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Published: November 3rd 2008
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We stepped across the border - no machete-wielding drug lords. Got our passports stamped - nobody trying to force us to carry 20 bags of white powder of unknown content to some foreign destination. So far so good. First impressions? Bit like home really - grey, drab and drizzly! But it wasn't long before we'd left the border town and were winding slowly down one side of a steep valley with lush green hills all around and a river flowing along the bottom far below us. Beautiful. We had a very high quality movie on the bus, 'Looking for Miguel', (I highly recommend it if you ever come across it) full of violence, sex, drugs and transvestites, perfect for a lazy afternoon on a bus, with passengers of all ages.
Bogota
We'd met some people who'd been mugged at machete-point here so were a bit wary, but the bus station at least seemed super safe - almost as many security guards as passengers. Wandering around the city we certainly got a lot more hassle than elsewhere from people begging or just pestering for money, but no signs of machetes. We saw the old town, the palace, the Botero museum
(a man who seemed to like painting people and animals looking fat, or maybe they just were fat, who knows) and the gold museum (unfortunately being refurbished so the display was very limited). We didn't venture too far out at night - luckily there was a little bar nearby serving their own microbrewery ale. Yummy. The salt cathedral on the outskirts of Bogota (in Zipaquira) is an underground cathedral built within the disused section of a salt mine. The original one was closed because it was no longer safe and the new minimalistic-style cathedral was opened in 1995. Interesting to see and would have been good to see a concert or mass in there to hear the acoustics.
We visited the very pretty colonial town of Villa Leiva with its own share of pitiful looking stray dogs, one of whom sat very patiently while we ate our lunch in the Plaza Mayor, so I couldn't help but give him some leftovers. The next day we visited the Aquitania on the shores of Lago de Tota. Had hoped to sit and eat a picnic lunch on the shores of the lake; the lake was very beautiful but its shores were
a mixture of marshland and onion fields - not quite what I'd had in mind. So we sat in the main square of Aquitania and received so many stares that I felt we must have been the first non-Columbians ever to set foot there.
Coffee
Spent a couple of days relaxing on one of the coffee farms - Finca Villa Maria, with great views of the surrounding coffee plantations, hammocks, a pool, good weather, tasty food - lovely. Had a wander round the plantation which grew both coffee and bananas, sampled some fresh coffee beans, which surprisingly tasted quite sweet. The coffee beans were dried on the premises but sent elsewhere for processing. We also drank quite a lot of coffee!
The robbery
Apologies if you're already bored by this story, but it has to be put down in writing. Maybe our state of relaxation post-coffee farm didn't help. So, waiting at Pereira bus station for our bus, time to go, loaded big bags underneath the bus, on to the bus, found seats, sat down, all good. Then a fairly smart looking gentleman came to talk to us 'you can't put bags under your seats because
the roads are too winding, the bags slide and block the aisles'. We had experienced the nauseatingly winding roads - seemed reasonable. But Russ' bag was too big and wouldn't fit up top. 'Here, let me help you.' Two minutes later Russell opened up his bag to discover that it was now considerably lighter and easily fitted into the overhead compartment. Camera, lenses, ipod, nintendo, phone, sunglasses..........all gone. Sickening. Though luckily not passport or airline tickets. And no machetes involved, so not all bad. You let your guard down for two minutes, anyway............
Cartagena
We visited three police stations before we found the correct one, because obviously you can't report a robbery at any average run of the mill police station. Cartagena is a very colourful and picturesque colonial town located on the Carribean, with beaches and lots of sunshine, although it is home to a Hard Rock cafe which by definition makes it a little touristy. Unfortunately we were now reliant on my little camera for photos. Lots of restaurants and bars overlooking the ocean, good for watching sunsets. There was also a very adequate little wine shop where one or two purchases were made -
all therapeutic of course in view if the recent traumas. We took a boat trip to the very pretty beach of Playa Blanca. Being slightly hungover when the booking was made, we didn't realise that the trip there would take three hours (the world's slowest boat). The Colombians managed to keep themselves entertained by creating a bit of a party boat complete with music, salsa dancing in the aisles, karaoke and cheering, and all this before 10am.
I think we were quite glad to be eventually leaving Colombia. It's a very beautiful country, but every taxi ride seemed to involve a fight with the driver over something or other and the robbery unfortunately left us with a bit of a bad impression of the country.
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