Bye bye Bogotá

Veröffentlicht: 10.12.2019

Someone in Argentina tried to rob money from my Visa card by buying stuff on the internet (like in Ghana). So I blocked the card again and my mum sent me the new one to Bogota, which is the reason why I had to stay in the capital, even tho I didn't like it at all. But at least I had an excuse to waste dozens of hours in a cyber cafe playing computer games. Yes, I'm really sick of big cities.

Using the time, I wrote an event in couch surfing if someone wants to join me on my travels through Colombia. One dude from the United States was interested but became really sick, he might catch up later. A Polish girl will join tomorrow and we are going to hike through the national park. Depending on how we deal with the altitude, we are going to do some multiple day hikes with tents or just do day trips.

Apart of playing computer I did two things: Hiking up to Monserrat, which is a mountain, directly boarding the city.

The hike was more exhausting then I thought, the city is on 2400m and I'm kinda out of training. Luckily I was well prepared with snacks and water.

Apart of the church there were also these figures.

Without big religious background, I'd guess this is Maria and Joseph together with some mushrooms

And the second thing I did was a trip by car with my to couch surfing hosts. They were super welcoming and friendly, worked Monday to Saturday from 8 to 21 but we spent the Sunday together. It would have been a super awesome trip but it started to rain heavily once we arrived.

The view over the lake, right before the rain started.

So we cancelled the trip, my hosts decided to continue working at home and I went to the Cyber cafe. Yes I did play A LOT. Without any regrets actually.

This was our traditional breakfast, called "Tamale". It's corn pockets filled with beans and chicken, cooked in Palm tree leaves. It's eaten together with bread and cheese. The mate and fresh fruits are out additions and not related to the traditional food

Found this sign downtown, apparently you just have to follow the highway number "4" to get to Berlin

This is me in the Cyber cafe, my hair is still just silver, the pink color comes from the red LEDs there

The busses are SUPER crowded. In the morning I had to push myself in, while the doors scratched my back. Sometimes the doors needed 2-3 attempts and the people just chilled, they are totally used to that already.

Yesterday I finally made my way out of the town, together with the credit card that arrived. As usual I went to the terminal without checking any connections, the duration of the trip or the prices and just took the next bus to my destination "Salento". It was less then 300km so I thought a bus that leaves at 13:00 would get me there easily before the night.

Well I have never been so wrong. I had to change the busses in the bigger city "Pereira" but I arrived there at 0:30. Yes, the bus needed more then 11 hours for 300km. Don't ask me why. Obviously there was no public transport to the small mountain city Salento past midnight, so this was my bed.

At 5 in the morning the first bus took off, I took that one and arrived at 5:30 at my hostel (I've had no luck at all with couch surfing). Their reception had opened 24/7 but told me to sleep on the couch in the living room to not wake the whole dorm up. After my previous "bed" I was totally fine with a couch which was shorter then me.

Salento I kinda touristy but still has maintained it's original, beautiful flair.