Ok so i left quito about 2 weeks ago and went on another epic bus trip. If there was ever a part of this trip to skip, it would have been this leg. I priced out a flight and it was around 250usd, but only 3 hours long. Compare that to 80usd and 36 hours.
The bus was supposed to leave at 6am, so i arrived at 530. Knowing that it probably wouldnt leave on time. I didnt expect that the bus would never arrive, so me and another girl were taxied to the interstate, flagged down a random bus to the border and hopped on. 5 hours later i am at the border of colombia. I was told to find this guy named juan ????? so i asked around and finally found this guy. He taxied me in his car to the border formalities and then switched some cash, which i would discover later that some of the money would be fakes, after i got my stamp i got into a different taxi with a different guy, driven through the other border town to the bus terminal and waited there for 2 hours. Then i got onto the bus and we drove to cali, colombia, stopped and ate. The ride to cali was 8 hours, and then to bogota was another 12 hours.
Finally in Bogota. Bogota felt at the time the safest big city i had been, maybe with the exception of B.A. and santiago. But i was surprised how modern, clean, and western it was. There is a massive super posh nightife area called zona rosa which we went out one night. All the rich and beautiful go there, but it was relatively expensive for colombia. Then the next day i cruised around, went to the museum of gold, which was the best museum in south america!! And went out in centro bogota, which was incredible. 10 beers for around 5 dollars at a bar, then we hit up super cheap electronic clubs which were real fun.
Sunday i went to a small city outside bogota and met a nice girl on the bus that would show me around the city the next day, but sunday i went to the salt cathedral of ziraquipa. It is a massive cathedral built into a salt mine. It´s absolutely amazing. Can´t explain it. Look at my pictures in flickr to see a bit of it.
Bogota surpised me. I loved quito but bogota is more modern and more western, which makes it easier to live, but not necessarily nicer. I will always have a special place in my heart for quito but bogota is very very nice. Next to the coffee capital of the world. Who wants a cup?????
