A sad farewell


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South America » Colombia » Bogota
April 15th 2009
Published: April 16th 2009
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After the Colombia vs Bolivia game we spent a few more days in Bogota saying goodbye to our friend John who we had been travelling with for almost 6 weeks, sharing similar problems with parting with Colombia. So after a big weekend and recovery in the best hostel either of us have ever stayed in we headed to the coffee region for some fresh air and relaxation once again.

We arrived in a suitably small pretty town called Salento where we ambled around for a few days, eating the local speciality of trout in various forms and experienced an unexpectedly arduous walk in Valley Cocura. This trip involved walking solidly uphill at 3200mtrs for over an hour, the dfficulty of which we are both attributing to the altitude rather than any lack of fitness on either of our behalfs. We then moved to Manizales which was more of a town than a pretty village but again had a nice day out, although the national park we went to for a stroll around had a compulsory guide which at first was fine, but when it started raining and we were still listening to the spanish commentary on various flora, fauna and what appeared to be a standard tree our patience began to wane so we made a sneaky exit.

Then it was back to Bogota on a hellish bus journey that was supposed to be 7 hours and took 14 hours on the smallest bus ever, with no air con and was absolutely rammed becuase everybody was on the move for Semana Santa. But we gratefully arrived back to the hostel we have come to know as home for Semana Santa, where we finally dragged oursleves out to do the tourist things we had missed last time we were here. We went to the Gold Museum which was the ronseal of museums (exactly what it says on the tin) being essentially four floors of gold and the police museum which was pretty cool, with a whole room devoted to Pablo Escobar´s various belongings such as the roof tile where he was finally caught and other hilariously pointless items.

This friday after over 2 months in a country we were never even going to visit we are heading to the jungle to get a 3 day boat ride to Iquitos, our first stop in Peru. As you all know we have absolutely loved Colombia, it has so much to offer in the way of scenery, nightlife, value for money and some of the friendliest people you will ever meet and we would highly recommend it, but it is with great sorrow we finally say goodbye, such is the nature of travelling I guess, what can we say it´s a hard life!




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16th April 2009

Going back!
Really enjoyed your posts. Please go out there and tell everyone that Colombia is not the dangerous and drug run country everyone thinks it is. It is my mother's country and she always asked my stepfather to come there with her but he always refused (He is german) saying it was waaaay to risky for us to go. I'm heading there for the second time in 2 weeks and I cant wait to see the country again!!

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