Advertisement
Published: September 30th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Graffiti Tour
Baseball style graffiti Our next leg of the trip started much like the others: a 5hour bus trip which took 9 hours, a crazy bus ride into town and a hunt for a hostel, which in this case, was the Cranky Croc Hostel.
Our dorm consisted of 3 nocturnal people, which suited us quite well. We slept while they were out and they came home anytime btwn 6am and 10am, just as we were leaving for the day.
Bogota is a nice city with a number of things to see. We went to the police museum, where we learnt more about Pablo Escobar (the drug kingpin who was shot down after a 499 day manhunt) and the different police sectors (public police service is compulsory for all men after school). We enjoyed a very different graffiti tour and learnt that artists are often more than just vandals - lots are professional people that do artwork legitimately, getting flown all over the world to do pieces.
Our final day in Bogota was spent in the little town of Zapiquira, the location for an underground salt mine and a cathedral (built for the miners). After its collapse, they rebuilt the Cathedral and turned
Graffiti Tour
Political artist it into a commercial venture. Kitch is the perfect word to describe it, complete with purple downlighters and neon flashing lights in the tunnels! Its sad that it s so commercialised as the actual cathedral is amazing.
Heading to our next destination, we caught a minibus to the main bus terminal. Only problem was that the bus never actually went to the main bus terminal, and we ended up walking a good few kilometres through the industrial areas, luggage in tow.
We can now confirm that all rally drivers who do not make the cut, become bus drivers. Our trip to Salento was a prayerful one, as our driver wound up the Andes mountains at full pace. Vomit bags are issued to passengers at the start of the trip. We were spared (thanks to our prayers), but Phils nerves were shot afterwards.
Salento is a sleepy village in the coffee region. The men walk around in cowboy hats and ponchos - one expects them to whip out their lassoos! We enjoyed a morning of work on a coffee farm in exchange for free lunch, before spending a night on another coffee farm a bit further out of
Graffiti Tour
Child soldiers used by guerilla groups town. The setting is beautiful, with rolling green hills. We experienced the coffee process firsthand. The trees were only starting to bear fruit now as they are just entering the coffee season, when 150kg of beans are picked per person per day!
We enjoyed a walk in the Cocora Valley to see the famous Wax Palms - very tall palms, reportedly up to 60m tall. At the top of the mountain (2800m altitude), we enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa as the weather turned cold.
We now find ourselves in Popayan, after another bus trip. We have a jam packed schedule for our last few days in Colombia - hiking to a volcano, checking out a desert and seeing some ancient archaeological sites! Beats a day at the office...
Highlight:
The beautiful surroundings of Salento - a farmy, comfy feel
Lowlight:
Realising we were not actually going to the bus terminal and having to walk with our heavy packs back into town to the bus terminal
What we miss:
Phil - Louise wedding and my 10 yr school reunion!
Marco - being able to use our own car to get places
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 57; dbt: 0.05s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
African Amy
non-member comment
I love wide angle lenses; I love coffee; I love your blog entries; I'm not so sure about your beard Marco... kidding, it's kind of Jewish-ish =); I'm glad you treated yourselves to that nice accomm! Awesome to hear your voice, P, and the sounds of Colombia in the background... =) love A