Dancing dwarves don Elvis masks

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I've been on the bounce, dear reader, since last sharing travel adventures with you and the journal continues from Cali in Colombia. After a relaxing stay in a quality hostel it was time to move on, and north is the plan. I booked on a bus to Bogota and for the first time on this trip I was the only foreign traveller on board. The journey was through mountainous terrain along winding roads, and the bus arrived in Bogota in the early evening. Bogota is the capital of Colombia with a population of seven million inhabitants at an altitude of 2600 metres. It's interesting to note three capital cities in South America are at high altitude and surrounded by mountains. La Paz is at 3600 metres, Quito is at 2800 metres and thirdly of couse is Bogota. I may need to google the reasons for the historic choice of those geographical locations!

I spent two days in Bogota at a friendly hostel, and took time to explore the historical area which features many wonderful buildings. A highlight of my stay was borrowing a guitar from my dorm mate when out of the blue my other dorm mate pulls out a flash ovation guitar, from a soft case mind you, and starts jamming with me. Our dorm was guitar central that night but I´m glad my guitar is safe at home, considering an aussie surfer I met in Peru had his walk from the overhead storage while sleeping on a bus trip. Anyways, I knew the Cali crew were heading for Medellin so I decided to push on to hook up with them again. Medellin is twelve hours north east through more mountainous winding roads. It does make for slow going when there were several roadworks and a military checkpoint to negotiate. Never mind, I checked into a great hostel in a very upmarket area of Medellin, which was full of friendly travellers up for going out.

We went to a huge crazy bar called Mangos which features male and female dancers on several stages, including dwarves wearing giant sized celebrity masks and gettin´ on down. I can report that Elvis is still a really cool dancer, but definitely looks shorter in the flesh than on TV! The girls on stage were shakin´it Shakira style, and are phenomenal funk dancers. The bar was full of beautiful people, and the Colombian guys and girls seem to have rhythm running through their veins. I don´t believe the saying 'are you going to move or do you need a 5 6 7 8' applies in Colombia. On sunday night the Kiwi owner Kelvin bunged on a bonza barbie, and by this time I had met up again with the Cali crew again for a very social time, with a constant but ever diminishing supply of beers in the fridge at the Black Sheep hostel.

After an awesome visit I decided to push on, and headed north west on an overnight bus to the border town of Cucuta. Again I was the only traveller and the bus wound once again through mountainous winding roads. It was tough going and the bus terminal on the Colombian border town with Venezuela was a bit sketchy. Sketchy areas tend to attract sketchy characters, and I got snowed by a taxi driver on the price to cross the border and head on to San Cristobal in Venezuela. He decided to charge like a wounded bull for the ride, and as a tourist I must have been waving a red rag. Have you ever had the feeling when you know you are being ripped off but are powerless to exert any control over the situation? Mind you, all of the negotiations taking place in spanish probably didn't help, but I guess my taxi friend was just providing a service. Never mind, it's all good and part of the travel experience!

I caught a bus from San Cristobal north to Merida and arrived at my hostel at midnight to finish a 26 hour epic trip. Merida is the tourist capital of Venezuela with very good food along beautiful tree lined streets, and set amongst the picturesque Venezuelan Andes. The city is also the adventure capital of Venezuela, and famous for hiking and mountaineering. Merida is famous for the teleferico which is the world´s highest and longest cable car system, peaking at 4765 metres and running 12.6 kilometres. I rode the beast and was fortunate to have magnificent clear skies all the way to the summit, with the return trip taking around 4 hours. The teleferio was built in 1958 by a French company, and is a must see attraction for visitors to Merida.

My initial impressions of Venezuela are that the country has been a pleasant surprise. The people are friendly and helpful, and the prices surprisingly cheap with very good food. The cities look clean and modern. As the best kept secret in the caribbean I think you know the drill, basically all of you should be here now!

To aim at the best and to remain essentially yourselves is one and the same thing." Janet Erskine Stuart

As I continue my travels, until next time it´s signing off for now

Tom

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Comments

[Greg]

Watcha!!
Hi Tom, Sounds like your having a great time still Columbia sounded good. Where you gonna spend Christmas. Were in Auckland at the mo and it costs a lot compared to south america anyway. Well keep travelling hard mate maybe see you in Sydney

[Tuyet]

Happy xmas & NYE
Hey Tom, can hardly believe the fast pace you´re holding up. And am so jealous you´re barely halfway. We´re nearing the end of our trip here, can feel the time pressure so am trying to cram all the adventures we can possibly fit in the next 3 weeks. Enjoy & hasta luego, Tuyet & Steve