Friday 25 July 2008
Tuesday 22 July 2008
Bogotá
I got my flight very early in the morning with a stop in La Paz and then in Lima and finally arrived in Bogotá in the afternoon.
I got a taxi to my hostel where I was supposed to be meeting Ben but he wasn't there, he was in another part. Finally I decided to go and look for him as the people in the hostel had not come to find me as they had promised and I met Ben walking out of the hostel.
We have spent the last few days enjoying the food and excellent restaurants here and have been up the hill on the teleférico / furnicular, been to some museums, watched a peace march, been to an interactive science centre and visited the botanical gardens where, like every day, it rained. We also went to the Botéro museum (a famous Colombian painter who paints people in a way that makes them look chubby and comical) which I really enjoyed.
Tomorrow we plan to go to the salt cathedral (a cathedral carved out of an old salt mine) which is an hour or so away and then Thursday is going out night. Friday we will take it easy because our flight to Cartagena (hot, hot, hot on the Carribean coast) is on Saturday and we want to be ship shape to travel.
I got a taxi to my hostel where I was supposed to be meeting Ben but he wasn't there, he was in another part. Finally I decided to go and look for him as the people in the hostel had not come to find me as they had promised and I met Ben walking out of the hostel.
We have spent the last few days enjoying the food and excellent restaurants here and have been up the hill on the teleférico / furnicular, been to some museums, watched a peace march, been to an interactive science centre and visited the botanical gardens where, like every day, it rained. We also went to the Botéro museum (a famous Colombian painter who paints people in a way that makes them look chubby and comical) which I really enjoyed.
Tomorrow we plan to go to the salt cathedral (a cathedral carved out of an old salt mine) which is an hour or so away and then Thursday is going out night. Friday we will take it easy because our flight to Cartagena (hot, hot, hot on the Carribean coast) is on Saturday and we want to be ship shape to travel.
Cochabamba
Jenny and I arrived very early on the night bus. We found a hostel and the owner lied for us so that we got a nice double room with a private bathroom.
We spent the day wondering around and went up the cerro where there was a huge statue of Christ which you could climb up inside which was fun and look out at the view. We found somewhere nice to eat and had some hot wine in a restaurant which wasn't really necessary as it was pretty hot anyway.
They say that in Cochabamba it is eternal spring, not only because of the climate but because of the nature of the people too. We certainly noticed that they were happy and friendly and why wouldn't you be with wonderful weather all year round.
We tried to go to some Inca remains the next day and got on a crazy bus for Sipe Sipe. We walked about half an hour from the main plaza and asked some locals where we had to go. The lady we asked smiled and chuckled and said that we had three hours worth of walking uphill. I think she looked at both of us pretty exhausted from the heat and thought: you won't make it. We began the climb up but it soon became clear that we weren't going to make it not only because we were tired but because the water supply was running out so we took the bus back to Cochabamba and had and early tea.
The next day we caught the bus to Santa Cruz. The journey was incredibly slow but to be honest I'd rather go slowly than at the hair-raising speed most of the Bolivians drive at. We arrived in the evening to a hot humid temperature which we'd been waiting for for ages and went to our hostel.
Unfortunately the hostel was horrendous. It wasn't very clean and the smell coming from the toilet tank was appauling. We were too tired to find anywhere else so agreed to go and find somewhere else first thing in the morning.
We moved to a nice hotel called Copacabana in the morning and breathed a sigh of relief when we walked into our room with the crisp white sheets and sparkling clean private bathroom. Phew!
It was raining on the first day so we just wondered around town and looked at the church. A very pretty plaza.
We took a taxi (we hired our own private driver as it was so cheap for the day)to the waterfalls nearby which were beautiful, a little empty and not deep enough to swim in but relaxing. We then drove up a very scary winding road to some pre-inca ruins which we couldn't see very well because it was so misty and cloudy. In fact it was quite nice because there was hardly anyone else there appart from us and it was quite mysterious and eerie.
The next day was a day of problems with my bank as they wouldn't let me take money out so the whole day was wasted sorting out that.
On our fourth full day we decided we needed a bit of sun and headed to Bioparque where there was a swimming pool, a lake to canoe on, horse riding, a butterfly enclosure, a bird enclosure and a beautiful mirador with a view of the surrounding forest.
Jenny went the next day because she was going back to meet a Dutch boy in Cochabamba and I moved to a different hostel called Residencial Boliviar which had two pet Tucans (with clipped wings) living in the courtyard. In the hostel I met a German girl called Simone who also wanted to go to Bio Parque again so we shared a cab and spent most of the day together speaking Spanish. In the evening we went to a typical Santa Cruz cuisine restaurant and then on to a couple of clubs (as we were told that Santa Cruz has a lively nightlife.). I think we went a bit early but it soon got going and we had a good dance but had to head home about three because Simone had an early start in the morning.
I spent the following day recovering from the night before and relaxing.
I went to Bio Parque AGAIN to have some more sun (Bogotá was my next stop so I wanted to make the most of the sun.). I had a hair cut from a Iranian woman and did a bit of shopping and the rest of the time just relaxed and read and enjoyed doing nothing.
We spent the day wondering around and went up the cerro where there was a huge statue of Christ which you could climb up inside which was fun and look out at the view. We found somewhere nice to eat and had some hot wine in a restaurant which wasn't really necessary as it was pretty hot anyway.
They say that in Cochabamba it is eternal spring, not only because of the climate but because of the nature of the people too. We certainly noticed that they were happy and friendly and why wouldn't you be with wonderful weather all year round.
We tried to go to some Inca remains the next day and got on a crazy bus for Sipe Sipe. We walked about half an hour from the main plaza and asked some locals where we had to go. The lady we asked smiled and chuckled and said that we had three hours worth of walking uphill. I think she looked at both of us pretty exhausted from the heat and thought: you won't make it. We began the climb up but it soon became clear that we weren't going to make it not only because we were tired but because the water supply was running out so we took the bus back to Cochabamba and had and early tea.
The next day we caught the bus to Santa Cruz. The journey was incredibly slow but to be honest I'd rather go slowly than at the hair-raising speed most of the Bolivians drive at. We arrived in the evening to a hot humid temperature which we'd been waiting for for ages and went to our hostel.
Unfortunately the hostel was horrendous. It wasn't very clean and the smell coming from the toilet tank was appauling. We were too tired to find anywhere else so agreed to go and find somewhere else first thing in the morning.
We moved to a nice hotel called Copacabana in the morning and breathed a sigh of relief when we walked into our room with the crisp white sheets and sparkling clean private bathroom. Phew!
It was raining on the first day so we just wondered around town and looked at the church. A very pretty plaza.
We took a taxi (we hired our own private driver as it was so cheap for the day)to the waterfalls nearby which were beautiful, a little empty and not deep enough to swim in but relaxing. We then drove up a very scary winding road to some pre-inca ruins which we couldn't see very well because it was so misty and cloudy. In fact it was quite nice because there was hardly anyone else there appart from us and it was quite mysterious and eerie.
The next day was a day of problems with my bank as they wouldn't let me take money out so the whole day was wasted sorting out that.
On our fourth full day we decided we needed a bit of sun and headed to Bioparque where there was a swimming pool, a lake to canoe on, horse riding, a butterfly enclosure, a bird enclosure and a beautiful mirador with a view of the surrounding forest.
Jenny went the next day because she was going back to meet a Dutch boy in Cochabamba and I moved to a different hostel called Residencial Boliviar which had two pet Tucans (with clipped wings) living in the courtyard. In the hostel I met a German girl called Simone who also wanted to go to Bio Parque again so we shared a cab and spent most of the day together speaking Spanish. In the evening we went to a typical Santa Cruz cuisine restaurant and then on to a couple of clubs (as we were told that Santa Cruz has a lively nightlife.). I think we went a bit early but it soon got going and we had a good dance but had to head home about three because Simone had an early start in the morning.
I spent the following day recovering from the night before and relaxing.
I went to Bio Parque AGAIN to have some more sun (Bogotá was my next stop so I wanted to make the most of the sun.). I had a hair cut from a Iranian woman and did a bit of shopping and the rest of the time just relaxed and read and enjoyed doing nothing.
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