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February 25, 2005
Villa de Leyva, Colombia
After 9 days in Bogota, we finally tore ourselves out of there and headed north. my time in Bogota was really nice, it didn't take long to feel very comfortable there, in the same way that san cristobal did when i spent so much time there. Bogota had so much to offer in terms of culture, i could easily see myself returning there, either while traveling through or to live for a while. some of the highlights were-
meeting catalina and mario, a brother and sister pair who were really cool and who we ended up hanging out with quite a lot. they both looked like members of the white stripes and listened to a lot of massive attack and portishead, and catalina cooked excellent vegetarian food, very sophisticated.
this vegetarian restaurant that looked like a cafeteria, aaron and i must have ate there at least 4 times, the ladies bid us a fond fairwell after our lunch there the day before we left.
meeting other travelers in the hostel and playing chess, hanging out cooking meals and drinking beer, and talking about places we've been and places to go.
all the museums, the street vendors, the flea market, and the punk rockers that kept yelling 'smoking weed' to us as we walked past the parque de los periodistas. crazy kids.
those are just a few things i enjoyed, the rest is a big mix in my head. i ended up not buying a digital camera, the prices were about 100 dollars more then in the states for the once i wanted, plus you had to bargain for it, which was very annoying, because the vendors say that i was a foreigner and quickly jacked up the prices. that plus the hyper aggressive panhandling were about the only things i didn't enjoy, everything else was good times.
yesterday we came here to Villa de Leyva, a very old, very pretty town about 3 hours north of Bogota. on the way here, we stopped at the Catedral de Sal (salt cathedral). the Salt Cathedral is a strange, rotten egg smelling salt mine that was converted into a gigantic underground cathedral capable of holding 8,000 people. it was full of crosses carved out of salt, and had tons of corridors leading towards the 4 altars. the best altar had a salt reproduction of the famous painting in the vatican of god touching adam's hand. we spent the greater part of the time down there joking around, which included me climbing up and sitting on the back of a donkey who was looking on at the nativity scene, and sofie, and english girl who came along with us, snapping a digital picture, which i really hope she sends me.
today we walked around this pretty little town and then headed a few kilometers out of town to visit el fosil, which is the huge fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric crocodile. this one measured at least 7 meters long, and it was only an adolescent. then we headed up to a nice waterfall with a new israeli friend, and did some naked swimming. tonight i think we're gonna hang around, because tomorrow we head to one more town before catching an overnight bus for the coast. all day long i want to bleet out 'Beach!' just like the crazy homeless guy that daveo met on the bus in SF, because i'm so excited to get my dirty corpse in the caribbean.
be well.
Posted by bendan at February 25, 2005 03:46 PM
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