Our arrival in South America
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
1
6
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Bogota,
Colombia
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
We arrived in Colombia late at night and caught a taxi to the Platypus Hostal for16,000pesos. A double room with private bath was reserved for us at 40,000 pesos. There is a kitchen and dining room for travellers to use, and free wireless internet access.
We were pleased to be back in Colombia. Platypus had the usual compliment of international travellers, some of whom we are sure to meeting as we continue our travels.
Today we visited the Gold Museum, a spectacular museum.This is free. It contains gold pieces and relics of the Incan era.Well worth a visit.
Tuesday13th.
On talking with Heman, the owner of Platypus we learnt that the date of the 23rd - 24th of the Festival in Baranquilla was wrong and that it was on the 16th of February. A bus to get there would take 20 hours and after the long trip to get from Adelaide to Bogota, this was not an option. We considered our options and decided to fly to Baranquilla. Herman attempted to book a flight for us to Baranquilla but they were all full, so we would have to fly to Santa Marta then catch a bus (2 hours) to Baranquilla. Herman booked the flights for us and all we had to do was collect the tickets.
Wednesday 14th.
Had a 5 star breakfast, cornflakes, yoghurt, banana, coffee and tea. Barbara is not feeling too good today. A bit of a cough and a sore throat. The self diagnosis is:
Jet Lag,
Maybe jetlag and altitude,
Maybe allergic to Pete
Maybe changing weather.
Today we went to the Avianca office to cancel the ticket to Caracas. It is all a bit stupid as we have never been asked for our tickets on entry into any country. Avianca obviously did not have this happen very often and it took a while for them to organise a refund which they informed us would not happen for about 8 weeks. However, it got us here. For lunch we had an almuerzo, a three course lunch. Usually it is I that is a bit choosy but I found it OK and surpisingly it was Barbara who did not like it.
Following this we attended a lunch time concert for free at the National Museum. This was by a solo violinist who was obviously getting some experience in playing to the public and was a bit nervous. This was followed by a celloist with a piano accompliment and was a delightful performance.
Next was having to arrange a flight with Aero Republic and I misheard where the office was and most of the afternoon I was occupied in sloshing around in the pouring rain and flooded streets to go to the Aero Republic Office, feeling like I was a knight in shining armour on one of those fine armoured steeds that we saw in the museum in Madrid. I returned eventually to find Barbara snoozing. Alas, a wet and bedraggled Pete was not quite what she was expecting.
It was dinner time, and our meal consisted of eggs, tomato and cakebread. Not overly exciting, but cheap. Following this it was PC update, email etc. Off to bed ready for what the next day may bring, a happy face maybe.
Thursday 14th
We awoke to the usual breakfast. Surprisingly we met an English fellow who lived in the same street as us in Adelaide and who also lived in the same area in Scotland where Barbara spent some time.Truly amazing. He gave us an account of some of his adventures in Colombia for which we were pleased as finding information can be quite difficult. Following this we visited the Botero Museum, one of the highlights of Bogota. Botero is a famous artist. In this art gallery they have other famous painters, and it is all for free. Countless millions of dollars worth of paintings. At about luchtime we caught a taxi to the Airport. Aero Republic is a no frills airline. It was get on and get off.
