Bogotá

The beginning of our next leg, and our first long haul flight since we flew out to Auckland last year, just over a year ago. A very long day on Air Europa, some very long queues to get through customs, and an uber to our hotel, alongside successful delivery of a bag of burritos: we are all round very happy to be in South America.

A very chilled week in Bogotá and we intentionally tried not to do too much and caught up on other projects (and even some actual work for Elli!). Stayed in Chapinero which was an excellent non-touristy and pleasant part of town to stay in, and ate a lot more food - particularly a lot of vegetarian Mexican food, which Bogotá has in abundance - and did various bits of wandering around in between relaxing and planning. We got exhausted every time we walked up the hill, thanks to being at 2,600m, and we were amazed at how many people actually cycle around the city: particularly delightful to see Ciclovía on Sunday, where they close most of the main roads to traffic.

Elli got very excited about the oddly large amount of English arts and crafts architecture in Bogotá which became popular in the 1910s-1950s as new wealthy residents wanted something a bit different and decided the Bogotá climate was similar to England (they're not wrong, it is permanently 18 degrees and overcast). It is both weird and delightful to see timber framed cottages all over the city (obviously with fruit sellers and Latino music blasting out the front).

On Saturday Bogotáns party and if we've worked out one thing about Colombia so far it's that they are better at partying than anywhere else we've been this year (maybe Bangkok could give them a run for their money), proved by a night at Theatron, which is apparently the biggest bar in Latin America and was an absolutely amazing night out with a lot of friendly Colombians as our guides.

So far we have been coping on our new but still rusty Spanish skills and Elli has managed to convince several people that she can understand more than she can, but there's nothing like a three month immersion to test that one put properly.

Anyway we think we might have to come back since we still haven't seen half the city but we'll see which way the wind blows! Czytaj więcej