Blogs from Bogota, Colombia, South America - page 56

Villa de Leyva is a nice colonial town 3 hours away from Bogota. It is a MUST SEE in Colombia and I am not kidding. In half an hour I managed to switch my opinion from complete and utter disappointment into the outmost desire to spend eternity in this place. Plaza Mayor leaves you with a sour taste and the desire to flee the place without looking back. It is vast- it is said to be the largest town square in Colombia!! and when we got there it was deserted! Some mutts, some white washed buildings and no colonial flavour whatsoever , maybe just a tiny bit, anyway not enough to justify or explain this town's huge popularity amongst tourists and backpackers!! But once you enter the first restaurant and see the patios and the paradise-like ... read more

What can I say, Colombia has it all, Caribbean coastline, friendly people, beautiful landscape and a drink called Colombiana which is almost exactly the same as Irn Bru. They also serve fruit salads with cheese on top, but I´m still getting over that one... And if you thought the last photo was bad, then there´s none at all in this entry as my top quality 40pound -off - ebay camera has decided to give up already. So I will just have to paint pictures with words... The camera gave up the ghost at altitude (that might have been the problem) in the cable car from Merida in Venezuela which is the longest and highest in the world. And we were pretty lucky with the weather, as it wasn´t until we got right to the top (4700m) ... read more

Ok, I know I've been a bit slack seeing I started writing this 2 months ago but have only just got around to adding the photos. So here is the last installment of my Columbia & Guatemala trip. Back in Bogota again and it was still a bit over whelming. Although my spanish has now become existant I'm still struggling. People here speak very fast unlike Guatemala where everyone just cruised along. but the good thing is that I can understand so much more than I did before and in a round about way can have a very basic conversation. If I didn't mention it last time I was in Columbia I will try my best to describe Bogota. Bogota is a massive city with so many confusing bits about it. it is surrounded by mountains ... read more

Well here I go on another adventure. First stop Columbia for 2 days. What can I say but "Wow, what a surprise!" Everyone I have met has been wonderful. I stayed with my friend, Steven's family. They were all wonderful. They showed me the city and were very hospitalible. I went out on my first night to a bar in Columbia with Steven's friend Jenni. She and her friends were great. Unfortunately I was so tired so I struggled but I did manage to stay out until 3.30am. It was great. Everyone danced. Salsa, samba, merangue and other dances I don't know the name. People tried to teach me but I definitely couldn't get to their level that quickly even though they were all nice enough to say that I had the right hip movements. Bellydancing ... read more

Bogota, Colombia 10 or so hr flight over to Colombia and then a good 2 hrs going through passport control, don´t get many tourists here so was expecting a long wait but got trough really no trouble and got the stamp I was after... Took a cab from the airport over to our Hotel in North Bogota called Hotel Patio Amarillo, first impression was a bit mixed as excited to finally be there but also saw what people had been going on about as I´d never seen so much police before, they are literally everywhere and all with bi big machine guns, where there are no police there are the military also obviously carrying guns....Arrived at the hotel which was pretty nice and eventually got up to our rooms after using a lot of hand signals ... read more