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Published: October 26th 2009
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I decided to stay a couple of days in Bogota not only to catch up with emails and blog entries, but also to meet a friend who was on business in Bogota. The first day I spent more or less in the internet cafe and in the evening we discovered the night life of Bogota, going to the Zona Rosa for dinner. I felt save in Bogota, against all the stories I heard before, because at any corner there was a police man or military guy. I really enjoy the city even though it was high up and I needed to adjust to the altitude a bit.
On the following day I was lucky with the weather and enjoyed blue sky and sunshine while going up to Monserrat for a spectacular view over the city. I was so impressed by size of this city, wherever I looked I saw houses and other parts belonging to Bogota. Based on many recommendations my friend and I enjoyed a night at the famouse place Andres Carnes de Res where we had an excellent steak (yes I am eating beef again, a must after Argentina) and a good night out. It was actually so good
that I more or less had to recover on Saturday but headed to the historic center on Sunday for some sightseeing and visiting the impressiv Gold Museum. Bogota turns into a bicycle paradise on Sunday, as some of the main roads are closed until 2 pm and everyone is out on bikes, rollerblads and everything that rolls!
Monday morning it was time to move on and at 6.30 am in the morning I was at the busstation looking for a bus to Medellin. Travelling in Columbia by bus is so easy and safe, so 5 min later I sat in a bus and was on the road. The drive to Medellin was amazing, through green scenery down the mountain, absolutly beautiful! I arrived in Medellin and got on the Metro to the South part, where I booked a Hostel. The Waypoint Hostel in Medellin was one of the best hostel I had so far, not only was it clean and comfortable, the owners were very helpful! The next morning the English Girl I met in Santa Marta joined me again in Medellin and we went of to see the city center. Unfortunately the weather wasn't good, rainy, even though
they say the weather is always like spring here (if it is like the Swiss spring weather, then yes it is true, lots of rain :-)). The next day I went up with the Teleferico (cable cars), which were build to connect the poorer areas with the city. The view from up there was amazing but still, it was not the safest area. In contrary to Europe, here the poor areas are usually up on the mountainside and have the best views, which seems kind of strange to me.
The same night the English girl and I moved further south to Popayan, from where we are heading to San Agustin, a famouse and most important archaeological site. We stayed a day in Popayan and while walking through the city center, we were greeted by hunderds of police, fully outfited. They again were very friendly and welcomed us to Columbia, kind of funny :-) (Later I learned that they had streetfights a few days earlier and that might be the reason for the many policemen).
The next day we were off to San Agustin, but it was a long and hard drive to get there. After one hour on the road
in the bus, we hit the gravel road and the bus slowed down. By the end of the journey I could not feel some parts of my body anymore, it was so bumpy, but the scenery was astonishing. We were picked up by a taxi short before San Agustin, as the bus went another direction, and were driven to the Information office first. We booked a jeep tour for the next day to visit some of the sites and some waterfalls. The town was very quite and but we managed to meet one of the local doctors and had a drink with him before getting to bed.
The drive the next morning was really nice, we visited some of the nice waterfalls as well as the archaelogical sites. Unfortunately most of the explanations were in Spanish, and not that easy to understand. The area was a ceremonial center where locals buried their dead and placed the statues next to the tombes. There are some 500 different status in look and hights and some of them were really nice.
As the town was so quite, we decided to leave the next day, but before we visited another archaeological site with even
more statues and tombes. By the afternoon we were sitting in a packed bus back to Popayan. Another bumpy ride and by the end we even hit a thunderstorm.
It was time to say goodbye to my travel companion and heading to Ecuador the next day. This was my second border crossing and this time there were no other tourists on the bus, who I could go alonge as with the border crossing into Columbia. Well, even though I was a bit nervouse, there was no reason at all, it was absolutely easy and after crossing into Ecudaro I soon was on a bus to Quito. I arrived late and tired in Quito, surrounded by Volcanos, and got a taxi to the hostel (which costs double as much as the 5 hours bus ride and was only a 10 min ride), where I went to bed straight away, it was already midnight. I left it for the next day to think about what to do next...
I must say, so far I did not have any troubles travelling in South America (touch wood) and I really enjoy it. Also all the locals I meet are so friendly and helpful
and with the little Spanish I learned I am able to ask for direction and have some small conversation.
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