Bogota!

Hola!

Now in Bogota, the capital of Colombia and wow what a city! Its a funky and vibrant city with lots going on and really friendly locals. There are heaps of great bars, cinemas and markets as well. Parts are a little dodgy and there is some very shady people getting around. You just have to use some commonsense. The flip side of that is there is hardly any tourists here. Anyway arrived on Sunday and am staying at a hostel right in the centre of things next to the old town. The hostel is full of aussies and is really friendly and homely.



The city is a surrounded by a spectacular rim of mountains one of which has a monastery with access via a cable car and funicular. Speaking of views, I took a lift up to the top of a 46 story building in the middle of the city on sun and the views of the metropolis (7 mill live here) were superb. I even got to look down on a bullfight in process saving the 20 bucs entrance fee but didn´t really get into it. Also on sun, they close the major roads and everyone jumps on their bikes and rollerblades and hits the streets! There is also heaps of markets and street performers.


Today I went to the police museum which was interesting. Especially the exhibit on Pablo Escabar who was won of the biggest cocaine lords. At one point the cartels were so cashed up they offered to pay off the country´s 6 billion $ foreign debt in exchange from indemnity from prosecution. The government thought about it but then said no and all hell broke loose. Anyway Pablo was shot by police in 1993. Got to see some gruesome pics plus his $120k gold plated Harley! The museum also has a alarmingly huge collection of guns and weapons!!





From Santa Marta
Caught the overnight bus, with aussie mate Narelle, down to a little colonial town called San Gill which was very relaxed and had a true ´local´ favour. On the bus down i found i had a little ´friend´ from the lost city on a very intimate place - i had a tick on my d_ck!! Pleased to say i got the little sucker off asap (in the bus loo)! After San Gill we went to a Barichara, a even smaller town completely untouched by the 20th century with cobble stone streets, stone churches and beautiful white washed colonial houses. Really pretty stuff.




From San Gill it was 6 hours bus to Villa De Leva, another town completely untouched by modern architecture. With cobble stone streets, a huge square, cute houses, super friendly locals, a huge sat vegie market all set against a great mountain back drop. Being only two hours from Bogga its hugely popular on the weekend and has tons of great bars and restaurants. While we were there they had a astrological evening with telescopes setup in the main square and home made rockets being shot up into the evening skies. Colombia is cool! Also hired a bike and did a ride around the countryside and visited a awesome monastery built in 1620.

So from Bogota the plan is to head south west to Salento, which is famous for huge palm trees and then to Cali, the salsa capital. Plan to leave in a couple of days if i can get away from this rocking city!!!

Hasta luego!