Big ups to Bogota

Colombia's capital city Bogota has its nice and not-so-nice areas, ranging from flash apartment blocks and malls to rundown alleyways crawling with homeless people and hookers. If nothing else, there's something for everyone here and its all relatively easy to find. The city, which has more than eight million inhabitants, is at an altitude of 2600 metres and set against a stunning backdrop of pine forested mountains.

One thing that didn't leave us alone was the rain. It's been a pretty recurrent theme since we arrived in Colombia a little over three weeks ago. We've had barely a day where it did not rain at some point. During our four-day sojourn in Bogota we have probably seen the sun twice for a one-hour period each time.

Apparently though we have avoided the worst of the inundations, as Colombia experienced terrible flooding in April and May, with thousands being made homeless, road and bridge collapses and serious transport delays. Getting around Colombia has not been too bad for us, but some bus trips took noticeably longer than they were supposed to. The trip from Rio Claro to Bogota took an agonizing 11 hours, a lot more than the advertised five hour journey.

The massive rainfall of late is to do with the La Nina weather pattern and has been drenching Colombia for most of the year. Its a good thing Colombians do not let a little thing like constant rain dampen their spirits. Even in the most solid downpours there were people out and about in Bogota, walking, cycling, riding motorbikes and enjoying the many green spaces the city boasts.

Some home cooking in the Cranky Croc kitchen!

From the minute we arrived - at 1am on Saturday morning after the horrendous bus trip - there was activity everywhere in the downtown streets and in the colonial district of La Candelaria, which is packed with bars and clubs and is where we stayed in a hostel run by a Bogota-based Australian. We really liked the atmosphere at the "Cranky Croc", and it was kind of nice to be in the majority in terms of nationalities, as not surprisingly, the place was crawling with Aussies! It was equipped with a BBQ, fireplace and the proprietors were very proud of their "Aussie-style doonas."

We were in Bogota on a long weekend - on the Monday it was a public holiday. Instead of the streets being absolutely dead (as happens on most Australian public holidays as everyone goes to their mates' place for a BBQ), they were throbbing with activity, as couples, families and teenagers came out to play.

The streets were crowded with vendors, selling chorizo sausages wrapped in thick tortillas known as arepas, waffles served with various types of spreads, jams and even chocolate freckles and the obligatory BBQ corn on the cob guys. Street performers kept the masses entertained - mime artists, storytellers and even an old lady singing Colombian folk songs!

This I did not expect...people walking llamas

One funny thing I have noticed all over Colombia is that pretty much every street stand, and even lone people stand around wearing big signs advertising phone calls. They rent out their mobile phones for an average of 10c a minute. Come to think of it I don't think I have seen many public phone booths but in most countries mobile phones are so cheap that even five year olds have them. So I'm not sure why using strangers phones is so popular here!

As is the same all over Colombia, everything is owned by a small, high-powered elite who obviously are very-well connected in political circles, and the rest of the population is pretty much left to fend for themselves. The rich seem to keep themselves quite separate from the rest, employing security guards with giant automatic weapons to guard their apartment blocks and driving around in big four wheel drives with the doors locked.

Lots of sandstone buildings...reminds me of Sydney

Far away from the neat and tidy apartment buildings, Bogota is ringed by shabby brick shoeboxes rising up the surrounding mountainsides in nearly every direction. The city is packed with homeless people, many of whom look like they are teenagers. I'm not sure if they live in some of these outer areas and come into the city to make money, or whether they actually live on the streets. Either way we were absolutely mobbed by them everytime we went walking around in the city. It is sad the way the government seems to look after certain parts of society, completely ignoring others.

Many of the people asking us for money were junkies, but unlike typical heroin addicts or drunks that you might see in other countries, these junkies were high on cocaine. Here, it is cheaper to buy than a bottle of rum, hence its popularity among street people. Unfortunately this meant that people asking us for money had a lot of energy, and were prepared to pursue us eagerly for it, which made it difficult to shake them off.

Enjoying delicious Ajiaco soup!

We saw one guy with a blanket around himself standing in the middle of a charred mess. At first we thought he was burning rubbish, but we quickly realised he was burning plastic cabling to access the copper wiring inside which presumably he could sell for quite an attractive price, given the spiralling value of copper recently.

Aside from walking around town (in the rain), visiting some nightclubs and a shopping mall, we did not do too much sightseeing in Bogota. But we did come across some great cheap eateries, including a place around the corner that sold delicious meat and chicken empanadas for just 50c each and a cafe where we tried Colombia's specialty, ajiaco, a delicious thick vegetable soup crowded with potatoes, corn and other goodies.

We are abandoning Bogota's crispy cool climate and embracing the sticky, sweaty jungle for the next installment in our adventure: THE AMAZON!