07 Oct – wake up, and kind of watch South Africa vs Fiji. But sleep through most of it. Woke up to see the scores at 20-20, and thought I should start watching properly – but failed. Woke up again to see the last minute or two. Preferred it when it was 20-20. Then, we went for a walk. Decide to check out this historical centre of Bogota. We walk the wrong way though – and figure this out after breakfast/lunch. So – walk back.
(Should really be difficult to get lost in Bogota. The addresses here are very very sensible. Each street is numbered. And the address is what street number you’re on, followed by the perpendicular street, then number. So – Calle 8 9-12 will be on Calle 8 (calles run east-west, carreras north-south), on the block with a corner onto Carrera 9, and building number 12 on that block. The numbering restarts every block. Very useful.)
Eventually find Plaza Bolivar – which is pretty sweet. Another plaza with huge cool old buildings on each side. Including a cathedral – of course. Then, we check out the gold museum. Displays of many pre-spanish-invasion gold pieces. Considering how much gold the spanish stole – the amount here is amazing. And the museum is being renovated – so is about a fifth of it’s intended size. And therefore displaying less than a fifth of the collection. But still, lots of gold. Pen wouldn’t agree to stealing any.
Then – we kept walking around. But, everything was closed. Sunday. Even the supermarket was closed. So, a little bit of internet use (when my world was shattered into little pieces by the result of a sports game), and then dinner. Dinner at the only place open in our neighbourhood, with cerveza. And back to the hostel, to drink the bottle of passionfruit cream liquor I’d bought yesterday. Not bad.
08 Oct – time to move hostels. We’ve decided to see what the rich part of town is like. So, we check out – and catch a bus to the northern part of the city. Walk a little while, and get to what is supposed to be the closest thing to a backpackers hostel in this part of town. It turns out to cost us three times our previous hostel. But – it’s fairly nice, and in a nice part of town, and breakfast is included. I splash out for Pen’s final two nights with me. Then – venture out. But it’s raining. And my jacket was stolen on the bus from Ecuador. Dumb. Stop for some food – but it’s still raining afterwards. So – splash out on a taxi. Taxi takes us to the World Trade Centre. We go in, and get Pen’s air tickets changed so that she doesn’t have to spend a night in the hated Miami. Then, we stroll. Find a wine shop, with some NZ wine. To be specific – Monkey Bay Chardonnay, and Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc. We bought a bottle of Sav. Then strolled some more. Couldn’t find the famous park which is supposed to be surrounded by nice restaurants and stuff. But, did find some tents of people selling trinkets. Got some new sunglasses to replace my thieved ones, and dithered over buying some beautiful white linen pants. Didn’t. Strolled more. Found the electronics district. So many electronics. Gadgets and toys and stuff. Splashed out. Replaced Pen’s stolen USB flash drive. And replaced my MP3 player. Chose who to buy it off based on the guy having Aerosmith videos preloaded on it for demo purposes. Pen loves Aerosmith. I ended up paying more than my cheapest quoted price for that reason. And the guy had a tiny stall – I always prefer giving my money to the little guy, rather than the big walk-in shop with multiple employees.
So – on a high from buying gadgets – we then found a supermarket. Splash out, and buy some cheese and grapes and what-not, to supplement our NZ Sav-Blanc. Yum. Then, pass a camera shop. I splash out and buy a camera for Pen to replace her stolen one. Northern Bogota is getting rather expensive at this point. Then – back to the hostel, and enjoy our consumable purchases. And laze about, tired from all the splashing out. Then, get hungry again. Find nearest restaurant. Is expensive, but I splash out. Really need to get rid of Pen, and leave Northern Bogota.
09 Oct – today we’re off to see the salt cathedral. We enjoy our free breakfast, then go catch a bus. All the way to the northern terminal, and then switch from the metro bus onto a minibus. And off we go. Get to the town of Zipaquira. Nice small town, with nice plaza and big cathedral. Of course. Have some lunch, then get a taxi to the salt cathedral. The salt cathedral is a big underground cathedral, made of salt. The miners mine salt from a mountain here. And they decided they were too lazy to walk into town to pray to jeebers. So they carved a cathedral out of the pre-mined passages. And it is bloody impressive. We went with an english-speaking guide, with two other people. The two others turned out to be kiwis also. Big caverns carved out of the mountain. Big. 16 metres high, by 16 metres wide, by 120 metres or something long. And the fellas carved big crucifixes and stuff for jeebers’s “passage” or something – at the end of each one. Up the top – so behind the crucifix is this huge cavern. Not bad. And then, the cathedral itself. Big cavern. Caverns. And big pillars. And statues. And stuff. All in all, a pretty cool place. But, we’d had enough – and returned topside. Then, a quick beer in a local bar – and to the bus station. And we manage to get on a bus as it’s leaving. Full of nuns. Awesome. Back to Bogota – for a little bit of trinket shopping at streetside stalls. Where I give in, splash out, and buy some beautiful white linen trousers. For more than the cheapest price I’d had quoted. Then, catch a metro bus back to our neighbourhood. In rush hour. Rather crowded. That whole thing about the japanese packing down scrums to cram people onto the subway? Very similar to that. But, we survived. And, passed a supermarket on the way back to our home. And splash out. Cheese, wine, gourmet sandwiches, pate, etc.
So, that was Bogota. Next week, Spidey says… “Pen gets on an airplane, and Kruse hopefully gets on a bus. Ben gets on a bus too, in completely the wrong direction.”