WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS HEIGHTS. AND CABLECARS.
Wherever I am in the world, I try and find the highest place in the city/town/area and visit it. You get a better layout of the city, can see for miles (sometimes), and enjoy some breeze and fresh air (usually).
On my second and last full day in Bogota, we decided to head up to Montserrate - a place of pilgrimage, great views and intestines. The touring party for the mini expedition was myself, Grace (Australian), Meite (German), Michelle & Craig (Australian) and Susan (Dalston).
To get up to the top of Montserrate you can either walk, take the cable car or the furnicular railway. Option C (furnicular) was ruled out as it only runs between 7.30-9am each morning and, following a late night in the Zona Rosa, we only emerged from our dorms at late morning.
Option A (walking) was ruled out after hearing several scare stories from Bogotians - particularly my bike tour guide Mike - about the muggings that happen en route to the top. He recounted one particularly pleasant tale of how some tourist friends of his once decided to hike up the hill in expensive new hiking boots. Halfway up they were accosted my machete-wielding kids who robbed them of their boots.
The story does have a ´happy´ end though, as the muggers - fuelled by a guilty conscience - decided to give the tourists some crappy old boots (robbed earlier in the day) so they didn´t have to walk down barefoot. How kind!
We received another warning from our hostel owner not to walk the 10 minutes to the cable car from our hostel, as that too passed through an area ripe for muggings. Instead we got a swift taxi ride to the base station.
Cable cars always remind me of the classic Jaws v James Bond scene in Moonraker:
But fortunately our 5 minute journey to the top passed without incident. Bogota itself is at high altitude, so predictably our ears were popping on the way up, and walking around at the summit made me feel like a 40-a-day smoker with a heart defect.
We stayed up there about an hour and got some good pics of the sprawling city below:
There were also some tatty tourist shops up there and the odd food stall selling, among other things, the aforementioned fried intestine. Yum:
After heading back, I had a quiet night in at the hostel. The following day I watched Everton´s worst performance in recent years on ESPN (Bolton 2-0 Embarrassment) before heading to the airport in more biblical storms. Are there ever days when it doesn´t rain in Bogota?
As the grey, rain-soaked weather had been such a feature of my short time in Colombia´s capital, I decided to take one final pic for posterity as I waited for my plane to leave:
Lovely.
If you´re reading this in England, I appreciate your sympathy will be in short supply (especially after seeing the sodden Reebok Stadium as I watched the Everton game and knowing the February weather back home), but I was kind of banking on South America being wall-to-wall sun!
Anyway, we touched down in Medellin half an hour later (where it was raining) and, avoiding the taxi drivers who wanted to charge me almost 20 pounds for a taxi, got a bus into Medellin. On the bus I met an American guy who has been here for a couple of months. We shared emails and he invited me out to an ´inter-combo´ event on Wednesday, where lots of nationalities meet up and say hello.
From the bus stand, a supposedly short taxi ride turned into a puzzle of Crystal Maze proportions as the taxi driver (can´t speak any English) and me (no hablo Español) struggled to locate the Black Sheep Hostel in the residencial neighbourhood of El Poblado. After several wrong turns and an interesting high-speed reversal down a one-way street, we eventually found it.
The reason I chose this particular hostel is because they do Spanish lessons here and the woman running them - Yadi - came highly recommended online. I´ve booked myself in for 3 hours a day (8-11am. Ouch.) Mon-Fri this week. My first lesson this morning went well, as did the homework afterwards. Muy bien.
This afternoon, seeking new heights, I took a cable car up to the highest peak in the south of the city (Medellin is in a valley) and got some decent views at the top:
There was also this great art installation:
Afterwards I got the metro to the centre of town and had a wander round through the markets, to the government buildings and across the main central square - where I spent some time watching some skateboarders doing their thing:
My first 24hrs in Medellin have been good and there seems to be lots to do here. It´s going to be a different week from the usual travelling experience: going to ´school´ each morning; early nights. A bit of discipline will probably do me good!
Here´s a few more pics. More on Flickr, as per usual:
Wherever I am in the world, I try and find the highest place in the city/town/area and visit it. You get a better layout of the city, can see for miles (sometimes), and enjoy some breeze and fresh air (usually).
On my second and last full day in Bogota, we decided to head up to Montserrate - a place of pilgrimage, great views and intestines. The touring party for the mini expedition was myself, Grace (Australian), Meite (German), Michelle & Craig (Australian) and Susan (Dalston).
To get up to the top of Montserrate you can either walk, take the cable car or the furnicular railway. Option C (furnicular) was ruled out as it only runs between 7.30-9am each morning and, following a late night in the Zona Rosa, we only emerged from our dorms at late morning.
Option A (walking) was ruled out after hearing several scare stories from Bogotians - particularly my bike tour guide Mike - about the muggings that happen en route to the top. He recounted one particularly pleasant tale of how some tourist friends of his once decided to hike up the hill in expensive new hiking boots. Halfway up they were accosted my machete-wielding kids who robbed them of their boots.
The story does have a ´happy´ end though, as the muggers - fuelled by a guilty conscience - decided to give the tourists some crappy old boots (robbed earlier in the day) so they didn´t have to walk down barefoot. How kind!
We received another warning from our hostel owner not to walk the 10 minutes to the cable car from our hostel, as that too passed through an area ripe for muggings. Instead we got a swift taxi ride to the base station.
Cable cars always remind me of the classic Jaws v James Bond scene in Moonraker:
But fortunately our 5 minute journey to the top passed without incident. Bogota itself is at high altitude, so predictably our ears were popping on the way up, and walking around at the summit made me feel like a 40-a-day smoker with a heart defect.
We stayed up there about an hour and got some good pics of the sprawling city below:
There were also some tatty tourist shops up there and the odd food stall selling, among other things, the aforementioned fried intestine. Yum:
After heading back, I had a quiet night in at the hostel. The following day I watched Everton´s worst performance in recent years on ESPN (Bolton 2-0 Embarrassment) before heading to the airport in more biblical storms. Are there ever days when it doesn´t rain in Bogota?
As the grey, rain-soaked weather had been such a feature of my short time in Colombia´s capital, I decided to take one final pic for posterity as I waited for my plane to leave:
Lovely.
If you´re reading this in England, I appreciate your sympathy will be in short supply (especially after seeing the sodden Reebok Stadium as I watched the Everton game and knowing the February weather back home), but I was kind of banking on South America being wall-to-wall sun!
Anyway, we touched down in Medellin half an hour later (where it was raining) and, avoiding the taxi drivers who wanted to charge me almost 20 pounds for a taxi, got a bus into Medellin. On the bus I met an American guy who has been here for a couple of months. We shared emails and he invited me out to an ´inter-combo´ event on Wednesday, where lots of nationalities meet up and say hello.
From the bus stand, a supposedly short taxi ride turned into a puzzle of Crystal Maze proportions as the taxi driver (can´t speak any English) and me (no hablo Español) struggled to locate the Black Sheep Hostel in the residencial neighbourhood of El Poblado. After several wrong turns and an interesting high-speed reversal down a one-way street, we eventually found it.
The reason I chose this particular hostel is because they do Spanish lessons here and the woman running them - Yadi - came highly recommended online. I´ve booked myself in for 3 hours a day (8-11am. Ouch.) Mon-Fri this week. My first lesson this morning went well, as did the homework afterwards. Muy bien.
This afternoon, seeking new heights, I took a cable car up to the highest peak in the south of the city (Medellin is in a valley) and got some decent views at the top:
There was also this great art installation:
Afterwards I got the metro to the centre of town and had a wander round through the markets, to the government buildings and across the main central square - where I spent some time watching some skateboarders doing their thing:
My first 24hrs in Medellin have been good and there seems to be lots to do here. It´s going to be a different week from the usual travelling experience: going to ´school´ each morning; early nights. A bit of discipline will probably do me good!
Here´s a few more pics. More on Flickr, as per usual:
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| Jesus at top of Montserrate |
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| Bride-to-be going up to get married on Montserrate |
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| Plane from Bogota to Medellin |
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| Cable car, Medellin |
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| Skater, Medellin |