Hotel Bogota Royal

... I think part of it had to do that it was already 2 am and they closed at 3 am.

The moment I got in, before I could even buy a drink, some colombianos took me and started dancing with me and they all accosted me with their dancing. It was as fine night, very long and I didn´t get to bed until 430 am because it took a long time to get a taxi and he kept going the wrong way. At least he was nice enough to give us a hefty discount because of it.

It is safer than you think here in Bogota. In the news: President Uribe has the H1N1 flu, but a local newscaster got confused and said HIV. I wounder if she has a job this week? THe police museum is interesting and you can get a guided tour in English or Spanish.

... interessant an!

Jetzt gehe ich aber erst mal noch jeden Tag zum Sprachkurs, 3 Stunden täglich. Wirklich total super! Nur leider ist der Sprachkurs eher in der Mitte der Stadt. Aber mit dem Transmilenio (das sind die Busse die an richtigen Haltestellen halten und auch ziemlich zuverlässig, also pünktlich sind. Die anderen haben keine Haltestellen, man streckt einfach irgendwo am Straßenrand die Hand aus, wenn gerade mal der Richtige vorbeikommt! :D) kommt man da in ...

... it wasn't hooked up to the water supply! What to do now? next to the toilet was a very large plastic water container, holding several hundred litres of water, relief, I would use that. Trouble was there was nothing with which to get the water out of the water butt with. So, out into the yard I go, past the chickens and the dogs looking for something that I can put into the water butt in order to flush the loo. A watering can, that'll do, bit ...

... Afterwards I felt a bit arted out, as you can understand! In the evening, we decided to head up the Colpatria tower, Colombias highest building at 190 metres. There were great views over the city at night, all the lights as far as you could see.

We continued our cultural vein the following day, we visited the Modern Art museum, and then discovered there was a Japanese film festival playing next door, so we saw a film called flowers of fire, it was a bit weird but very good ...

THE SALT CATHEDRAL - Is located in Zipaquita a two and half hours from Bogota, they have English speaking guides, the visit takes around hour and half or two, the mine is very impressive, the guide recommend not to use flash with the camera, so be ready with the settings of your camera, so you will have very nice results, in fact flash ruins the effect of ...

... one exception is the huge 18th Century sandstone Cathedral. As advertised it was certainly very picturesque, as well as walking round the streets we also went to a viewpoint at the edge of the town which gave great views looking over the valley towards the mountains in the distance. After the walk we then had to return to San Gil to continue on towards the town of San Juan Giron, another town with an ...

Realise this is a little out of sequence, cos we are soo lazy, yet thought you might like to know how we spent the festive times. Colombia is much like the rest of the world and the main Christmas celebrations are done on the night of the 24th. Yet the theory of leaving all your christmas shopping to the last minute seems more universal, as we found ourselves stuck in queues and more queues on the 24th, searching for what we ...

... Lili's friends. We had another amazing time, and these are the pictures I was waiting for to write an entry, but they are on Jose's camera which he forgot in his mom's car - so I'll have to wait. Once I get them, I'll post a more detailed account of my second trip to Tayrona. On the way out, we got soaked, which was not a big surprise in the "Rainforest", however, I think the ride back in wet clothes, and the lack of sleep, were to blame for the cold I got early during the week of my ...