Bogota the final stretch.

After such a great trek we decided to lay low the next day and take the night bus out to Bogota. The first part of this journey was a shuttle at 8pm to the much larger town of Armenia, about an hour away. As a commuter bus, it stopped for pretty much anybody along the road, so it ended up taking quite a bit longer than expected. We arrived at the main bus terminal and caught the last bus out to Bogota, it left at 10:30pm and finally arrived at 5:30am.

We were hoping to catch a good sleep on this bus since we were still exhausted from the hike we did the day prior but most of the buses in Colombia, if they have Air Conditioning, will blast it on full. It was soo cold on that bus and there weren’t enough blankets to keep comfortable. Also, on top of that, the journey was a series of long, winding roads, which tossed us from one side of our seat to the other. It was a long and uncomfortable journey, but we made it!

Strung out and even more exhausted we ended up being at the bus stop earlier than expected, and had to wait to check into our new home. Luckily the guy we were staying with let us come pretty early, which was before he had to head to work. As soon as we arrived, we showered and had a perfect, four hour sleep.

Bogota is a great city. We decided to get up early the next morning and take the free graffiti walking tour. For around two hours we wandered the streets of the “La Candelaria” district, learning a little about its history through street art. So many amazing things happen in a city, and so much of it can be shared through art.

We ended up staying and re-walking the tour right after so we could get pictures of the art with out people in them or a group to keep up with. They also told us about the some of the great food there was to eat, and the local drink called Chicha. It’s is a fermented corn drink made from different colours of corn which make it these brightly coloured drinks. It was quite tart and very sweet - overall we didn’t really enjoy it. But it was super cheap, quite potent and only about $0.25 per cup. We each had one, then left on a wobbly journey back home.

The next couple days were spent checking out the local food including “Lechona,” which is a mixture of nuts, dried fruit, vegetables and rice mixed with the meat of an entire pig, which is then stuffed back into the skin of the pig and roasted for 24 - 48 hours. Another thing we had was an afternoon snack of chocolate and bread. This isn’t just an ordinary snack though. It includes a huge slab of fresh cheese, a large bun made of cheese dough and tastes a little bit salty, and a pint glass of hot chocolate. The food in Bogota is delicious!

The last day was spent repacking our bags in an orderly fashion because we were about fly back home to see our family and friends for a couple weeks before continuing on to Europe!