Bogota, Columbia

We have been making time after enjoying Columbia a little too much. Considering we intended to avoid the country, we spent over a month there. This culminated in a week long stay in the capital, Bogotá, at a smashing hostel, dubbed almost accurately, as the best in Latin America. Of course it was something of a gringo social/party haunt. On one heady night, with a pack of foreigners, we descended on the Cha Cha Club on the top floor of the Hilton Hotel (and it’s views of the whole city), fuelled with bellyfuls of Cubre Libre rum cocktails. Not surprisingly we danced to the funky house music until the wee hours and beyond (I heard some people were dancing on tables).
We made a fine exit from Columbia over the breathtaking landscape of the Andes, punctuated with the ubiquitous bus searches and a good frisking for the boys by soldiers clutching machine-guns (something of a shock at first, but you get used to it. The locals are among the friendliest we have come across in Latin America – certainly no reason not to go. We did not see a single fire bombing, murder, guerrilla attack or hijacking that all the books propound with their fearful propaganda, touch wood, although one passenger saw fit to show Louise his gun. He had a licence of course. I suppose that kind of machismo is acceptable in the US, but it was just a little bit weird and slightly unnerving.)