Friday 12th July

After coming out of the airport terminal in Bogota I noticed there were loads of people filming people coming out of the terminal and it was chaotic there . We were supposed to catch the hotels own free shuttle bus but couldn't find where to catch it so tried to ask some staff but to no avail. We were going to catch a taxi instead, but some guy in a suit asked us if we needed a taxi and we were going to get one that he directed us to. It wasn't a yellow licensed taxi but some grey one and he said a price and tried to get us to go with him, but I felt a bit uneasy and remembered someone told us to only catch the licensed yellow ones so we ended up saying "no gracias"! We decided to catch the yellow one and they quoted half the price the other guy quoted us, so I'm glad we went with the yellow cab in the end!

We decided to stay in a hotel close to the airport for the first night as we'd been travelling for over 20 hours and knew that we would be jet lagged once we got here as both myself and John had never been on a such a long flight before. I thought we'd ease ourselves in to hostel life gently. It was a nice hotel but we knew the luxury would have to end there and that we'd be staying in hostels for most of our trip . We had a good nights sleep and left the next morning to depart to our first hostel.

Saturday 13th July

After checking out of the hotel we got a taxi to our first ever hostel, at first I thought it looked like it was in a bit of a dodgy area, but after checking in and speaking with the staff we realised it wasn't too bad really. The room was quite basic but to be expected with hostels in South America, but it was clean which was the main thing. The girl on reception, Erica told us about where to go and what to see so this was useful. We just wandered around the local area, got a bite to eat on the first full day. I'm actually having to try and order things in Spanish as most of the locals can't speak English so I am practicing it a bit more! I'm teaching John some Spanish words as we go along too as he speaks less than I can! One thing about the hostel is that there are no English travelers here, so wonder if we'll meet any on the gringo trail any time soon! We didn't do much else on Saturday as we were still jet lagged I think! Early to bed so we can have an early start on Sunday . It's hard to get to sleep at night in Bogota as its freezing cold and there is no heating, they just give you extra blankets! Temperatures during the day are not too bad, but every day it rains and it also goes through hot sunny spells. I'm missing the hot weather you guys are having back at home.....

Sunday 14th July

As it was Sunday a day of rest, we didn't really want to do much, but as we hadn't done much so far in Bogota, we thought we best do something. We decided to take a trip to Museo Del Oro (Museum of Gold) which is suppose to be one of the highlights of Bogota. After researching it we decided to give it a go. As it was a Sunday, it was also free entry which was a bonus, so if we didn't like it there no money wasted. We headed down there and tried to find the museum, but couldn't find it for ages. I think we walked into a bit of a dodgy area, so decided to turn back, and eventually we found the museum, in the not so dodgy area . Now when you've seen one museum, you've seen them all, but it was actually quite interesting and showed you how they made lots of gold artefacts from coins, jewellery, ornaments, sacrificial items, statues, armour wear etc. It takes you through many periods of pre-Hispanic history whereby it goes through what some of the indigenous cultures used the items for. One of the most famous items in the museum was entombed in a whole glass case, it was a raft made entirely of gold- The Musica Raft. The craftsmanship that must have gone into making that was utterly stunning. If you ever go to Bogota, go to the Museo Del Oro as it's well worth the visit, and if you go on a Sunday, it's free to get in. While there, we had a nice meal in the restaurant on-site. We have to stop having meals out all the time as this will eat into our budget! But it seems sometimes it's cheaper to eat out than stay in and cook in the hostel. Still not met any English travellers yet.... We're checking out of here tomorrow and going to a new hostel, so I'm hoping we will meet some in the new hostel.

Monday 15th July

We checked out of La Playa and said goodbye to Erica, she came out to wave and say have a safe journey. After leaving I realised my first experience of staying in a hostel wasn't too bad actually- well we had our own bathroom at least. Unfortunately for me, the next hostel we stayed in had a shared bathroom although we had our own private room . We got a taxi to the next area we were staying in- La Candelaria, which I was a bit nervous about, as I'd heard the area can be a bit dangerous and heard reports of people being mugged in the area. As this was the main historic old town of Bogota, we decided to give it a go. Once we got the taxi to the area, I did think it seemed a bit of a dodgy area, but that's all part of the fun of backpacking. We arrived and started to knock on the hostel door, but nobody was answering. One thing about Bogota is everywhere is all boarded up, like things are closed down so you can't just wander into the hostels. After knocking for a while a man came up to us and asked if we were looking for a place to stay, he came up to bang on the door and started shouting through for someone to let us in. He also gave us a leaflet and asked us to call him if we wanted to take any Spanish classes.... We said thanks and eventually the hostel doors opened. A Colombian lady came through to let us in to the hostel, it was an old colonial style building which had a courtyard inside the main entrance . It was pouring with rain while we were checking in, but as this courtyard was open air, we got wet while checking in! The lady was called Yolanda and she couldn't speak any English so I had to practise more Spanish with her. Although she could not speak a word of English, she was very helpful, she showed us a map and told us the areas that were safe and those that were not in La Candaleria. Yesterday we walked way past calle 7 when looking for the museum, which was the point you are supposed to go to, but we walked to calle 2- deep in the danger zone! I did notice a lot of armed police carrying guns that day, but just thought that was the norm around that area! After checking in and dropping our heavy packs off, we decided to go off and explore the local area. There were lots of plazas, old colonial buildings and churches and plenty of small little cafes, bars and restaurants around. We hadn't planned on going to another museum, however we ended stumbling across the Museo Botero. Fernando Botero just happens to be the most famous Latin American artist of all time . It was actually free to get in so we wandered on through. Botero painted the Mona Lisa, however his style of painting is quite distinct, he paints most things larger than life, and he painted Mona Lisa fat! Quite funny to see a different take on the classic painting at the Louvre. After the museum, we decided to try a typical Colombian restaurant, one which Yolanda at the hostel told us about Mama Lupe's. I ordered something that had 'Pollo' so thought it would be a nice dish, however when it came out, it was basically a bowl of cold soup with sliced chicken, corn on the cob, rice and avocado. I will just say it wasn't to my liking, so John asked if we wanted to swap dishes. He ordered some dish like chili con carne, so I ate some of that. Hopefully I'll find some nicer Colombian food soon. Afterwards we just wandered back to the hostel as we didn't want to return after dark. It seems that in La Candeleria, even the locals leave the streets before dark so you wouldn't want to be wandering around there at night!

Tuesday 16th July

First night at Yolandes was pretty cold but we got a good nights sleep . Yolande makes you feel like you are part of the family and welcomes you into her hostel. She knocked on the door in the morning to ask if we'd like coffee. As I can't seem to find anywhere with a kettle to make a cup of tea, I've resorted to trying Colombian Coffee. Well I'm going to have to like it of we're going to the coffee plantation area to try real Colombian coffee! They don't drink coffee with milk here so you get a black coffee and only sugar to put in it. There is actually no fresh milk in the supermarkets either, so if you want milk, it's the UHT type of stuff. I tried it anyhow, and thought it would be really strong like the black coffee you get at home, but actually it was quite a mild nice taste. I'm adapting slowly so did buy some milk to put in, but with milk, it doesn't taste as nice surprisingly! So I'll keep on trying black coffee, as long as it's got sugar in, I'll like it. After breakfast we decided to take the funicular to Monserrate, which gives you a high elevation of the whole city of Bogota. As the weather has been raining every day, we didn't know if it would give us any clear views that day, but we thought we'd give it a go anyway . It was raining that morning, but once we started walking there the sun came out. We walked to where we had to catch the funicular, and it looked like a dodgy area where there was nobody about at all... It was ok and we found the location where we had to be. It looked steep and was a long way up, so I did wonder how safe it was, but it was fine. Once we got to the top we took a walk around the gardens and looked out over the views over Bogota. It was slightly overcast but the sun was out and we did get some good views of the city. There were some flowers and trees that I hadn't seen before, so we just looked around at those too. We think we spotted the elusive hummingbird also hiding in one of the flowers. I'm sure most of South America is very religious, and around the whole section of Monserrate there are statues of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ which tells the whole story. It was quite interesting to see those with a nice backdrop to the whole city behind them. We came across some local market stalls at the top, selling all kinds of weird and wonderful things, one thing that caught my eye was an animals hoofs being sold as a drinks container I think! Don't quote me on it tho. They all looked surprised to see foreigners and tried to sell us something, but we kept on walking. Afterwards we visited the Cerro De Monserrate which is the big church building at the top that you can see from the ground in Bogota. We got some snacks in the cafe at the top and then left to back to the hostel for something to eat. We were ready to leave Bogota now in search of some sunshine as it had been raining pretty much every day since being here! We are heading to Cartagena which is on the Caribbean Sea so hopefully it's going to be hot there....

Mixed views about Bogota but as our flight mileage had to be under a certain number of miles we had to start off in Colombia. It's going to get better once we've visited a few places I'm sure.