Breathtaking Bogota

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Sitting here in Bogota wearing a summer skirt, long woolen socks and my thermal, wearing all the warm things I have while my pants drip dry. Today the rain has not stopped pattering away on unpredictable Bogota, we ventured out briefly for huevos y jugos (eggs and juice) but got so completely soaked that we have been locked up for the rest of the day, reading in hammocks, drinking cups and cups of strong sweet coffee and plotting our future plans. There couldn't be a nicer prison!
Today is our final day in Bogota, we will leave for further north tomorrow, to eventually reach Cartagena and soak up the rays.

Don't worry, Bogota hasn't been all raining and inside activites (as lovely as that is). We have been exercising our lungs (literally a breathtaking place) and legs traipsing up and down the incredibly steep winding rabbit warren that is the roads in La Candelaria (the district where we are staying). It rains most days, in the evening, but gets quite warm and shiny during the day, just like Melbourne, always changing!

Walking out of the hostel each morning is a delight; all the buildings are splashed with different bright colours, the streets are tiny windy cobbled lanes that stretch infinitely in every direction, and the backdrop to all of this are huge dark green mountains, shrouded with puffs of cloud, looking forbidding, exciting and magical all at once.
Bogota has been a place of surprises. Anna and I both admitted that we expected not to like it here, we expected just a big, scary, intimidating city. But it is so so different to all of our expectations. Not only is the landscape beautiful but the people are just constant sources of help and affection. Everyone is so lovely and accomodating, so patient with our horrible attempts at Spanish and so sweet. People are so surprised we are from Australia (So far! You are the first person from Australia I have ever met!) and so happy to show us their city.
Tourism is still a small industry, which is brilliant because unlike in some parts of Asia, the people don't automatically see big $ signs above our heads. Most of the time they ignore us entirely, but the other times they are only helping, saying hello or doing a double take (we do look a little different.)
But Colombia is obviously making huge attempts to encourage tourism, there are lots of information areas and everything has been set up beautifully.
We have stayed alot longer than anticipated after we fell in love with it here. We visited the amazing gold museum 'Musea del Oro' and saw incredible collection of Muiscan wares, jewelry, pottery, funereal adornments (all pre colonialism). There are countless beautiful churches dotting the city which we have spent time wandering through.
One day we took a cable car up the mountain Monseratte which frames the city, it's a steep ride (mum would have been terrified) but we reached the beautiful top very quickly. From up there you can see the entire city of Bogota spread before you, I didn't realise how huge it was! It was incredible up there, there are beautiful old colonial buildings and a church contrasting so dramatically with tropical plants and green everywhere! You can see why they built a church here, it could be very spiritual if you wanted it to be.
We have traipsed through alot of markets, explored little tiny shops and cafes, Colombians eat so much! For lunch you can buy a set meal, which includes soup, chicken or beef, rice, beans, vegetables and salad and usually a juice for $5000 pesos, which is around AU $3! There are also lots of sweet shops, selling strange but amazing cakes and sweets that we have not wasted any time sampling.
There are lots of other very beautifully decked out museams, the Police Museam was incredibly interesting, it detailed the battles with Pablo Escobar until the police killed him, you could practically feel the fear that the country lived in when his cartel was in power. There is also alot of art by Botero, he is Colombian and they are very proud, you might know him, all his subjects are very fat. In that museam there was also a great collection of Picasso, Klimt and other amazing artists.
The city seems to breath art, there is incredible graffiti all over the walls, really beautiful stuff, it reminds me quite alot of Melbourne.
There are some darker sides to the city, there are police with big guns all around (although this makes us feel safer), a huge amount of homeless, and the streets become almost deserted and a little eerie after dark, it's no problem though, you just take taxis. But not once have we felt worried or threatened.

Our favourite passtime is to simply wander the city, see people doing their everyday thing with such a backdrop, see the vendors selling corn to feed the pigeons in the main square (yuck!) eating little maize and cheese snacks, still hot from the roadside stalls, watch young men parade down the streets with flags after watching the soccer (they are crazy about it over here), listen to the incredibly fast Spanish sputtering back and forth and realise that we are in Colombia, wow!
Loving this city, loving the people, loving our hostel (Alegrias) and all the amazing international backpackers who pass through, loving the atmosphere, just loving it all!

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