Getting from Armenia to Bogotá (8h, 28000cop, 12€) was interesting: Armed military stopped the bus every now and then to search the vehicle and check everyone's ids. Like usually the views were even nicer than the men in uniforms.
After arriving to Bogotá I got my first taste of the local transport system which seemed very efficient when taking the TransMilenio. I could not have been more wrong. The few last blocks to Linas place in a taxi took longer than the bus across the whole city and the normal city buses we took during the next few days were a total nightmare: incredibly bad drivers who have never heard of economical driving accelerating like madmen and then having to brake hard for junctions or traffic jams and whenever someone wanted to get on the bus (every 10 metres) were only one thing. A city with over 7 million inhabitants but without any kind of metro system reads constant traffic jams to me.
I had met my CS hostess Lina several times in Sweden and it was nice and at the same time weird meeting her again in Colombia. After a quick visit to a local language exchange meeting and a CS football practise I was totally ready to hit the bed.
On Tuesday we visited the city centre, some posh Colombian coffee places, a gold museum and enjoyed Lina's yummy vegetarian food which was a nice change to my current rice and beans diet.
The next day went to blog writing, nearly getting into an amusement park that closed already at 5pm and strolling in the huge Simón Bolívar park.
On Thursday it was time be cultural again and we educated ourselves in a slightly boring science museum and had more fun in the CS thurdays meeting the same night.
My overall view of Bogotá is pretty lame. It seems like a city with little very Colombian character, filled with European and North American type of restaurants, shops and bars, the kind I can find in Stockholm too. Add the horrors of the local traffic to that and this city won't be on my list of places to visit if I ever find myself on this continent again. But who knows, maybe I just missed all the good bits...
My Friday started with witnessing a potentially dangerous situation as a lady was nearly ran over by a motorbike getting off the bus I took in the morning to get to the main bus terminal. Both the woman and the biker got up pretty quickly and seemed to continue their day unharmed but I'll be sure to always look to my right before getting off a bus from now on.
Lina told me that a bus from Bogotá to Medellin would cost me 70 000cop, which is more that a double of what the almost equally long journey from Armenia cost, and I had a hard time accepting even the official price, 48000cop all bus companies offered me in the main terminal a day before my journey. But when I got to the terminal five minutes before the bus would take of, the price was 40000 and the dude who sat next to me on the bus got his seat for 35000. From 70000 to 35000 is quite a difference. If you travel in these parts, never accept the first price you're offered even though everyone would claim that to be the only one available.
After 9 hours on the bus I arrived to Medellin and took a taxi to Diana's house. We had spend the Easter together in Guatemala and now it was time for me to crash her and her family's couch. The couch came with her parents, her one to two sisters and her sister's two kids – lots of life.
On Saturday we walked around the city admiring Bolero's arts, having lunch in another Krisna temple, who seem to offer the best vegetarian treats everywhere, and looking for a pair of trousers for me to replace the one's who had had enough of travelling.
On Sunday Diana took me for a lovely field trip to the village of Guatape two hours bus ride (11000cop, 5€) away.
Her friend Greg, who had moved there from the lake Atitlan in Guatemala, showed us around the lake and the picturesque streets and I felt at home. (Can't have anything to do with the lake surrounded by forest can it?).
After having enough strawberries dipped in chocolate, we headed home keeping Greg at his future hostel, Hostel Finca Verde Guatapé, in mind.
On Monday I thought I might go paragliding but the weather was against me so I walked more around city instead, bumping into this strange pipe jungle for example.
After a rainy Tuesday morning I got a call from Hector the paragliding organiser: his guys would pick me up from Diana's place in half an hour if I felt like flying today – YEEEEY!
I didn't feel nervous on the way up to top of the hill 1000 metres above the city, not when putting on the tandem gear nor running towards the cliff where I flight begun, and the glide was beautiful and peaceful, only my tandem Pablo doing pirouettes and my shouting “more, more, more!!!” disturbing the serenity around us.
But after a half an hour I happy to hit the ground even though the landing was a tiny bit muddy, with my head spinning slightly for the next couple of hours. 80000 cop (34€) well spend – bring three friends and the price will go down to 60000 cop!
Saying bye-bye to Diana and her family the same evening felt weird, especially carrying the gifts her mother had sent to my family (!), and even the 13 hour night bus to Cartagena wasn't that bad with the spare seat next to me so I could put me feet up to ensure a good night sleep, though I wasn't able to haggle down the outrageous price of 98000cop (42€).
I'm now in super hot Cartagena and need to go soak my sweaty ass in the sea to cool off, but I'll leave you with these two cosmetics brands that should not be exported to Finland:
('vittu'=pussy, 'sika'=pig, pork)
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