had a lot of fun in cartagena with the guys off the boat tis a very cool town. spent our time checking out the beautiful old town and testing out the local brews. mainly crap.
went to a local soccer match which was pretty cool. didnt have the fireworks and rockets that my colo colo match had, but they made up for it with their noisy car alarms and air horns. we were sitting right in the middle of the sirens and drums - place to be! unfortunately it was a 2-1 loss to our home team but still a lot of fun. some local reporter had a bit of chat and took some photos
http://www.eltiempo.com/participacion/blogs/default/un_articulo.php?id_blog=3147&id_recurso=500000311&random=601
after dinner that night we were strolling around and came across some random salsa party/hat contest which was awesome. me and jake took the lead dancing with the local gurus much to everyones amusement and it went on for many hours from there. and we got fairly floss-how cool! the gurus were pretty funny trying to teach us the moves and telling us off if we tried anything ostentacious like a little break dancing etc.
very fun arvo/evening.
caught the 22 hour bus (new personal record) down to bogota with neil and fran, a uk/german couple off the boat. we didnt get kidnapped as rumour had it we would. i was pleased with this as as interesting as it would be, i just dont have the time to go traipsing around the jungle for a few months sorry. also annoying that there is some very bright numbers displaying the buses current speed, and it never turns off. ever.
checked out the centro and the gold museum which were both nice, just thought they would be bigger. was chatting with this american bloke in the hotel at night and we mentioned in converstion that we wouldnt mind a pizza, this was obviously overheard by the staff as before we had even fully made our mind up there was a chef from the pizza joint just up the street standing there with menus waiting for our orders! we just had time to dart out and get some wine before he was back. so very good service and quality pizza.
next morning we caught the cablecar up the mountain for a look over bogota. big. then took a couple of buses out to zipaquira, a cool little town with a big salt mine out of which they have hollowed this huge cathedral. this was one of if not my highlight of colombia. the cathedral is about 200m underground and you walk down past the stations of the cross (everyone else seemed to have a guide, but the guy checking our tickets didnt seem sure what to do with us so he just let us walk about by ourselves). the cathedral is huge, something like 80m long and 20m high. a service in there would be awesome
bought some sambos off the fasting talking man in colombia then back to bogota where i jumped straight on my overnight bus to popoyan.
this was supposed to be an easy 15 hours but after a truck crash up in the hills it turned into another one of my 22 hour friends. and my ipod died. i have never seen a line of traffic that long, after lining up for 7 hours it was kilometres long - reckon it probably looked similar to that last scene of ´field of dreams´. was however nice to see the highlands in the morning after we finally got moving again. really beautiful.
and after at one point seeing the driver eating, messaging and changing the cd; all while overtaking on a blind corner, i am not going to listen to anyone who reckons men can only do one thing at once.
popoyan was a nice enough colonial city but not a lot to do, and it had nothing on cartagena. was however entertained by this korean bloke in my dorm and his stories of being robbed 4 times in his 8 month trip to date, a couple of them in places i have been...
i did feel sorry for him, but i couldnt help but laugh. dont know why that hasnt happened to me, guess i dont look inviting enough; or probably just luck actually.
early bus down to the border town of ipiales then out to this really cool church at las lajas built on a bridge. it was built to commemorate the appearance of the virgin on a cliff face about 45m above a river, so they built a big bridge then a church on the bridge right up against the cliff using the place where she appeared as the back wall/altar. there is also heaps of plaques around that people have left comemorating miracles that have taken place. pretty cool.
really liked colombia. beautiful places with beautiful people. never felt in danger or intimidated. definetly recommended
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