South America Caribbean

Left home late September after suffering months of mediocre Irish weather and periodic severe episodes of itchy feet. Good to get moving again. Flew Belfast Alicante and spent few very pleasant relaxing days with good friend at his hacienda. Sorted the world problems and finessed finer points of trip over copious copas de vinos! Got high speed train to Madrid and boarded flight for Bogota. Long but uneventful flight with Aer Europa. Taxi to hotel which turned out to be pleasant refuge from fairly frenetic madcap city. First time in Bogota as on previous forays to South America in the distant past - was deemed much too dangerous for travel. Covered much of local city tourist sites using mix of Uber and shanks mare. Old town with abundance of Spanish inspired architecture - usual mix of Churches. Cathedrals. Government buildings and bunches of stones. All in all - an eclectic cornucopia of vibrant displays and local merchants designed mainly to part you from your hard earned tourist pesos. Highlights of tourist spots Plaza Bolivar. La Candaleria Old Town. Also took the furnicular up a mountain to view the dizzying sights of Bogots spread below me and also the ubiquitous church monastery which was a refuge in times gone by. Bogota also has its own version of Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue. Although I was staying in a reasonably safe part of the city I was initially reluctant or hesitant to move around freely especially after dark but soon relaxed more especially after observing loads of tourist police in main areas. Overall found people helpful and friendly although language barrier big problem. As Colombia only recently opened up to Western tourism - English is not commonly spoken and my "cupla focal" de Espanol didn't get me very far.Read more