BOGOTA

Super Mario/Eduardo - our culinary knight in shining armour

WHERE: BOGOTA

Rain??  Rain!!

WHERE (less detailed): capital city of COLOMBIA
DAYS: frighteningly we've got less than 100 days to go so we're now counting down the days until the end. T minus 91-87
WEATHER IS: raining!!! what the bleedin’ hell’s that all about? After a 33hr bus ride the last thing you want to do is arrive in a rainy city. Yet rain it did, and for the best part of 4 days it continued to rain.

chain of fools

PEOPLE ARE: in chains - voluntarily. The street vendors do an unusual thing where they rent out their mobile phones. To ensure no-one runs off with their devices the phones are attached to them by chains. After being told by the Bogota-residing brother of Asia-women-loving Brian that he was robbed of his iPhone at knifepoint Paul adopts a “everyone’s a suspect” approach to people.

when the sun comes out it's quite a pretty city

FOOD IS: at, Anderson's, the restaurant owned by our new bestie (best friend) amazing. Paul enjoys a mouth-watering steak with a freshly-made chipotle and strawberry sauce along with a caesar salad and hash brown on the side (far better than Gaucho, Hawksmore or Goodmans). Rhaani enjoys a delicious chicken salad. Elsewhere not so great. On our first full day in the city we opt for “traditional” fare. Paul decides that when you're non-the-wiser after reading the “English menu” it’s time to play safe. His chicken breast with  chimichurri sauce and banana fritter is actually quite nice. Always the adventurous one, Rhaani goes for Peto, which turns out to be some sort of white broth thing with white corn lumps in it. It comes with a small dish of brown sugar, not that that helps.

the view's nothing spectacular but it provides a welcome rest after walking from the trolley car to the viewing point.

HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS: the bus-ride to Bogota - our trip to Bogota was always going to be challenging. With flights from Quito costing in excess of £250pp we decide to take the 33hr taxi/bus journey to Bogota. The trip didn't get off to the best of starts with the ride from hostel to bus station taking 1hr alone. Thankfully our uber-helpful hostelier was on hand to ensure we get on the right bus. The 10hr drive to the Ecuadorian border isn’t too bad. Things get worse when we meet two Hooray Henrietta’s gap-year students. Bizarrely they didn’t think to bring any money with them and we end up subsidising them until Bogota. Remarkably the border crossing is relatively painless - apart from a pushy Columbian taxi-driver...

a nice church in Bogota

... From the border it's only a short 24hrs drive to Bogota. Despite decent quality roads and a relatively modern bus the journey was a nightmare. When the driver wasn’t taking corners at break-neck speed he was alternating between slamming on his breaks and gunning it. Rhaani was thrown out of her seat and onto the floor three times while Paul smacked his head against the bathroom door when foolishly answering the call of nature. It was so bad that the next morning, over 14hrs after getting off the bus, we still felt sea-sick and unsteady on our feet... thankfully we had our hostel with a wafer-thin matteress and single bed-sized covers to ease-away our misery... the Botero Museum and an afternoon studying the paintings of someone who must be a feeder ...

some girls are bigger than others

... the gold museum. After “learning” about the role gold played in the Mayan culture Rhaani finally gets to the good bit - the Museum shop. Barely a few minutes later she's in love (with a bracelet that she bought the next day - Gold encrusted backpacking, it’s the only way to go) ...

"it's amazing, it's amazing, I love it so much" - "you do realise you can't wear it until you get back to the UK or someone will chop your wrist off" - "dammit!" 

... the police Museum and the Pablo Escobar story. Our guide is a Colombian policeman. He seems especially pleased to tell us that famed drug-dealer and Medellin Cartel boss Pablo Escobar was quite the lard-ass upon capture. He seemed less excited to recall the fact that at the peak of his powers Escobar was worth $20billion...

You're knicked son! Actually Escobar only handed himself over when it was agreed that he could build himself his own jail - along with disco and swimming pool. But after a while he got bored and left.

... a trolley-ride up to the hills over-looking the city ... unfortunately it was still pretty cloudy so the view was nothing special ... Paul is ecstatic (and nearly makes Rhaani pee herself by delaying her rush to the bathroom) when he finds an electric tennis-raquet style fly swatter for Central America ...Rhaani is handed the smallest glass of wine ever ... the best lunch of our South American journey, made even more memorable when they restaurant owner (a Mexican/San Diegoan) came and sat with us for 45mins and gave us a foodies guide of Bogota and San Diego. Especially happy to hear about San Diego Sushi joint Miso Harney!...

Now don't say anything, but after breaking up with Kevin Mona's let herself go somewhat

... Julie returns from her trip to the Galapagos Islands (the flash cow flew into Bogota, and even bought 2 tickets, show-off) just in time to take a ride to the posh part of town and enjoy decent Pad Thai, Chicken Gyozas and sushi...
ITEMS LOST: Paul’s wafer thin and quite frankly useless (sorry dad) sleeping bag, at least it looks that way as the hostel in Cusco that promised to send it to us is now stalling on delivery.
UP NEXT: San Gil, adventure sports capital of Colombia.