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6 weeks Colombia

May - June 2015
A 45-day adventure by annalovestraveling Read more
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  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 1

    Vor dem Abflug

    May 14, 2015 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The trip has started, I'm sitting on Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, waiting for my plane to Bogotá. This is nothing special so far, just an interesting insight on how it works here at night. The people obviously don't like to answer any questions at 6am and they can't see any reason why to some foreign passengers it might not be so clear why they have to fill in their destination in Mexico when leaving this country. Also, I didn't feel that save when I saw how the security lady fell asleep twice while checking my luggage. Buen viaje :DRead more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 1

    Bogotá - first impressions

    May 14, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Big, loud and loads of traffic - that's what I already expected. Moreover, Bogotá seems rather Industrial and actually (I know, people warned me before), pretty cold. It feels a little like Germany in autumn. My hostel is on the city center, La Candelaria, which is the most historical and cultural part of the city. Taxis here are not as cheap as I expected - for a little less than half an hour I paid $27,000 COP (=10€).
    In thee plane I sat next to a girl from here, that told me about different sights, explained me how things work in Bogotá and helped me to get a cab. Getting close to my destination, I tried to get used to the order of the streets: there are carreras (north to south) and calles (east to west), and ALL OF THEM have numbers, as well as the houses. So for example my friend Daniel, where I arrived first to leave some of my luggage, lives in “Calle 127c #46-20“... Not confusing at all right :D.
    Later, Daniel went with me to the center, to help me find my hostel and show be around a little bit.    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 2

    Bogotá - graffiti tour

    May 15, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Yesterday a guy in the hostel told me about a tour he had done. It was all about graffiti in La Candelaria, but they also have you some tips about that part of the city, so me and some other people decided to go.
    I never imagined that there was such a lot of graffitis all over the town, it's literally everywhere! That's because in Bogotá many landowners allow the street artists to do there art on their walls, some even hire them, and even if artists get catched doing illegal graffiti, they only get a ticket worth the one for illegal parking. For those reasons, street artists from all over the world come to the city to paint.
    The tour was really good and we saw a lot of the city center. It could only have been better if it wouldn't have rained all the time :D
    For lunch we went to a “Mexican“ restaurant... But apart from the names of the dishes, the food had nothing to do with the Mexican one. In my Pico de Gallo wasn't even chili!
    In the afternoon we visited the Gold Museum and a gallery of Colombia's most famous artist Botero, which tends to paint a lot of really fat people and "espacios muertos" (dead spaces) - with or without melon.    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 2

    Fiesta Colombiana

    May 15, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Obviously we also had to try the Colombian party. We started in a club named Candelario, one of the most famous clubs in La Candelaria. The long queue seemed like hours of waiting, but a little talk to the doorman and we got in not only directly, but for free.
    After some time we also wanted to try or other spots, so we popped into some bars in the area. On our way, the Colombian stereotype was sadly proofed (at least for Bogotá): we were just walking by, when a guy offered us small bags with a white powder “bueno de Medellín". We stayed a while im a like Salsa Bar, then we danced some more in Candelario before going back to the hostel.    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 3

    Cerro de Montserrate

    May 16, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Montserrate is a hill in the heart of Bogotá and simultaneously one of its most important symbols. You can hike up there or take a sort of cable car to reach the 3152m peak with a church and an amazing view over the whole city.
    Afterwards I wanted to go to the Museum of Police History, but over walking about one hour and still not finding it, I concluded that it might not exist anymore. Therefore, I only went to Casa de Monedas and relaxed the rest of the afternoon in the hostel, to be fit for the party of s colleague of ruf which is doing his exchange in Bogotá.    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 4

    “This is Colombia“

    May 17, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Colombian parties are definitely more intense than the German ones. This one was in the house of Jonas, a guy I knew from my work with ruf, who studies half of his career in Bogotá. He is already really colombian: when I arrived (I was the first one, because people told me not to use the Transmilenio during or after rush hour), he offered me a rice-dinner and aguapanela.
    The party, thanks to many invited Germans, was pretty normal, until the arrival of Daniel (which I had invited) and his friend. They brought a bottle of Guaro (Aguardiente, the disgusting colombian national drink) and everytime I didn't want to take a shot I was told: “Anna, THIS IS COLOMBIA. Drink!“, while all Colombians that where around supported him. Like on every colombian party, people also danced a lot of salsa, bachata, reguetón and more.
    After some time, I and another girl got really tired and just wanted to go sleeping. I couldn't because it's not recommended to take a taxi to la Candelaria alone at night. My options were to sleep at Daniel's place or to take a cab with the girl and her boyfriend. Both didn't seem as if they wanted to leave, but since the girl insisted, I had more hopes on that side. The boyfriend (a French guy) went to a park to pee and didn't come back for almost one hour, so I helped the girl to look for him. She was already really desperate when all of a sudden Daniel arrived together with him, telling us that he found him buying food. Later, though, he told me that the French guy tried to buy drugs, the police stopped him and wanted to take him to jail.    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 4

    Zipaquirá

    May 17, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Around one hour northeast of Bogotá, lies the small, colonial village Zipaquirá, which is famous for its salt cathedral. I went today with Lindsay, a Canadian girl from the hostel.
    Still really tired from the party the night before and not used to the sunday timetable, it took us first of all a while to find a Transmilenio station which was serving.
    The town is really cute and actually we liked it better than the actual attraction, since all around the cathedral there is a huge tourist area, almost looking like a theme-park. Also inside the cathedral, which rather looks like a mine, there were a bunch of people, making it almost impossible to walk normally. Despite this, it is a really cool place to go.    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 5

    Extreme Sports Tobia

    May 18, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Another night with few sleep: I had to get up at 5.45 to be on time at the meeting point for my trip to Tobia. In this small village, about 2h north of Bogotá, there are lots of opportunities for ecotourism and extreme sports. I was going to do a whole weekend trip there, which was cancelled though because of the bad whether.
    We started with a typical Colombian breakfast: caldo, huevos pericos, arepas and plátano (stock, scrambled eggs, a kind of a corn bread and plantain). I shared my table with a group of four Colombian students, further there were only the guides and a couple which didn't really talk to anyone. The first part of the activities consisted in climbing down a steep and really slippery hill to reach one of the waterfalls of Río Negro (accompanied by two dogs). From there, we did a rapel (abseiling) 75m down the Wasserfall. Afterwards, we did some trekking, which was basically 1h walking up the steep hill, which was also pretty tiring because of the height and the hot sun. After a little break we were brought to another part of Río Negro, where we did rafting. It was really cool, but since it hadn't rained enough this month, the river was really low and therefore relatively calmed.
    Before heading back to Bogotá, we were served a traditional lunch: sopa de pasta, arroz con abejas, carne y papas (pasta soup, rice with peas, meat and potatoes).    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 6

    Neiva

    May 19, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    After a long day on the road I finally arrived in Neiva. In Monterrey I got to know Carlos, a really amazing guy from there, which, as soon as I told him that I was going to his town, invited me to stay with his family, even though he is still in Mexico. His uncle picked me up at the bus terminal and brought me to the house of his parents, where I immediately got a arepa rellena (stuffed arepa) and Juanvaleria typical dish of Neiva (plantain mixed with chicharrón), accompanied by gaseosa (a typical drink).
    After the meal, the whole family (mother, father, brother abd his girlfriend) went with me to terms in Rivera, a close-by village. The REALLY hot water comes from a volcano.
    The enormous Colombian hospitality is not only obvious from the fact that they care so much about me and take me everywhere, but even more because they love to do that! They are amazingly happy by showing me around and already invited me and also my parents to come back. This family is really amazing :)    Read more

  • annalovestraveling6 weeks Colombia
    Day 7

    Neiva II

    May 20, 2015 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    In the morning some friends of Carlos showed me the city. We started at the old train station, stopped at the horse monument, the monument of La Gaitana, had delicious desserts and visited Parque Santander in thee city center.
    Again I realized that people really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know someone who comes from that far away. Also I experienced once me the different education in Latin America: as soon as my glass of water was empty, Sebastián served me more immediately.
    For lunch we went back home.    Read more

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