Bogota to Salento

Buenas Tardes,

Finally, it´s time for an actual post from South America and my first blog post ever! It is a little after 5pm in the little town of Salento, Colombia. I arrived here yesterday after a 10 hour bus ride from Bogota to Armenia and then another hour on a small bus from Armenia to Salento. It was not part of our initial plan to come to this pueblo but it was highly recommended by the owner of the Playpus hostel in Bogota and so we took the extra little step to make it here and it is pefect! Just a few thousand people live here and it is nestled between beautiful green mountains that all appear to have been terraced and farmed either currently or at some previous time. There is a central plaza with a little white church and colorful cafes and craft shops surrounding it. Leading to the east of Salento is the Canyon de Cocla which we will visit tomorrow for some hiking and hopefully to see some waxy palm trees, which are almost extinct, and thousands of hummingbirds. Last night, when we arrived in Salento, it was raining hard and the Plantation House hostal where we wanted to sleep was full so we ended up at Hotel Las Palmas, the second cheapest place in town in a dormitory with a German guy named Fabi and a fat orange cat named Mono. Today we transferred our stuff over to a pretty little double room in the Plantation House, a hostal on the edge of town with a huge garden full of banana plants, shady trees, and a perfectly placed hammock which I occupied for several hours today in the sun.

Before Salento, we stayed in a hostal in Bogota for 2 nights and had a full 2 days to wander the city and see some pretty impressive sights. On the first day, in an effort to keep myself awake after a night of flying, I suggested a self guided walking tour of the Candelaria district, a bohemian area of town crowded with college students who attend Los Andes University. Brad and I set out in the streets, which are lined with multicolored small shops and restaurants and we eventually found ourselves at the Plaza Bolivar, the main government center of the country, where the congress, courts, the president´s house, the city government and the main cathetral are located. It had been sprinkling all day but by the time we were farthest from the hostal, it was pouring and our raincoats could only keep out so much rain so we sloshed back through the rivers in the streets and took refuge in the hostal with other travelers to drink coffee and play cards.
On the second day, in the afternoon, we rode the Teleferico to the top of cerro (hill) Monserrate that rises almost directly behind our hostal. It was interesting to get a full view of sprawling Bogota and to gain some perspective about how small an area of the city we had seen and to understand where all 8 million people in the city must reside. There was a church at the top of the hill but the best part (besides the view) was a cross made out of moss growing on a wall of trickling water. I felt pretty safe in Bogota, considering all of the safety concerns that I have read and heard about but big cities are always a bit hectic and crowded and it takes a lot of energy and effort to figure out how to get places and what to do. Also, Bogota was quite rainy and very cold. I even convinced Brad to let me sleep in his down sleeping bag to keep extra warm! Even after only 2 days I was looking forward to being in a small town with access to hiking and the chance relax in a hammock.
So now it is time to grab some dinner and maybe a couple of beers (which cost about $1.00 or less in cans from the grocery store) and maybe sit in the square to watch the parade of Colombian tourists who are sure to arrive due to it being a weekend.
After we are done in Salento, I think the plan is to head a little farther south to Cali but beyond that, there is no plan!

Chao,
Anika