Bogota

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It´s very strange starting my blog again. I feel like a bit of a con when I´m only away for 5 weeks so I´m not really a long-haul traveller anymore. I was waiting to be inspired before I started it & it just so happens that I´m not fit for sight-seeing at the moment too after a very large almuerzo (a 2-3 course meal at the middle of the day...a lot of carbs too) so now is as good a time as any to start!!

I arrived in Bogota on the Saturday of the May bank -holiday weekend. It´s a massive sprawling capital city. For me it´s always exciting the first day or two in a city but that´s usually enough. I must have picked the shabbiest taxi to ferry me into the city...it was more like a small yellow tin- can than a car.....the speedometer was more of a relic that no longer worked & just as we pulled up at the hostel the radiator starter leaking & the engine smoking. I quickly realised that people weren´t wearing facemasks because they were trying to protect thmeselves from the swine flu but it was to fitler the polluted air. At the end of the day you really feel grotty from the smog. I got here none the less.

I stayed in the Cranky Croc Hostel....nice enough spot & nicely located in the Cadelaria so it was close to the museums, shops & transmilenio which is a very efficient bus network that operates around the city....& ecconomic as well. On Sunday I took the cable-car up the mountain Cerro Monserrate which overlooks the city. It wasn´t a fantastic morning for it but it rains a lot in the late afternnoons so I didn´t want to leave it too late. Gold museums are to be found in most cities in Colombia so I went to Museo del Oro that afternoon. Fine display of gold & it was really nicely presented with Spanish & English text to suit most people. There are loads of museums to choose from...you´ll find that the tourists usually hit the free ones first & I was no different. Botero is a Colombia artist & the Botero museum is worth a visit if only to giggle at the rotund figures that he uses in all his works.....fat men, women, children, birds.....both the human form and inanimate objects are given a more ample dab of paint!! The rest of my afternoon was finished wandering around the city.....endless street vendors with their pile of crap.....usually...or nick nacks....or clothes ...or sun-glasses....everything you could imagine is likely to be found strewn on the street or on their stall....& usually about 10 million people selling the same stuff!! Then you have the scent of sweet pineapple, deep-fried empanandas, or arepas, or the smoke from barbequed corn/ and car fumes all fighthing to overwhelm the senses. As I said I do like it for a day or two but after that it is time to go.

The following day I took a bus to a place called Zapaquira where there is a cathedal made in a mine. It was built between 1994 & 99, I think, in what was an old salt mine. It is constructed from salt and it is like no other cathedral you will ever see. it follows the stations of the cross and leads to a massive chamber. After the long bumpy bus journey out though I was pretty much ready to head back- nausea had killed my enthusiasm but when I got there it was worth the effort.

Ice-cream was definitely deserved after the long day and wherever I am it seems that ice-cream is never too far away.....or is never an effort too difficult to overcome.

The following day I left Bogota for a place called Villa de Lleyva, via Tunja. Will try catch up soon.

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