Locombia of old.....coke, cartels & coffee...now..
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2008
1
4
54
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Chia,
Colombia
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
I have just spent a week out for the count so not too much exciting has been going on other than I have stayed inside rugged up and taking lots of drugs...and no not the type one expects to hear of travelers taking in Colombia just the regular kind....boring!!!!
Anyway I have managed to make a little headway into the outside world...Sunday being my first real attempt...ahhh the great outdoors....I sent most of sunday in the same place as most other Bogota locals and that was in the La Candelaria district in Central Bogota...the old town ... at Bolivar Plaza.
I visited the Museum Del Oro - Gold Museum...which I have seen before and remember as being stunning so a soft entree into the real world again was to take a step back in time and see something I was familiar with
Bolivar Plaza
. But alas NO...the museum was under renovations so a much smaller showing of some of their goodies where on display at another Museum up and around the corner a wee walk....off I trotted...eventually I found where the display was and was disappointed as it was a mere fraction of the pieces I had seen before...anyway I looked in on a few art galleries and other museums as well that were all in the same place...unfortunately today was not the day to submerse myself into a cultural world...no concentration for all of that...so I blitz through and I found myself back out on the pavement again...strolling aimlessly along. Back to the BIG square with all the people.....Bolivar Plaza...or Plaza De Bolivar if I was to be correct.....it was a mine field of buskers, bike riders, children, pigeons, and a llama or alpaca or two!!...busy busy.....I sat and watched for a while and clicked off a few pics...I liked the llamas!!! :o)
I decided to check out the street performers of which there are many...my fav was the Indians doing their dancing to the windpipes played by more Indians...we are talking like Native American Inidans...feathers and stuff...their music was amazing...soooo souful and haunting....I actually caught myself tearing up for a second there the music moved me that much...or I am still very very sick...I have been known to cry easy but NOT generally at music!!!!!..I quickly dragged myself away before I bought every one of their CD's...oh boy!!! Locombia (the mad country) was now making me loconene....
I walk further down the road...trying not to get cleaned up by the one million people that thought today was a great day for a bike ride ...it is a beautiful day so I guess they weren't all wrong
Llama in Bolivar Plaza
!Amongst the noise of the people, the buskers, street bands, and the Spanish equivilent of "get your hot tamales now", barking dogs and children everywhere I was just about done in by my adventure to the real world....my spanish today has been less than existent I can only manage to bring myself to say Hola...5 hours on the streets and I am done ...I am hot and hungry...and not for tamales or Maccas ...which seems to be everywhere....maybe I notice because 7 years of no Maccas...*shrug...anyway I grab a cab and show him my address card and slump tired into the back seat for my very bumpy pothole driven ride back to my apartment!! Ouch...not much suspension!!!
After 6 days of not really eating... I burst out of the starvation gates with a bit of head on for good food....and then I found it ....My favorite restaurant in the whole world!!!..WOK....it rocks!!!!! So since WOK's discovery I haven't eaten anywhere else...Lunch WOK, Dinner WOK...WOK ON!!! the food is great....Thai, Viet, Cambodian, Japanese and more...raw foods, blended juice drinks...fantastic infused coffees and Postres ...there you go a spanish word ...deserts... to die for!!! Yes I know I should be eating tamales and empanadas...but I have 5 months to eat those and seven years of denial from GREAT Asian food!!
Llama
! So I make the Taxi detour and drop me off at WOKs instead of home...it's kinda becoming home fast!! A great end to my day out....that light headedness is disapating once again and I feel maybe normal!Today I borrowed a husband....Sandra from the front desk's husband Andres..he speaks a little english and also has a taxi in which he has offered to drive me to the Salt Cathedral for a day out of the city!!! Yay!!! It's about an hours drive away near Chia! We both practice our English/Spanish... I'm really good at English and he's fantastic at Spanish...oh that's right we were trying to learn each others language...Ok I am still crap at Spanish!!! :o)
Anyway Andres needs permits to drive his little car outside the city limits.....of course he had them...we were stopped by the policia.... and held up for quite some time...Andres producing one piece of ID after another....I am thinking to myself surely this is normal and the cop should know what he is looking at etc etc...but it was like he was seeing the paperwork for the first time....I said nothing of course...because A/ I don't speak spanish...and B/ he had a great BIG machine gun!!! :o)...shhhhh Nene!!...anyway finally we are allowed t go on...Andres mentioned that the policeman didn't have enough money this month...I looked at him sideways for explaination...then I realised the longer the policemen took the more chance it was that we would offer him $$$$$ to just let us go...he of course could have no idea the last friend of mine that did that also did 6months in jail for trying to bribe a policeman...his only real crime was not offering enough at the time...but whose to know right!
Indian street performer
! :o)It was great to be out of the city...the air was clean and the scenery was beautiful....we passed a HUGE castle...as in it wouldn't have looked out of place in the highlands of Scotland....on asking Andres about it...he laughed and said that it had been built 200 years ago by a Mafia boss who thought he was king....now it was used for weddings etc.. it was pretty!
Finally the Salt Cathedral...we are there ...passing the vendors shops along the way selling really cool ponchos and cardigans...again I groan that my pack has NO room!!...*sniff sniff... Also plenty of BBQ restaurants where meat is on swords roasting over coals...it smelled GOOD!!!
The cathedral is built in an old salt mine...it is 600 ft below the surface and is truly amazing in size and serenity...there was another one but it became dangerous so they closed it own...this one was built in 1995......... It is actually used for mass on Sundays and holds over 1000 people....as you descend you pass the 12 stations of the cross...then the Dome and then into the Cathedral major...the pillers are ginormous. Andres said he had bought many people to the SC so I asked if he would join me for the tour as my guest...this was his first time inside!!!!...he loved it!...we did the English tour so I am not sure how much of the info he got but I am guessing more than I would if we did the Espanol one!!...of course the other 7 people on our tour were 5 aussies and 2 poms...middle of nowhere and there we are
Street vendors ..hot tamales!!
!We loved the Salt Cathedral it was peaceful and ephereal being that far underground and yet in a house of worship...those crazy catholics!!! :o) There were two ways out...one to walk up the ramp...the other as penance.. the stairs....I chose the ramp...no penance for me!!! What..!! .. I've been sick!!!! *grin*
Anyway back into Bogota I am nearly running late for my coffee with John...Claudia is in school today so I didn't get to see her..we just catch up quickly for a coffee and he offers to take me to the airport tomorrow...so all things are sorted!
Dinner was of course at WOK...sushi and thai green chicken curry...YUMMM!!! John has told me some great news there is a WOK in Medellin...or Medejin as they say...two ll's = J so my name could be llanine...but it's not it's Nene!! *grin* I will be in Medellin in about 4 days time I think.
So thats Bogota over and out for the second time. The people have been amazingly friendly, welcoming and so happy that tourists will come to their beautiful country...Their kindness while I have been unwell has been truly angelic....they know they have bad press outside and that for many years they have only been associated with Cocaine, drug cartels and coffee....and of course the FARCin kidnappers!!!!...now they have alot of things that they have going on.... flowers is one of their biggest exports (Colombian roses)...coffee, emeralds, tourism, Doctors,great cosmopolitan lifestyles, nightlife and shopping oh and still cocaine....:o) they are building their image and anyone who has been here knows it is a true gem of a place to visit!!!
Tomorrow Armenia....
Buenos Noches..xx
Comments
Salt cathedral!
That is very cool, and I find it funny that you are eating Asian food in Colombia...hahaha
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager
Re: Salt cathedral!
Thank you!
So do I ...BUT it's GOOD!!! *grin*