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 reward was a plate of protein known as Bandejas Paisa. Mince, beans, rice, sausage, black pudding, a huge chunk of pork crackling, fried egg, fried banana and a token piece of avocado (which I'm allergic to).
We had arrived in Bogota the day before on another night bus. Extremely comfortable seats which reclined to 160° made for a decent night's sleep followed by, the now routine, red eye bus station coffee and eggs breakfast. A second breakfast was needed, in a rather lovely cafe in the historic district of Candelaria, the area we were staying, while waiting for our room to be ready.
We booked on to another free walking tour, always such a good introduction as we get our bearings and also learn some of the political, historical and social stuff. In this case, like the siege of the Palace of Justice in 1985 by the guerilla group M-19. This was broken by the armed forces but they were unable to tell who were guerillas and who were innocent so they were all taken away for "questioning". Ninety eight people were killed, including guerillas, hostages and soldiers.
More encouraging was to hear about the recent peace deal with FARQ, one of the biggest guerilla groups, in 2016. This appears to have changed things dramatically for Colombia. There are still smaller guerilla groups operating in the far flung parts of the country and there is, of course, still a thriving cocaine industry. Despite that, at no point during our 16 days here have we felt unsafe.
We had a try of chicha, a fermented maize drink "enjoyed" since Incan times. Tasted like a smoothie with vinegar to me, refused all further offers.
I feel as if Bogota takes more work to love, than the instantly charming Salento, the vivacious Cartagena and the inspiring Medellin. We were only there for 36 hours, far too short a time to form any considered opinion really.
I would urge anyone to visit Colombia, we have very much fallen in love with it. Mr Count Your Countries is now on his 59th and says that Colombia has gone straight in at number one. It is very endearing travelling with an enthusiastic puppy. Seriously though, there is something for everyone here and the people are so warm and welcoming. What's more they need tourists, as they kept telling us.
There is a proviso, if you are very scared of dogs think twice. They are everywhere and all very harmless. They varied depending on their home. On the Islas del Rosario, super chilled. In Salento they looked particularly well fed, there was one that toured all the restaurants nightly wearing a neckerchief and with a constantly hopeful look in his eye. We were told they make a beeline for the blonde blue eyed gringos.
One more thing, never accept any white stuff. Particularly when it is about to be shaken all over your cone of fresh fruit....it's salt.
"It's ludicrous that this place exists and everybody doesn't want to live here."
Anthony Bourdain - celebrity chef, author and travel documentarian
So onward to Bolivia.
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