Final week in Bogotá-Backpacker style

Sorry guys,

Yet again I'm late updating my blog. I've been so busy with so many things it has been hard to find the time to sit down for an hour or so to type anything out so yea, sorry about the silence these past few weeks.

Cracking on, I'm happy to tell you that I safely returned home to England as planned on 2nd May. A lot has happened since I last blogged so I'll pick up where I finished last time out with my final week in Bogotá. As you know, I left the studio on the Thursday and moved into the Cranky Croc, a hostel in La Candelaria where I stayed from Friday all the way up until I left Colombia the following Thursday (1st May). Without exaggerating, life in the hostel was 10 times better than staying in the studio. I stayed in a 6 bed dorm sleeping in a bunk bed that was even comfier than my bed at home, I had access to fully functioning warm showers (a real luxury compared to the studio), free wifi and other great facilities provided by the hard working staff but the best thing about staying in the Cranky Croc was meeting and getting to know all the other travellers staying there. You could sit in the main eating/drinking area there and almost instantaneously strike up a conversation with someone about your travels and where you're from despite being complete strangers. I met so many really nice and interesting people from all sorts of countries during my week there including people from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Brazil. I found the community feel of the place utterly infectious after 3 weeks of living almost by myself in the studio.

After spending a very relaxing first night in the hostel, I met up with Mauricio again on Saturday and along with his girlfriend Daniela, we went for a drive in the countryside. We stopped for lunch at a typical South American restaurant for lunch in La Calera where we shared a large dish of various meats, arepa and potatoes which proved to be a sumptuous feast. We then jumped back in the car and drove the length of the valley, taking in the glorious mountain scenery before arriving in the town of Sopó for dessert. There, we went to a dairy factory where we sampled some Arequipe flavoured (caramel) cheesecake before returning back to the city. A fine day out for some truly delicious food.

Lunch time!

view from the car on our country drive

Mauricio and I

That evening, I had my first taste of Colombian nightlife when a large group of us from the hostel went out to club called Baum. The club played some great electro music which was perfect to dance to so I used this opportunity to throw some shapes. I had no idea what I was doing half of the time but the locals seemed to like it so much that I had a small following of Colombians copying my every move which I found quite amusing.

Sunday was a fairly easy day for me. I was tired from the night before and didn't really feel like doing much but I forced myself to go and take a trip to Usaquen, an area in the north of the city known for its Sunday market. Whether or not it was because I was feeling too groggy to really appreciate it, I felt that Usaquen didn't really live up to its 'must-see' billing but it was still pleasant to have a look around the various stalls and the buildings of the surrounding area. A game of poker (which I surprisingly don't suck at anymore) and watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Spanish back at the hostel wrapped up what was a very relaxed day.

On Monday, I decided to join my friends Alex and Max (both fellow Brits) in climbing up Cerro de Montserrate for the second time. When I first went with Nico, I felt a bit too overwhelmed by the altitude to really enjoy it so I felt it was worth another visit. Although the walk up was almost as difficult as the first time, we picked a great day for it as once we reached the top, the clouds parted and the sun came out, exposing some glorious vistas of the city below. After a cup of Coca Tea with honey and lemon to help with the altitude (400 metres above Bogotá), we took plenty of pictures before our rickety descent back down.

City view on the way up

Coca Tea with Honey and Lemon at the top

Group shot

This is now my facebook cover photo

Inside the church

Alex flew off to Ecuador on Tuesday afternoon so just Max and I joined a bike tour to discover the city in a different way. In between negotiating the congested and chaotic streets of the city centre, the tour stopped off at a market for some fruit tasting, a coffee factory (passing through the red light district on the way), the city's main cemetery and the Parque Nacional which made for an interesting afternoon, seeing sights away from La Candelaria.

First stop on the bike tour- Fruit market

Tasting session

Coffee factory

Statue in the cemetery 

Street artwork

For Wednesday-my final full-day in Colombia, Max, Josh (from Canada), Bruno (from Brazil), a Dutch woman (whose name unfortunately escapes my memory) and I took a day trip out to the town of Zipaquirá. It was very easy to get there from La Candelaria simply taking the TransMilenio to Portal del Norte (the most northern TransMilenio station) before hopping on another bus to get out to the town costing a total of under 10,000 Colombian Pesos for the round trip. Zipaquirá is known predominantly for its Salt Cathedral and mines which was the main destination of our trip. Back in 2011, I went on a college trip with the history department to Krakow, Poland where we visited the Wieliczka Salt mine, the only other open mine like Zipaquirá in the world so I'd been looking forward to going to it for a few weeks so that I could complete the set. We had a tour around the cathedral all in Spanish while we marvelled at the various crosses carved into the salt rock before entering the main hall of the cathedral, a massive underground chamber with pews and the most impressive cross of them all above the alter. The lights used gave a splendid velvet glow across the chamber and really added to the whole aura of the place. Next up was a mining tour (also all in Spanish) in which we got an inside scoop on life working in a mine. We donned a hard hat each with a headtorch on top and once in the mining section away from the cathedral our guide told us to form a chain and turn our headtorches off. We did so and found ourselves almost crawling through a low tunnel in pitch black just as the miners would- this naturally resulted in hysterical disorientation which despite having no idea where we were was really funny. We also had a go at hacking away at a salt wall using pickaxes and Josh and I activated some explosives! (fortunately they were actually just simulated). Overall it was a really enjoyable few hours spent and if you think of coming to Bogotá then it is definitely something you should check out. We then hurriedly left the Salt mine, got back into the centre of the town and found a restaurant for lunch where we also got to watch the Champions League semi-final match between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid. Unfortunately, Chelsea ended up losing 3-1 meaning that Chelsea fan Max wasn't in the best of spirits but at least we had some amazing burgers to eat for lunch.

Entering the salt mine

One of many crosses we saw

Here's another

Me overlooking the main chapel of the cathedral

We found an underground boxing ring! Bruno vs Max

Max trying on a gas mask

Working hard in the mine

Josh and I causing explosions

Team photo

So after a long enjoyable day out, the group of us returned back to the hostel to recharge the batteries or rather in my case, to pack my stuff up. I wasn't planning on doing anything in particular for my final night but after a fair bit of persuasion I joined Max, Josh and Bruno once more as well as two Canadian girls we'd met back at the hostel for a night in Zona Rosa. The Zona Rosa is Bogotá's main area for dining, shopping and nightlife where you can find massive shopping malls and lots of fancy restaurants but seeing as we were there to party, we were only interested in the mass of bars and clubs. Literally over a hundred in about a mile radius and seeing as Wednesday was the night before a bank holiday each one was absolutely packed out. None of us had really brought that much money so we spent a lot of the night trying to find clubs and bars that didn't charge for entry or where drinks were cheap which meant we spent a lot of the time drinking and dancing in the streets while also chatting with the locals. I'd originally just come out for a beer or two so didn't really expect to find myself being 'Out out'* in shorts and a hoodie but despite me being hideously under dressed for the occasion it was an enjoyable night especially when we tried our hand at a bit of Salsa dancing in one of the clubs-which I was terrible at.

*= If you're not really sure what I mean by 'Out Out' then click on the phrase in the paragraph. It's a link that you might enjoy

Thursday was my final day in Bogotá and seeing as I wasn't flying till the evening I decided to do one last touristy thing with the guys from the hostel by going with them on a graffiti tour of the city. I'd seen tonnes of street art around the city while I'd been there so the tour was particularly interesting as we found out about the culture of graffiti artists, the techniques they use, the messages behind the art and all its legal implications. The tour is free but run on donations which depend on how much you enjoyed the tour so I would recommend if you're looking for a low budget activity to do in the city. In the afternoon I met up with Mauricio and Daniela for the final time. We had lunch together as I told them about my final week in Bogotá then Mauricio dropped me off back by the hostel. I'm really glad my cousin Michael introduced me to Mauricio. We really got on well and I hope to see him again someday. Not long after that, I hopped in a taxi to the airport and took my flight to Frankfurt leaving Bogotá, Colombia and South America behind me.

Bogotá graffiti tour

That's all for now. I'm still trying to catch up with about a week's worth of blogging so expect to see some new posts really soon. Yet again, sorry for the delay and stay tuned

FP

#FraserOnTour