee delights, we had arrranged things so that we couldn't spend too long here and had to move on to Bogota far too soon!



The journey to Bogota was not particularly pleasant, but it was eventful. The road forever winds across mountains, and was undergoing much renovation making the tedious journey more so. However, luckily for us, Colombian drivers appear to be absolutely mental, full on crazy...and I'm a psychologist and therefore entirely qualified to make this judgement! The road from Armenia to Bogota cuts through the hills and thus winds along precipitous edges, this should be enough to instill caution in any driver, never mind one with
TroutTroutTrout

Good food
30 passengers. But alas, this is South America and driving is unconventional and that's me being polite. Our driver got into a bit of a race with a passing car, made more treacherous due to the roadworks, and there was an element of th film "Duel" to the journey. This came to a head when our bus shot past the car on the bend, and the car to retaliate in kind. At a roadwork stop. And hurling a bottle at the bus in the overtaking process. One the handbrake was applied, the driver jumped from the cabin, baby seal clubbing stick to hand, to have a "chat" with the other guy! This was all a bit intense, but thankfully all drivers are secretly cowards and nothing came of it and we got on our way. There was to be no further excitement or potential for road rage murders on the rest of the trip, much to the relief and disappointment of everyone on board.

Bogota is huge. 9 million people, Superman-dwelling Metropolis huge. This surprised me because Colombia doesn't seem too big on a map, but having Wikipedia'd the place it seems that Colombia is a major economy and
Corcovado ParkCorcovado ParkCorcovado Park

Lots of stream crossings to reach the birds and hot chocolates
likely to be a bit of an international player in the near future. If cocaine were ever to be legalised I'm sure Colombia's rise to the top would be much more swift. The white stuff is a cliche, alongside Shakira and Carlos Valderama's hair. I'm not sure what the current state of affairs is with the drug situation, but we didn't notice it the entire time we were here, apart from every joker on the street trying to sell weed to Gringos. But I digress. Bogota, is big, annoyingly so. Taxi drivers actually refuse to take you across town! But the old town of Candelaria was worth visiting. It's very safe here now compared with 10 years or so, and it's helped that FARC aren't tearing the place up like they used to. Candelaria is colonial, except for the newer bits, obviously. It's pretty quaint, if a bit polluted in areas and there's plenty to do. I particularly liked the Botero Art Gallery. If you're unfamiliar with the guy, as I was, check out his paintings on the internet...everything is fat and round. He has done a fetching replica of the Mona Lisa, if she'd lived in the EastEnd of
Mixed GrillMixed GrillMixed Grill

Appetite to be well and truly vanquished!
Glasgow, and has a bird statue which I found to be rather charming. The Museo del Oro is worth visiting too, lots of gold stuff on display, the intricacy of the work is sublime and some of the pieces are truy outstanding. There's a truly bizarre exhibit in which all the sacrifices that a pre-Incan people put in to a lake near Bogota are displayed to music and water effects..very odd but wonderful too. We took in most of the sights by doing the free walking tour of the area and got to see the Presidential Palace, but no President, although we nearly caught a glimpse of him in Cartagena, which is a lame anecdote since I essentially said that I saw nothing...hmm. So, swiftly moving on, uh, that's pretty much it for Bogota, except we caught up with JP, the mental Kiwi from the Machu Picchu trek, for a few beers in the northern suburbs (the one that taxi drivers loath going to), which was pretty cool, but the north is just a hive of bars, malls and clubs, like any city anywhere in the world, although the amount of microbreweries is a brilliant turn of fortunes! Bogota Beer
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In the park in Armenia (killed time until the bus left, saw some wild life).
Company are the trail blazers but there are many exquist ales and beers to be had, in some of the bars you can have beer "cocktails", essentially your choice of two beeers in a pint glass. Sounds great, unless you pick the wrong combo. So that was Bogota. It was okay, nothing bad happened and it seeemed like a cool place, especially if you were starting your adventures from here. We decided to push on to the Caribbean coast, circumventing the tourist friendly Medellin, once home to Pablo Escobar (the drug baron for the oldies and the innocent amongst you), and San Gil, instead opting for Santa Marta and the sunshine!


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The Cathedral in Candelaria
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