Pootling Prices

And I was made to climb them all due to Richard's hatred of queueing for anything. It was a sunny Sunday and we had decided to join what felt like the entire population of Bogota to ascend to the top of Monserrate where there is a church with a shrine and some spectacular views of the city. Many of the Bogotans were climbing for the former, a few in bare feet as a pilgrimage. We were there for the view which I felt could adequately be reached either by the funicular or teleferico (cable car). However a 3hr queue for one and 1.5hr queue for the other had the Grand Old Duke of Lalbenque marching me up to the top of that hill, with reassurances about how good it was for my altitude training. It was quite incredible how many children and old people were doing the same, but then their haemoglobin is better suited than mine. The views were, however, definitely worth it. View from "neither up nor down"  "Looks like he walked up too", thus spake the vicar's son My r...

  Another bus ride but this time during the day which gave us the opportunity to see more of the Colombian roadworks. A 6 hour journey turned out to be 8 hours, much like public transport in the UK but with people selling snacks at every hold up. You've got to admire their entrepreneurship. Our destination was Salento, a charming Andean hill town in the coffee triangle of Colombia and apparently inspiration for the backdrop of Disney's Encanto. No, me neither. Apparently it's loosely based on Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude (which I finished by the way), without the incest. We were here for a few days so had booked somewhere with a private bathroom (reet posh us) and the most incredible views which we didn't even have to get out of bed to see. We did however, get out of bed to explore. After a Spanish lesson over post breakfast coffee with our gorgeous host, Liliana (we are still rubbish) we ventured into town to find a Willy. I am totally resisting the obvious temp...

 Medellin.....that's all guns, cartels and violence right? 20 years ago it did have the dubious honour of being the "Murder Capital of the World". Home of the infamous Pablo Escobar, made even more infamous in recent years thanks to Narcos on Netflix. Why go there on holiday? Well actually now it's a pretty cool place and is working hard to leave its grisly past behind. It definitely deserves being included in any Colombian itinerary and for all I was slightly concerned about going there it actually felt a welcoming and safe place, as safe as any large city anyway. There are no go areas of course and pickpockets are  apparently rife but the same can be said of Barcelona. We arrived after our first overnight bus journey which was actually surprisingly comfortable and I slept well. I've been on buses with madder driving (Kenya, Sri Lanka) but it definitely wasn't your National Express level of safety. I was quite glad of the dark so as not to be able to see the ...