Cocaine, Crime and Coffee.....It really is nice!

Trip Start Jul 31, 2005
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Trip End Sep 05, 2007


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Flag of Colombia  ,
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

We left Cartagena on a rather comfy bus which took 20 hours to arrive into Colombia´s capital city of Bogota, it was a long but cosy journey and all was fine which was great. One thing though that is just so typical! We always buy food and water for the journey - this time we were like - ok, we wont bother, the bus will stop and we can buy food - yep - we obviously forgot exactly which country we were travelling in! This bus stopped once in a town, there were three drivers on board so that they could split the 20 hours between them and would not have to stop on the deserted roads!

Uponm arrival we jumped in a taxi to a hostel in the old part of the city. The first thing we noticed arriving in the mountains from the Carribean coast was the heat, or should I say lack of heat! It was freezing, and the fleeces, socks and boots we have been lugging around with us soon came out Ali in a cafe in Bogota for lunch
Ali in a cafe in Bogota for lunch
 . Bogota is the third highest capital city in South America, after Quito and La Paz - the city sits at 2600metres and we never expected to feel the effects from the altitude here. Unfortunatley we did, we both have splitting headaches, I slept almost all day yesterday and today as we were walking around the city we were both so out of breath. Walking does not make us out of breath these days, we do so much of it when we are travelling - but wow - we could feel it.

Bogota´s old section of the city is called La Candelaria, it is very pretty and there are some gorgeous buildings. It is totally different to Cartagena, the streets are much busier and much wider, the buildings are elaborate instead of colourful.
We made our first stop the Museo De Oro - this means the Gold Museum and it is noted to be the most important gold museum in the entire world. It was interesting and we looked through each section of the musuem, admiring the funereal masks, nosepieces which have been found in many sites throughout the country and finally upstairs to the room which you are only allowed in by a guard. The entire room is full of gold - it is impressive.

We wandered throughout the old town, looking around the odd handicraft market and in some of the more modern stores, we visited the beautiful San Francisco church which has the most beautiful gold altar, and then into the Cathedral.

We came back to the hostel late afternoon to start sorting through our bags and making arrangements for tomorrow. Early in the morning we are flying to Lima-Peru.
So if you can call this coldness here summer! We are crossing the equator and will be back in the Southern Hemisphere and back to winter- Oh nooooo!!!

Hugs

AlinMatt
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