Lee n Tan

Tuesday March 2, 2010 – we dragged ourselves out of bed and had an awesome breakfast at the hostel for 6,000ea, scambled eggs with sausage, bread, butter & jam, fresh juice & a bowl of fresh fruit, fantastic value! Today is all about museums, before we hit the first one however we found our Colombian fridge magnet, a Sombrero Vueltiao reminding us of Carnival & Colombia.

Our first stop was the Gold Museum, quite amazing. One part even had a vault door for the entrance, we have never seen so much gold in one place, it ranged from gold dust to amazing statues/vessels made of gold. Well worth a peek.

The Botero Museum was next on the list but that was closed, goes on the list for tomorrow. We then tried to find a little chocolate shop that has been around since 1816, we found 3 or 4 shops but none that we could see had the name, we will have to come back. When we walked around the corner we stumbled across Plaza Bolivar and Capitol Nacional, it was covered in Ants

National Police Museum was next, David was our English speaking guide he is currently doing his 1 year compulsory service, he is only 18. The place was quite informative & horrific at the same time. We saw photos of Pablo Escobar and his gang dead in the morgue or laying in the street, there was a time lapse photo of an actual person getting there head cut off, along with chastity belts ??? There was a Fender Guitar fused with a Rifle, only 5 made in the world and these guys had one, a room with over 2000 weapons (mostly firearms) in cases. One of the guns was one of only 2 known to have been made in the world another was like it was out of James Bond, a Pen Gun confiscated in Medellin in the 90’s Pablo Escobars desk that he had made with 7 hidden compartments, once he received it he killed the carpenter and every one of his living relations……one very ruthless man!! They even had the mans Harley Davidson in a cabinet!!!!

It was quite an interesting visit. After, we found the chocolate shop but it didn’t seem to have as nice a things as some of the others so we went into one of them and bought some treats. It was 4pm and we hadn’t had lunch so we went to a Kebab place we had seen yesterday, it was pretty good.

Returned to the hostel, spoke with mum on skype and caught up on some posts. Dinner was at Pita Wok were we ate lastnight, I wasn’t that hungry so I just had pita with homemade hommus.……yum!

It’s getting colder & colder in this city, today had a max of 19 and tonight is going to be 9 – bring out the winter woolies!!

Monday March 1, 2010 – woke about 9 but Lee didn’t rise till 10. Had our complimentary breakfast at El Club up the road, scambled eggs with tomato & onion some fresh bread and juice.

We don’t have to check out till 3 so we went up to Hostal Fatima to see if we could get a room for tonight ( we already have a booking for the following 2 nights). We were in luck they have 1 room left and we can stay in the same room for the 3 nights (private, no bath 50,000), finally something is going our way in this town.

Our room at the hotel has TV so we spent right up until check-out flicking channels, found out about the big earthquake in Chile.

We checked in to the hostel and had an awesome lunch ‘bandeja paisa’ a traditional dish consisting of ground beef, sausage, red beans, rice, plantain, egg, salt pork & avocado. That all cost 7,000ea plus we got soup, fresh juice & water….…bloody good value!!

I spent the arvo on the net, Lee read his book then we went for dinner and now we have swapped places.

Sunday February 28, 2010 – checked out of Hostel Sue we were so right about the room, when we got home this morning there was this guy & girl having a DNM right by our window. Lee banged on the window to shit them up but it only lasted a couple of minutes. It was actually pretty funny listening to the guy rave on to this chic, luckily we had had enough to drink to drift off. We went over to The Cranky Croc to check-in, well the guy behind the desk stuffed up he has put us in a dorm instead of the private room we booked!! Bit pissed off but there is nothing we can do. Went for a walk and could only find a room at a hotel called San Sebastian way too expensive but there wasn’t much else.

We had brekkie with Brian & Jess then jumped in a cab to ‘Portal Norte’ from there we jumped on a bus to Zipaquira (we did the wrong thing and went inside the bus way, you have to pay just to get in & out so try to avoid it).

We arrived out there a bit after 1 and caught a cab up the hill for 4,000. The place was really organised and well laid out. We bought a ticket to get us into the Cathedral, 3D movie and a tour of the mine.

Catedral de Sal (in Spanish) was quite amazing. It was born from an old salt mine, dug straight into a mountain outside the town. The mines date back to the Muisca period and have been intensively exploited, but they still contain vast reserves that will last another 500 years.

The surprising thing was it wasn’t just a cathedral there were other rooms and chapels and the lighting was fantastic. There was not an English tour starting so instead of waiting we just went down into the mine/tunnel ourselves. After viewing a few of the sculptured crosses we ran into a English guided group which was excellent, we learnt loads more. Like the fact that each ? is dropping 3mm a year so in 150 years the area we were standing in would all be joined up again and they could start mining again.

The 3D movie was a bit of fun but informative at the same time. The mine tour got a little boring, our guide was trying his hardest. He would talk to everyone in Spanish and then tell them to walk on and try to translate parts of what he had just said but sometimes he just couldn’t find the words. We were holding up the group when a kind Colombian living in the States offered to translate for us so the whole tour could get moving.

We were underground nearly 4hrs so when we came out we were starving. We decided to checkout one of the restaurants we had seen on the way up in the taxi, they had a large open fireplace burning out the front with extra large skewers of meat roasting, the meat was amazing. We had a bit of a walk around the town the. Hopped on the collectivo (small local bus) to take us back to Bogota.

It was about 7pm when we got back, Brian & Jess had to fly as their plane was leaving at 9.30pm to Cartagena. Lee & I went back to the hotel & watched TV.

Saturday February 27, 2010 – Arrived at around 7.30am after a pretty good 9hr trip. Early in the morning Lee got up to get some stuff out of his bag, while he was doing it we went around a corner and he fell on top of 2 Colombian girls that were sound a sleep. They weren’t hurt at all but the corner was a big one so Lee was stuck for longer than he should have been……it was quite funny.

I had found a place to stay called Hostel Sue #3 so we gave the address to the cabbie but he couldn’t find it. We did get dropped off at one of them (couldn’t tell you which one) then found out that #3 no longer exists……so that’s why we couldn’t find it!!

We sat around till 12 to see if a room became available (well I sat, Lee slept), no luck but they did have one in the other ‘Sue’. We checked it out but it was right on the TV room and would be pretty noisy. So we walked the town trying to find beds, we couldn’t find anything for tonight, but we did book 2 nights each at Cranky Croc & Fatima in private rooms so at least we had a bed for the following 4 nights……this place is really busy probably the busiest in 12 months!!!!

We returned back to ‘Sue’ hoping they had not sold the bed luckily for us it was still free. We dropped our bags & went down to Mora Mora for something to eat, then went back to the room and slept for about 4hrs.

Dinner was probably the cheapest meal we have had, we shared a large meat plate at a tiny restaurant. It consisted of grilled beef & chicken, yummy boiled new potatoes, chips & marrow – all that plus drinks for nearly 11,000 (about $6). While we were there we met Brian (NZ) & Jess (Aus) they were sitting at the table next to us. They had been living in the UK for the past 4 years and are on their way home to Aus to find a job and somewhere to live.

Awesome couple we chatted heaps then went for a few cocktails at a tiny little bar/cafe we had found when we were looking for somewhere to eat. After 3 cocktails each, they were 2 for 1, we went to another bar ‘Lymbo Rock Bar’ and had a couple more drinks. It must of been 80’s hour or something because they were playing Metallica, Midnight Oil, ACDC etc it was a great place playing some good music. By the time we decided to leave it was after 2am……time flies when you are having fun.

During our chats we decided to all go to the Salt Cathedral tomorrow, they are staying at Cranky Croc so it will work in perfectly as we are checking in there tomorrow. We will meet for brekkie around 10.

Friday February 26, 2010 – our bus to Bogota doesn’t leave till 10pm so we have a normal day ahead. The 3 of us had Breakfast at our pastry joint just down the road, such awesome pastries. We spent most of the day just hangin out in the hostel, playin pool, surfin the net etc.

We all had Lunch at a place called ‘Salud Gourmet’ I had been wanting to eat there all week but everytime we thought about it it was closed, but not today. I had an awesome chicken wrap, the taste took me back to the chicken sandwiches we used to get at a little Cafe just up the lane from Heaven to Seven (mum’s childrens boutique in Launie, Tasmania)……really yummy. Lee was over indulgent and had a Brownie Smoothie with his wrap, I don’t think I have ever tasted something so good!!

After lunch we did more of the same and then went back to our faithful Kebab joint ‘(T)urban Kebab’ with Clare, for a last supper! We jumped straight into the fastest cab in the world when we got back to the hostel, talk about flying in a rollerskate!! We rushed to the ticket counter for Brasilia and bought our ticket (35,000) trying to ask for somewhere nowhere near the toilet in our nonexistent Spanish!!! Luckily the bus wasn’t that full at this stage and we got seats near the front. The bus ended up leaving about 20mins late so it will be interesting to see what time we get to Bogota, its supposed to be a 9hr trip.