Bogotá

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We arrived in Bogotá after a long day bus from Salento. We were standing in the taxi line at the bus station when a young guy from the military started chatting and showing us photos of life in the military, including the vast array of weaponry they use and paradrops they completed. He was home for the weekend to see his son. The Colombians are the most friendly and welcoming people we have met in South America.

We signed up to do a cycle tour of the city as we had heard good things about it and we enjoy city cycle tours as they are a great way to see a city. By cycling you can cover so much more ground than walking but still stay close to the action.

As it was Sunday, Bogotá had their weekly cyclovia which is where they close some of the city streets to traffic and let the cyclists take over. This is common and popular in many South American cities on Sundays.

Our tour began in la Candelaria near our hostel. We met the guide and headed off, unfortunately after nearly taking out a lady with his bike and nearly passing out he concluded that he couldn't continue so we waited at the bull ring for a new guide.

The local authorities have introduced a ban on bull fighting so the bull ring now stands empty and the bull fighters are unemployed and currently on a hunger strike in the hope that they will be able to fight again.

We were given the option of going to the market or going to Simon Bolivar park - the group chose the park. It was a great ride out there on the traffic free roads. When we arrived I couldn't believe how busy the park was. There were people everywhere, with young and old flying kites, children blowing bubbles and families having picnics and playing games. It was great to get a glimpse of how the locals spend their time when they are not working.

On our way back we stopped briefly at a coffee factory and headed through the seedy red light district before completing the tour, a total ride of 23km.

After the cycle tour we visited the Gold museum which turned out to be free that day. Unfortunately this meant it was overflowing with people who for some reason just wanted to take photos of the amazing exhibits on their smart phones. After a very short while this got very frustrating so we viewed the museum at express speed as we were unable to read the descriptions.

After our very short stay in Bogotá we were off to San Gil.

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