I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve never really thought too much about the physics behind the wonderful planet we live on. Perhaps this is because I spent the entire physics semester turning my plasticine blob - that was meant to be thrown off the building to somehow prove the laws of physics - into a perfectly crafted man, complete with facial features, briefcase, and a suit. Physics never was my strong point. So when it came to visiting Mitad del Mundo or “Middle of the World” in Ecuador, I was unsure what to expect other than an oversized monument, built by man to symbolise something that dumbfounded the human race for centuries…. The science and physics behind Planet Earth. Now, it needs to be said, first and foremost, that Ecuador seems to be stealing the limelight here. Not only is Mitad Del Mundo one of the biggest Equator monuments in the world but the country’s name, Ecuador, comes from the mere fact that it straddles the Equator. Needless to say, the twelve other countries also along this fascinating invisible line had to come up with boring names such as Indonesia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Talk about shameless self-promotion! Mitad del Mundo is both a town and a large park-like area where the exact latitude is 0°00’00”. . . . well that’s what the Ecuadorian government would like you to believe. This monument was constructed in 1936 based on coordinates determined by French explorers in the 17th century who officially declared this place as “The True Equator”. However in recent years, thanks to newer, more specific GPS technology it has been proven that the monument is in fact some 240m south of where it should actually sit! Awkward! What’s even better is that the actual true Equator runs through a privately owned property whose owners have taken the initiative to build their own museum based on the culture of the indigenous populations in the area, while also honouring their location on the Equator. At this wonderful little outdoor museum, you can also take part in a series of fun “tests”, and see evidence such as historical sun dials that prove they are in fact on the real latitude of 0°00’00”. This museum, Inti Ñan runs a guided tour for $4 per person and was probably one of the best museums we have visited so far! The interesting history of the many difference indigenous groups and cultures is explained through a series of models, thatched huts, historic artifacts and a few gruesome, yet awesome real life shrunken heads! Yes, that’s right, an indigenous population of the Amazon in Ecuador used to practice the ritual of shrinking both human and animal heads. Photo: In case you had any queries about how to shrink a human head, there is a lovely 4 metre wall mural depicting the entire process! After a brief culture and history lesson, we moved onto the fun stuff. After a brief explanation of the Coriolis Effect, best explained by weather patterns in the northern and southern hemisphere (anticlockwise cyclones in the south, and clockwise hurricanes in the north), our guide produced a portable sink. He plugged the hole, filled the sink with water and then threw a few leaves in to demonstrate his point. We moved roughly 1m south of the equator and he pulled the plug. True to form, the leaves spun anticlockwise before draining from the sink. We then took the sink 1m north of the equator and did the same experiment again. Right on cue, the leaves drained from the sink in a clockwise direction. And if that wasn’t enough, we then stood directly on the painted “Equator” line, did the same again, and the water and leaves gurgled and bubbled as it drained directly down without any spinning whatsoever! Crazy! I said physics never interested me, but science experiments are damn cool! We did a few more, less scientific experiments like jumping on the equator (and feeling like you weigh a tonne), then jumping off the equator and feeling normal, as well as struggling to walk exactly along the line, however these are obviously less measurable “proof”and more heresay. The one experiment that everyone talks about was also the grand finale - balancing a raw egg on a nail. Sounds ridiculous, and the explanation only vaguely brushes over the science of why this should work, but who cares…. It’s good fun! We took turns trying to balance the egg on the head of the nail and within a few seconds, I had “nailed it” (see what I did there??). I shrugged and figured that there was obviously some sort of trick to it if it was that easy. Half an hour later and only one other girl in our group of 6 had managed to get the egg to sit unassisted on the nail! After almost 5 minutes straight of trying, Wade became super frustrated and insisted that there was no way I could do it again. So I stepped up to prove that he was right and it was probably just beginners luck. Now, I do hate to brag, but almost immediately, I managed to do it again! Hahaha Sorry Wade! Once our tour was over and we felt adequately enlightened and educated for the afternoon, we left Mitad Del Mundo and caught a bus to the lush green mountain village of Mindo. I had booked us into a rainforest bungalow just out of town and although it was pitch black by the time we arrived, we already loved the place due to the cooler temperature and relaxed atmosphere of this cool little town. We spent the following day Zip Lining through the jungle on a series of 13 wires that covered a distance of some 3.5km! Wade wasn’t initially sold on the fact that they advertise their safety by stating that the Zip Lines were all built by Costa Rican engineers – is that a good thing?? - however I wasn’t going to be swayed from a fun day out! After watching on as a few people successfully completed the course without dying, Wade and I signed away our lives and zoomed through the jungle at speeds of up to 120km/hr! It was absolutely exhilarating! Photo: Zip Lining in Mindo was an absolute adrenalin rush and also gave us an incredible view of the rainforest below Our visit to Mindo was short but sweet and we were now on a timeline to make our way south as we had finally booked our much-awaited Galapagos Islands cruise. We had one week to get to Guayquil from where our flights departed to the Galapagos and our short time in mainland Ecuador would more or less come to an end. So much to do… so little time!
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The rules go something like this: 1. Stand behind the line, 5 metres from the clay target 2. Hold the “tejo” in your preferred hand with your forefinger wrapped around the side and your thumb supporting underneath 3. Hurl the steel disc toward the target with the main aim of hitting, therefore setting off, the small package of explosives jammed into the clay 4. BANG!! 5. DRINK!! Well, that’s how we interpreted it anyway! Playing tejo in Salento was a night I won't quickly forget. I had read about Tejo, a sport only known to be played in Colombia, and was immediately drawn to the sound of a “sport” whose main components involved beer and explosives! Photos: (L) Wade lining up the perfect Tejo shot and (R) Hanna and I putting on our best game face! Tejo bars can be found in certain small towns in Colombia, Salento being one so when we arrived in Salento late at night, what better to do than dump our bags and head out for a night of Tejo! While our interpretation of the rules was not exactly perfect, we weren’t too far from the truth. It is free to play as long as you order drinks, and there are no soft drinks or juices here kids! Each player takes turns in throwing their “tejo” or steel disc at the target. The target is a clay pit on a 45 degree angle and in the middle is a metal ring. On the metal ring, there are 4 packages of explosives so that when a tejo hits the explosives, they in turn press against the metal ring and set off the BANG! The best shot from each turn, wins the points for that round. Change ends and continue until someone hits the explosives. Simple! Wade, Hanna and I had been given a crash course in the game from the Spanish speaking, 70 year old Juan who ran the bar. After showing us the ropes, Juan brought us our beers and then sat down and chuckled with his female companion at our pathetic attempts to hit the targets. It was probably an embarrassingly long 30 odd minutes before Wade finally set off a BANG! We quickly instilled a rule where the losers must immediately down their drinks before continuing with the game. I think this was Juan’s favourite part of our poorly interpreted rules! When we looked at the clock and saw that it was midnight, we made the executive decision to head home seeing as the real reason we were in Salento was not at all for Tejo, but in fact for the beautiful and unique Valle de Cocora. Valle De Cocora is a place that needs to be witnessed to truly be appreciated. I had seen photos of it while we were planning this leg of our journey but photos only scratch the surface of what this place really has to offer. We woke up early after our exhausting night of Tejo and walked into town to jump in the first Jeep heading out to the valley. I think Salento has commissioned every 1990’s Jeep ever made because they seem to be the only available transport in the entire town! The valley is a twenty minute drive from the pretty town of Salento but this stunning white washed town pales in comparison to it’s natural counterpart. The valley can be experienced either on horseback or on foot with various walking trails covering the many different landscapes in the area. Wade and I had opted to walk the full seven hour circuit of the valley while Hanna, a natural horse rider, chose to join a convoy and ride in. The walk begins by weaving alongside a river through farmland and small homestay accommodations. Before long, the countryside disappears as we were slowly surrounded by rainforest. The trees seemed to appear out of nowhere and suddenly we found ourselves crossing rushing rivers on poorly constructed bridges and hopping over wet, mossy rocks. The walk was more strenuous than we had anticipated and soon we were weaving our way up the wet rainforest gully and working up quite a sweat along the way. Some of these walking tracks continue on for days though the rainforest and surrounding areas but we chose to simply head to the Humingbird sanctuary, deep in the rainforest before completing a loop by climbing up out of the rainforest and being rewarded by the views of the valley at the end. Photo: (L) The beautiful open views of the valley and (R) us ready to tackle this seven hour walk The Hummingbird sanctuary was a lovely place for a short break and a hundred or so blurry photos of these ridiculously fast birds! Wade rested, while I became frustrated at the fact that the Hummingbirds would sit and sip the sweet nectar left out for them but the minute I picked up my camera, they were off again! The sanctuary is home to some eight different species of Hummingbirds, all native to the area and only attracted by the natural nectars provided by the local family living here. No bird are kept captive here which made it all the more special to spot so many different species in our short 20 minute visit. As we took off again, we discovered that the worst of the walk was yet to come. It was all up hill for the next 2 hours but the view at the top was well worth it. As the landscape changed from rainforest to pine forest, we slowly emerged to find ourselves at the top of the mountain. The view was incredible and worth every hot, sweaty minute. It was at this stage that we realized we had not yet seen anything that looked even remotely like the photos we had seen of Valle de Cocora. Not wanting to sound ungrateful for the magnificent views around us, we shrugged and took off on the descent that would eventually weaved back down to our starting point. It was as we weaved around one such corner, where the pine trees gave way to the valley below, that we saw one of the most fantastical views I have ever witnessed. It was like something that only Disney could possibly create, in some land far far away. From the small grassy opening in the forest, we could see deep down into the open valley where hundreds of 50 metre tall Wax Palm trees littered the otherwise farm-like landscape. It was quite simply incredible. Photo: It is a crazy and unique sight seeing these ridiculously tall wax palms popping up seemingly out of nowhere! The closer we came to these trees, the more mesmerizing they became. I don’t know about you, but I generally associate palm trees with white sandy beaches and crystal clear blue oceanic waters, NOT countryside valleys in the Andean mountain range of central Colombia! The wax palms found in Valle de Cocora are unique to this area and the tallest known variety of wax palms in the world. Even more interesting is that this valley is a part of the Los Nevados National Park, which we had also visited during our hike to Santa Isabel Glacier weeks earlier! Glaciers and volcanoes in the north, palm tree filled valleys to the south…. Colombia you amaze me! Photo: (L) Sarah in Santa Isabel Glacier in the north and (R) Wade in Valle De Cocoa in the south. The differences between these two areas of the same National Park are simply incredible! As we had now made our way into the valley and amongst the palms, the last hour of our walk was spent craning our necks to look up at the trees rather than our previous view from high above them. Unfortunately the clouds came over right as we had the perfect photo opportunity but at the end of the day, as I said earlier, photos don’t quite give this place the full justice it deserves. It is an incredible and varied landscape that consistently amazed us throughout the day. We spent the night back in Salento, enjoying the local specialty, Baked Trout along with a few friends we had met earlier in the day. We would have loved to stay in Salento for a few more days, but sadly by this stage, our extended time in Colombia was beginning to eat into the time we had allotted for our next destination, Ecuador. Salento was also where we sadly bid farewell to Hanna, who we had now travelled with for over 6 weeks! While Wade and I are more than content with one another’s company, travelling with Hanna provided a new perspective on our journey. She brought new conversations, opinions and ideas to our adventure (not to mention plenty of laughs!) and we loved every minute of our time together. Wade was also going to miss an almost daily conversation whereby he and Hanna compared things such as the cost of living, taxes, house prices and general life perks in both Australia and Switzerland! Our plan from Salento was to make our way more or less directly to the border between Colombia and Ecuador. It was nostalgic realizing that our time in Colombia was almost over, but we felt great satisfaction with the amount of ground we had covered and all of the wonderful places we had visited.
Crossing into Ecuador meant that within a few days we could get to work planning our trip to the Galapagos Islands, so really, moving on wasn’t going to be so hard after all! We arrived in Manizales late in the afternoon on a day of equal importance to the locals as Independence Day. Colombia was facing Brazil in a football match in Miami which was to the locals, a rematch of the World Cup game that saw Colombia kicked out of the competition. We learnt of this match when, upon arriving in Manizales 90% of locals were decked out in Colombia jerseys and there was an air of excitement around the town. Wade, Hanna and I checked into our hostel and decided to have a few beers while making our plans for the following day. Upon our arrival, the young guy at reception suggested two different day trips for the following morning. One was a full day trip to a volcano, hot thermal pools and an historic church while the other was a shorter trip involving a three hour walk up to a Glacier and breakfast and lunch on a local farm. Before even finishing our first beer we all agreed that the trek to Santa Isabel Glacier in Los Nevados National Park sounded much more interesting even though the guy had assured us that you don't get to go ON the glacier, just near it. After all, the volcano day trip was mainly spent in the vehicle and we were much more interested in doing something active. That night we packed into an authentic Colombian "Irish Pub" to watch the football match. Sadly the two months since the World Cup were not enough to change the result and Brazil won again, 1-0. Saturday morning came and our alarms sounded at 4am. We had all slept for around 4 hours after kicking on for a late dinner and beers after the football match. The tour guide would be collecting us from our hostel at 5am before heading out to breakfast on the farm. My hiking pants had what now looks like a trivial splash of mud on the cuff so I decided to get them washed along with our other dirty clothes and instead wear my denim shorts. After all, Manizales was in a reasonably warm and sunny region of Colombia. We jumped in the car with a small bag of essentials, sun cream, water, a bag of nuts and a long sleeved top each just in case it got cold closer to the glacier, but hey we weren't going ON it, just near it so a vest and long sleeves should be plenty warm enough. The first sign that something was wrong was when we noticed the bamboo hiking poles in the back of the 4wd. Secondly, our guide looked prepared enough to hike Everest, but we just figured that he was the pro and had all the right gear because this was his job. We stopped off to buy some water and the guide reiterated how important it would be to stay hydrated during the trek. He mumbled something about thin air and lots of water so we grabbed a few extra bottles between us. After breakfast as we sat around laughing and sharing stories with the other English speaking travellers in our group, our guide interrupted us to give us a bit of a rundown of the day. It was now 7am and we had another 1.5 hour drive "up the mountain" before arriving at the start of the trek. We would be walking a 6km round trip before returning to the farm for lunch and then heading back to town around 6-7pm depending on how long the walk takes us. The math didn't quite add up. 6km should take an average person around one to one and a half hours to walk even if it was up hill, not the 5-6 hours he was estimating! Next our guide explained how important it was to keep the car windows open for the next leg of the drive so we can acclimatise to the altitude. Alarm bells had been niggling at the back of my mind for a while now but this had the whole damn cathedral going off in my head loud and clear! After a brief private discussion with our guide, Wade, Hanna and I established the following: 1. the walk would take around 5-6 hours NOT 3 hours 2. at "the top" we would be able to walk ON the glacier 3. we would be starting the walk at 4200m and trekking up to an altitude of 4700m (around 1500m higher than Wade or I have ever been) 4. The temperature could drop to below 5 degrees as we neared the top And finally 5. Wade and I were ridiculously underprepared, under dressed and uninformed about any of this! We explained our to our guide that this was all news to us and he laughed when he realised that neither Wade nor I had long pants or a jacket. I'd love to know where he thought we had been smuggling them all this time as our bag was barely big enough for the extra litres of water we had just purchased. He said he might have a spare jacket for one of us depending on the size and would check when we arrived at the mountain. Sorry Wade but I secretly hoped it was my size cause there was no way I was climbing onto a glacier without at least one more layer on my already shivering body. As our 4wd climbed the steep and bumpy road to the National Park I started to get a headache. I assumed this was just the lack of sleep combined with a few beers last night and now the incessant bumping and shaking of the 4wd over a never ending unsealed road. The further we climbed, the more I wished I had brought my big, warm, waterproof jacket that I left back at the hostel…. Not to mention a pair of long pants! After a long 2 hours of driving we arrived at a carpark and crawled out of the car. Our guide walked towards Wade and I like Santa Claus with two almost perfect-fit, wind jackets in his arms. Finally some relief from the cold and best of all, for both of us! It was also at this starting point on the walking trail that we saw a sign listing the following (also previously unmentioned) precautions:
* If I had my way, I would also add that hiking in short shorts and summer clothing is also not recommended, let alone drinking copious amounts of beer the night before doing the trek but hey, who am I to correct the Colombian National Parks Rangers! We all started commenting on how it didn't make sense that 6km would take us 5-6 hours and compared the time/distance to other walks we had done recently. In our well educated opinion surely it would be more like 3 hours.... MAXIMUM. One of the girls in our group had a GPS watch and within the first 400m of the walk we had all come to a halt puffing and wheezing like ten-pack-a-day smokers. The air was thinner than I ever could have imagined. Almost all of us had ripping headaches and some were already feeling muscle and joint pain. I will happily argue with anyone who says altitude sickness is a myth as the five of us leaned on our hiking poles composing ourselves and trying not to waste oxygen on conversation. One, then two hours passed. The breathing was becoming easier as we settled into a rhythm however every short hill climb was followed by a 2-5 minute break and our group slowly began to stretch out as some struggled more than others. It was becoming more difficult to remove my right hand from my walking stick as the cold was causing me to lose feeling in my fingers. As for my legs, they didn't hurt a bit because every bare centimetre of them was numb to touch. The landscape was a breathtaking contrast of snow, rocky outcrops and sparse vegetation as we climbed against the turbulent winds scraping down the mountainside. Wade and I shared what looked like an intimate moment as we hugged behind a rock for a few minutes in an attempt to warm up even a little bit. It was the only place we could find relief from the freezing cold wind and two hugely under dressed bodies contained more body heat than one! As we started to see small piles of snow scattered amongst the rocks, the cold air intensified to the point where I was a freezing, coughing mess and Wade's nose was physically dripping without him even knowing due to a lack of feeling in his face. We pushed on in silence as a few members of our group threw in the towel and returned to the warmth of the cars waiting at the base of the trek. It was a shame seeing as there was one last summit before the huge white mass of the glacier appeared in front of us. After three hours and 15 minutes of huffing, puffing and shivering our way up the mountain, we finally set foot on Santa Isabel glacier. It always amazes me to see glaciers so close up as they seem to roll down a hill before suddenly coming to a complete stop. My favourite part about glaciers is the cracking and groaning of the ever moving, ever changing ice underfoot. It is a hauntingly real reminder of the struggle these natural formations are facing with the everyday battle of global warming. Everyone sat down for a short break and a few photos on the glacier. It was an incredible sight, but in reality our job was done and I think it was around 10 minutes before everyone agreed that it was simply too damn cold to stick around any longer so we began the slow climb back down. Photo: Yay, we made it! Now do the essentials such as take selfies, throw snow at one another and then get the hell off this freezing cold mountain! The walk down was much easier on the lungs but presented a new pain in the knees and legs brought on by the steep slope and lose rocks. During the return journey, Wade and I unanimously agreed that we would need an extra day or two to acclimatise as well as a few more training treks before our upcoming trip to Macchu Picchu in October. As the feeling returned to my fingers and legs and the cold wind once again disappeared behind the mountain, cheerful conversations began amongst our group knowing that the hard work was done and we were almost back at our starting point. It was during a conversation with our guide around this time that I was also told that the underprepared Wade and I were lucky we didn't book into the 2 day trek. Apparently that one involves ice-picks, cramp ons and an overnight sleep on the glacier. That wouldn't have been much fun in our shorts and t-shirts! We all ate our words as we checked the GPS watch to discover that in total we walked 7.5km and as estimated by our much more knowledgable guide than ourselves, it took us a total of 5 hours and 55minutes! By the time we ate "lunch" it was 5pm and everyone was exhausted. Warm soup and coffee were a sight for sore eyes and cold bodies! Of course the day wouldn't have been complete with one final twist in our itinerary and as we pulled back into Manizales, the 4wd barely slowed down long enough for us to see our hostel, before heading back out of town in the opposite direction. If we thought we weren't prepared before, we were even less prepared now. Apparently as a September promotion, the tour also included a visit to the local thermal pools! This would have been perfect besides the fact that it was now 8pm, we were all exhausted and most importantly only one girl in our remaining group of 10 had been told about this and brought a bikini. We all ummed and ahhed before agreeing that we were here now so why not. We stripped down to some less than ideal underwear and plunged into the steaming pools. I think I lasted 10 minutes in the scalding hot water before my body turned lobster red and decided that this was simply all too much for one day and I was forced to sit on the edge of the pool sweating up a storm. Seeing as none of us had a towel in anticipation of the thermal pools we didn't know about, (surprise surprise!) we all dressed back into our dry clothes which soon became soaking wet and sat shivering for the 20 minute drive home. Although in most ways the day had been a complete and utter (and vaguely life threatening) mess, we finished the night with a sense of accomplishment, an unquestionable need for sleep and best of all Wade and I had our first experience of high altitude in preparation for Macchu Pichu. Climb Santa Isabel glacier in short shorts, without gloves, thermals or the slightest idea of what we were doing....Tick! Photo:
Hanna, myself, Wade and Sophie all tired but feeling accomplished, after having defeated Santa Isabel Glacier! Oh Bogota. You were memorable but not entirely for the right reasons. Now is probably a good time to mention that it is only recently that Wade and I both realized that we just aren’t city people. In fact, it was during our time in Bogota that this became most apparent. We much prefer the relaxed vibe of countryside towns and coastal areas during our travels, however many cities are a necessary means to an end. They often provide all of the essential ingredients for travel: transport, accommodation and large shops for any necessities. South America in particular, has some wonderful cities renowned for their cultural and historical significance, which are built around large plazas always bordered by a church or cathedral. Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? Having said all of that, I’m sorry Bogota but you just didn’t cut it for us. From the outside, Bogota has many things going for it. There is a great nightlife, a good variety of cuisines both local and international and plenty of interesting street markets and museums. On our first afternoon in Bogota we drank warm liquor filled tea at the street markets while watching a guinea pig race where by-standers bet on which bowl they thought the guinea pig would run into. It was hilarious and according to my five minutes of observation, I can conclude that: a) guinea pigs prefer orange and red coloured bowls b) 75% of the time they went to the bowls on their right and c) guinea pig races are the Melbourne Cup of the future That’s just my hot tip for anyone ever thinking of getting involved in illegal guinea pig races. You heard it here first! The Gold Museum in Bogota ,“Museo De Oro” is the largest collection of pre-hispanic gold in the world. It is probably one of the most interesting museums we have visited so far during our trip with an incredible display of not only gold but also pottery, stone and shell artefacts all from early Colombian societies before the Spanish landed in South America. We spent hours walking through all the rooms looking at rows upon rows of ancient gold jewellery and ornaments. There was also an awesome piece based on the legend of El Dorado. Although this piece is estimated to be over 1000 years old, it was only discovered some 30 years ago by local Colombian farmers! The intricate gold and copper ornament shows the raft that the local Shaman used to paddle onto the middle of a lake, with his body coated in gold dust and offer up gold to the Gods by throwing it into the lake. Stories of this ritual led to belief in the legendary city of El Dorado, a city filled with gold. As time went on, the stories evolved and the legendary city became an entire empire. The Spanish conquistadors searched for many years for El Dorado but the legendary city was never found. Some stories suggest that the city of El Dorado may have in fact been modern day Cusco where the Incas had so much gold that the city once glowed, but none of this has ever been confirmed. Bogota was meeting my expectations by this stage and (other than my second pair of Havi’s for this trip snapping!) we were both enjoying a rare sunny day for our first full day there. It only took until around 3pm for our opinions to be tarnished when we witnessed a bag snatch on a main pedestrian street in an otherwise safe and populated area. The two offenders were tackled to the ground by Police, beaten to a pulp before being taken away in handcuffs covered in blood! When the owners of the bag were handed their bag back by the Police, they took it casually, without so much as a thank you let alone a police report and continued along their way. The following day we were sitting around the hostel when a young Spanish couple who had taken the hostel owners’ dog for a walk, came back in tears and yelling for help. During their walk in the surrounding streets, they were approached by two men with guns. Their immediate reaction was to run however the guy tripped over in his haste and shattered his entire collar bone. They managed to get away from the attackers but were shaken up and had some costly hospital bills coming their way. Hanna arrived in Bogota that afternoon and we decided to see if the city could improve on it’s currently failing first impression by doing what the city does best… Party time! I had read about a tour that one of the local hostels run where they organize a bus to a popular nightclub a good drive out of the city in a place called Chia. The nightclub is called “Andres Carne De Res” and is described by Lonely Planet simply as “a party in a piñata”! It was absolute mayhem amongst the rich and famous youth of Bogota and without a doubt exceeded every expectation we had! I wish we had taken a camera to have photo evidence of this place but we don’t like carrying it on us at night so left it at the hostel. The cost of the night included transport to the club, unlimited Cuba Libres on the bus as well as the club cover charge. After dinner and a few beers, the bus left Bogota at 11pm to head out to the suburb of Chia, 40 minutes away. We lost Hanna before we even entered the front door and it wasn’t until four hours later that we saw anyone from our bus again! This place was HUGE! The weekend capacity is 2000 people and there are around 6 different areas all joined by a maze of corridors and different split levels. The walls are decorated with everything from a swinging manikin arm that points to the toilets, to a series of clown faces plastered on the walls with eyes that appear to follow you. The atmosphere was intoxicating and apparently due to the exorbitant prices for entry, food and drinks it retains a high standard of clientele both local and international… and of course just a few daggy backpackers on the weekends! Add to this the fact that the “usual” style of drinking at this club is to simply order a bottle of the local spirit and either pre reserve and pay for a table or just walk around with your bottle of rum and two glasses all night! When I felt the apparently ridiculous need to mix my rum with a coke, my order was greeted with confusion and almost reluctance for me to offend their drinking culture with my mixer! I was however eventually brought my Coke and charged the offensive price of $7 for a tiny bottle that I then had to jam into my back pocket so Wade and I could continue to shuffle through the club with the crowd of inebriated bodies around us. Wade and I spent the next four hours swigging rum on the rocks and weaving our way through the many rooms of the club, sometimes looking for Hanna and other times just practicing our Spanish with locals or chatting to other gringos who were equally impressed/intoxicated by this unique place. When the club closed our group from the bus re-gathered at the front door, all clearly having enjoyed the local drinking style and jumped back on the bus with grand plans for after parties and underground clubs near our hostel. It had been an awesome night so far and we were all keen to kick on. We caught a taxi to within one street of the hostel and parted ways with a young guy who wanted to hit the hay. Less than five minutes later we ran into this same guy who had just been held up at knife point and asked for his wallet. When he only produced a measly $10 from his pocket - courtesy of the drink prices at Andres - the attackers also demanded his leather jacket! The poor guy was clearly shaken and left shaking in the freezing cold Bogota night air. We all decided to take his experience as a good reminder of where we were and parted ways with our new friends as the sun rose over Bogota. Being the third relatively serious incident of crime that we had witnessed in two days, our opinion of Bogota was severely marred. We don’t like to feel unsafe in place where the language and culture barrier are already enough to deal with. We made a conscious decision to leave Bogota as soon as we recovered from our impending hangovers! None of us felt like facing the world on Sunday so we had a lazy day at the hostel. We each crawled out of our rooms only for the essentials such as coffee, random conversation with the young Canadian hostel owner or to eat pizza from the shop next door before again retreating to our blackened room and the comfort of a bed. On our last day we did the obligatory trip up Monserrate from where there are awesome views of this enormous city. The mountain rises 3152m above sea level and is adorned with a large cathedral overlooking the city below. Photo: The view from Monserrat (L) and the cathedral (R) We caught the metro cable up and then strolled the winding path back down passing all of the poor suckers panting their way uphill as they chose to do the trip in reverse! The cold air mixed with the 2500m altitude in Bogota makes for one hell of a walk uphill and we were glad we chose to only walk down! After a few photos in the main plaza back in central Bogota, we wandered around the Fernando Botero Museum before checking out the Presidential Palace and the heavily armed guards surrounding it. That night, we stuck to our plan and headed back to the bus station for yet another overnight bus. Photo: The main cathedral on Plaza de Armas (L) and the guards at the Presidential Palace (R) Once again both Wade and I, and Hanna were on the same track with our next destination so we decided to stick together for another week or so as we head to Medellin, the city once ruled by cocaine King Pin Pablo Escobar. We’ve heard great things about Medellin and the weather should be around 10 degrees warmer than here so we are all looking forward to the change. Hopefully our next city break will provide another great insight into the wonderful country that Colombia is!
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AuthorEnthusiastic but Useless Traveler. Archives
July 2016
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