Bogota
Day 269 Fri 27/5
A long day that started at 5:30 am. Got to the bus station around 07:30 and had to wait till 08:20 for my bus. The long 12.5 hour bus journey was made bearable by some beautiful scenery and the novel I was reading, the third policeman. An absolutely hilarious novel, full of absurdities that turn out to be not very absurd after all.
I am not going to forget my taxi ride from the bus station to the hostel in a hurry. The driver seemed to be in training for his F1 career. After a 12 hour bus ride, I wasnt quite in the mood to enjoy his style of driving and was extremely glad when we made it to the hostel in one piece!
Day 270 Sat 28/5
A day that started off with heavy rainfall trapping most of us indoors. The rain eased a bit around 11 and I managed to head out for a walk. I also changed hostel to move to a smaller place, in a really pretty colonial building. Settled in to watch the UEFA Champions league final. Barcelona were in scintillating form and displayed their and won 3-1. I was all alone in my hostel. Wish I could have been in Plaza Cataluña for the game. The sun had come out and I headed to wander the streets of La Candelaria before heading back around 18:00 to settle in with a book by David Mitchell called Black Swan Green. Finished the book before drifting off to sleep.
Day 271 Sun 29/5
Certain days not much goes your way! Woke up to find that the neighbourhood of La Candelaria has problems with water. Lack of water made me a wee bit grumpy. To make matters worse, it started pouring down when I headed out of the hostel. It got even worse when I reached the Museum of gold, dripping wet to boot, to find that most museums are closed today due to some elections. The nice lady with the police told me that the Museo de Bogota was open. They had an exhibition of photos – one floor of photos of concentration camps and one floor with photos of miners and mujeres rebeldes y felices. Needless to say, the photos of the concentration camps were grim and suited the weather and made me feel quite melancholic.
After a break at the hostel to get dry, headed out for a walk around La Candelaria. Sunday evenings do get quite busy around here! Had sun for a couple of hours and it was very welcome!
Day 271 Mon 30/5
Another rainy day. Luckily I meant to spend most of the time in museusm. The trio of Museo Botero, Museo de moneda and Museo del Banco de la republica are free to the public and showcase works of artists from Colombia and Europe. I enjoyed quite a lot of what I saw and spent about 3-3.5 hours. My lunch again was at a vegetarian place – the food was really good, albeit a wee bit expensive.
Spent a couple of hours walking around places I hadnt seen before. Headed back to the hostel when it started getting cloudy and watched some tennis.
Day 272 Tue 31/5
Museo Nacional, a prison turned into a museum in 1948, was well worth the trouble of walking 30 minutes! The entrnce fee is 2000 pesos, which is a little more than a dollar! It is a mixture of Colombian history, art and ethnographic museums. After about 4 hours, I felt too tired to absorb things and left. My stomach was also crying out for food. More veggie fare. There seem to be quite a lot of vegetarian restaurants in Bogota and the big cities in Colombia.
Day 273 Wed 1/6
A group of Russians had made it to the hostel the previous night and demonstrated that it surely was their only time in a dorm by making a racket early in the morning. I was, fortunately, well awake before they started their conversations, but the rest of the folks in the room werent impressed.
I left the hostel early to head to Zipaquira, about 40 km away from Bogota, a mining town (salt) where the claim to fame is the Catedral de la Sal (Salt Catedral). The original Cathedral was shut down due to safety issues, and the construction of the new one started 20 years ago and took 5 years!
I got to Zipaquira around 09:30 and with help from the friendly locals, made it to the Parque del Sal. The entry is expensive, but well worth it. I havent seen anything like the cathedral anywhere. It was a bit cold inside, with the smell of sulphur. A guide is included in the entry price and though in English, I managed to understand about 80-90% of his informative talks. They have mass at the cathedral every Sunday and apparently even weddings.
The guided walk took an hour and I then spent another 30 minutes retracing the route we took.
I got to Bogota a bit late and missed lunch. Too tired to walk around town, I headed to the hostel and watched Nadal recover his form to beat Soderling in the French open quarters.
Tags: Travel
Damu