busy Bogota and tranquilo San Gil

So I ended up crashing at Charley´s (Elena and Chris´s friend) place in Bogota and I enjoyed four relaxing and hectic days in Bogota. It was relaxing as I basically had the whole apartment to myself and I could sleep as long as I wanted and it was hectic as soon as I stepped out of the apartment and into the busy life of Bogota. There lives around 9 million people in Bogota and everybody seem to go to work at the same time so the traffic is insane and if you get stuck in it, it will take you hours to go from one side of the city to the other. One good thing though is the TransMileno bus system they have which will sweep you downtown in 20 minutes or so. It is basically a bus working as a metro as it has its own lane on the road. Very efficient but very crowded. I had the same love hate relationship to it as I have for the tube in London.

In Bogota I met up with another Finnish girl that was doing her internship in the city for 4 months. She found me on CouchSurfing and asked me on a coffee date. It was very nice to meet a fellow citizen (there are not that any Finns out there traveling..dont ask me why...) and she showed me around the rich part of Bogota and I was truly impressed. Prices in this part of time is the same as in Finland... which is very odd to me.. and how can they afford anything?? There is such a big difference between the rich and the poor in Colombia that it is almost scary. However, there is the presidential election in two weeks and I hope this gap will get smaller with the new president, which I hope will be Mockus! Anyways, Bogota was interesting but not my kind of place.... now you see San Gil on the other hand is my kind of place.

A 6h bus ride north of Bogota up and down and around the mountains there is a small town called San Gil. It is the xtrem sports town of Colombia. Here you can go white water rafting, paragliding, rappelling down a 180m waterfall, swim in natural pools and much more. So I like!

After couchsurfing for 2 weeks or so it was about time for a hostel again and right now I am staying in one of the nicest and friendliest hostels I have been in throughout my trip. It is called Sam´s VIP hostel http://samsviphostel.minihostels.com and it has the most perfext location right at the central plaza (park). Sam decided to make his beautiful house a hostel and I love it!

Here I also met Chris and Mandi, a couple I met earlier in Leon Nicaragua 3 months ago! So random and fun to see people you have met before. I have had a blast in this place and enjoyed the nature and the small town feeling. The other day we went to the very beautiful 180m waterfall swimming and splashing in the water in the middle of the jungle. It was a true Indiana Jones feeling! Loved it!

Saturday night also included a lot of rom drinking in the hostel, in the park, and the club. We had a crazy fun time and ended up in the local hot spot dancing salsa, merengue, and other fun Colombian dances with the locals. I havent had so much fun in a looong time. Ah looooooved it!

Then yesterday we went to the telenovela (soap opera) city of Colombia, Barichara. This was the most pitoresque, tranquilo town I have been in so far and so beautiful. A perfect day trip for a hangover Sunday. To me this town gave me a true Zorro feeling. I could imagen Zorro and his horse running down the streets fighting bad guys and rescuing pretty Caterine Zeta Jones from the flower-covered bacloneys. Ah so romantic! :)

Now, we are off to explore the local natural pools that is suppose to be somewhere in the forest. As it is very hot here during the day it will be so nice to cool off with a swim.

Hasta luego!