It also means I can share some of the 300 pictures I took - I work with the "take loads, one will probably look great" method since the invention of the digital camera....
My travelling partners were Vic and Sarah - they'd travelled together ten years ago through South America but had skipped Colombia. This trip was an anniversary for them and I managed to tag along after drunkenly meeting Vic at Sarah's birthday.
Here they are rocking a "strong look". Strong looks became a big part of our trip and I will be featuring a catalogue of them here - ranging from the goggles+sunglasses look to the walking boot with adhesive tape look. I will be pointing out any strong looks as I go.
Before I begin the first instalment, a word of advice for anyone transferring via the States. Contrary to what you might think and what seems logical (you are not actually entering the country) you DO need an ESTA (USA visa) and they will fingerprint you even when in transit.
As you may have guessed, we did not realise this until we were stood at the check-in desk at T5. Certainly made for an exciting start to the trip..... but I'm not elaborating as this is a blog about the amazing stuff that happened.
We did manage to get there though and arrived at our hotel in the capital, Bogota (apparently the third highest capital city in the world) circa 1am. We'd booked the first couple of nights in a fairly nice place with a pool and sauna to give us time to get our bearings.
And get our bearings we did - we'd been informed that the roads in Bogota were closed on Sundays for cyclists and that a great way to see the city was on two wheels. We made our way to the local bike shop to rent some cycles. Here's a look at the hot bikes and helmets we got:
The guide didn't really seem to mind and just issued us all with some highly ineffective ponchos - think Alton Towers log flume style. However this might have been one of the earliest strong looks of the trip:
A sort of rainbow KKK if you like. This is of us near the end of the tour - in a cemetery. Sarah had sensibly decided by this point to stay sheltered at the entrance - she did miss a random blue grave where apparently "the misfits come to hang out and rub 20,000 peso notes on the stone" according to our guide (in the green).
We also took in a fruit market:
A bar where you chucked heavy weights into clay whilst drinking a lot of beer - we also discovered in this bar that one of the guys on our tour was the acting ambassador to Panama!! Pretty useful:
A second hand market. I got excited before I realised it was more junk metal rather than vintage clothes:
A bull fighting ring - the current mayor has banned bullfighting so this fairly new stadium is now used for, errr, bike tours...
And finally a coffee factory!! I don't drink coffee but Sarah and Vic seemed to be big fans. I did try one cup here but I have to say it made me feel a bit queasy. I'm sure it's good quality though - the beans felt really nice:
And that was the bike tour - pretty fun but pretty damp. Unbeknownst to us, this would not be the first time on our trip that we would be damp for the majority of the day with no real means of getting dry. More of that later.
The day ended with our first Colombian dinner - we tried to find the Tequila museum and failed after a long walk so ended up having.... lasagne.
No matter, the next day we had a proper feast, traditional style. Meat/fish with rice and plantain. YUM. The first time round. We had this exact same meal quite a few times before the holiday was done.
We also tried to get to the gold museum on our second day. No one told us that the museums all shut on a Monday. Added to this fact was the weather - it was not raining. A bike tour would have been ideal...
Next up was the big mountain in the midst of Bogota - accessible by a cable car or a funicular railway. Sadly the very steep, scary looking railway was shut so it was up the orange line:
to the top for amazing views:
And down again for sight of our first llama!!!!! SO CUTE:
And a traditional hot chocolate with cheese. I don't think it's supposed to look like this but it was tasty. A note - if you don't like cheese, South America may not be the continent for you - they love cheese. And deep fat fried maize. Both together is also a standard.
That was pretty much Bogota done. Inbetween the above, we did also spend an obscene amount of time shopping for Colombian jeans and Masglo nail paint - both recommended by a beauty therapist as must haves.
Up next was our trek in the jungle up on the Caribbean coast - that will be the focus next time and where some really strong looks came into play.
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