In Bogota we were once again welcomed with open arms by friends - something which has been so lovely on this part of the trip, we didn't have nearly the same number of family or friends to bump into in Asia! We had met our new Colombian friends Sara and her fiancé Carlos, through my step-sister Paulina, when they come over to Guatemala for her wedding, and Sara's parents are also good friends of my dad and step mum, so we had a whole host of people looking after us…another adopted family! This time we also had the luxury of our very own apartment in Bogota, on loan from Sara's older brother who was away on business, so to say we landed on our feet was an understatement. Our lodging was in the north of the capital, near the Zona Rosa ('entertainment zone'), an affluent neighbourhood full of leafy boulevards, swanky shopping malls and well-heeled locals walking their dogs. It was a lovely area to be based, and the safety of the area took us very much by surprise - there were so many people out and about on the streets (very different to Guatemala City) and walking around at night was fine too.

Most of our time in Bogota was spent hanging out with Sara, Carlos and Sara's lovely family - visiting the countryside outside the city which we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise - as well as visiting some of the main attractions: one of the more extraordinary ones being the underground salt cathedral near the town of Zipaquirá. This is the one of three such cathedrals in the world (the other two being in Poland) and around 250,000 tons of salt were cleared away from the salt mine in which the cathedral is found, to carve it out, 180m below the ground. It was quite something going into the mine to see this 'cathedral', which consists of 14 small chapels representing the Stations of the Cross (Jesus' last journey) and culminates in the main nave which was huge, with a massive cross illuminated against the rock wall. The cathedral was completed in1954so that the salt miners could take part in worship, and the 75m long mine apparently still holds popular services on Sundays, where a few thousand people turn up. Very awe-inspiring!

We spent some time in downtown Bogota, which had a very different feel to our cushy surroundings in the north but was good to see nonetheless. We met up with Simon's friend Chris, who had recently moved to Bogota for work. As he was also new to Bogota he joined us as we toured the historic centre (La Candelaria) - once again on a free walking tour, unfortunately not nearly as good as the one we did in Medellin - passing through Plaza de Bolivar and other historical/political places of note, which were mostly imposing government buildings and 300 year-old churches and convents . We also paid a visit to the famous Gold Museum, which is home to 55,000 pieces of gold from the major pre-Hispanic cultures in Colombia…I've never seen so much gold in one place! Having done enough touristy stuff for one day, we spent the rest of the afternoon (and then the evening) in a small, very local bar in Macarena, opposite the city's former bullfighting ring, and near where Chris lives. The bar was actually a 'tienda' (shop) - its not unusual in this part of the world that shops double up as bars - and as we tried to walk confidently into this slightly dodgy-looking place as if we'd been there hundreds of times before, we noticed that the walls were plastered with old bullfighting posters. The wall wasn't the only thing that was plastered… the bar was full of students (not gangsters as we first thought) getting boisterously drunk, and we soon got stuck into the rowdy atmosphere with a few beers ourselves, as well as a bottle of the local tipple, aguardiente (tastes like sambuca). We left rather worse for wear, mainly because everyone around us kept sending over more beers for us to drink…as I've said Colombians are very friendly! We loved our time in Bogota, mainly because we were so well looked after by Sara and family and because its always such a treat to meet up with people we know. The only downside was the weather - mostly chilly, grey and rainy….we'd not had weather like that for such a long time, and it served as a good reminder as to how lucky we have been and what we have to look forward to (weather-wise anyway) when we come home!

From Bogota we headed to San Agustín in Colombia's south-west, stopping briefly at the Tatacoa Desert, a striking landscape with lots of cacti and rust-coloured cliffs and gullies eroded by the very infrequent rain. Despite the searing heat (we were really seeing all of Colombia's weather extremes) its not actually a desert, but technically a semi-arid, dry tropical forest. Due to the dry, clear conditions, lack of light pollution and location at the equator, its a great spot for star-gazing, where the skies above both the northern and southern hemisphere can be seen. We spent a couple of hours at the nearby observatory where the local astronomer, Javier, gave us a very interesting tour of the skies, with the help of two very powerful telescopes, and we managed to see both Jupiter and the moon so closely that we could see Jupiter's rings and the moon's craters…quite amazing.

Once in San Agustín, we installed ourselves in the beautiful Casa de François, a lovely guesthouse set up in the hills just above the town, amongst lush gardens and serving delicious food (including the best homemade bread ever). It was the sort of place that made it very easy to hang around there all day, especially as it rained non-stop when we first arrived, however when the rain stopped we did drag ourselves out to the archaeological park, to see the statues which San Agustín is famous for: the park is home to 130 ancient statues, most dating back 2000 years but some as old as 5000 years, believed to have been built by the primitive cultures of San Agustín, and carved out of volcanic rock which was spewed out by the now-extinct, nearby volcanoes. Local sculptors worked them into grand monuments, resulting in 500+ life-sized statues scattered in the hills surrounding San Agustín. Not much is known about the people behind the statues, they didn't have any written language and they disappeared many centuries before the Europeans arrived. The mystery surrounding these statues made them even more fascinating, and many of them were anthropomorphic figures, some realistic, others looking like the devil and masked monsters, and some depicting sacred animals such as eagles, jaguars and frogs. The statues were mostly used as funeral sites and tombs, to bury people in urns and in chambers under the ground. The next day we were luckier with the weather, and we went on a brilliant horse-riding trip to visit some more isolated statues in the surrounding hills, with a bunch of people from Casa de François. The countryside was beautiful, our guide was great, and the horses extremely sprightly - on any other horse riding trek in Latin America you normally get given some old, stubborn horse which just wants to stop and eat the whole time, whereas these horses could not have been more different - it was like they were all racing each other to the next destination, and we even got a few exhilarating gallops in, whether some of the riders wanted it or not! Seeing these statues in such a beautiful natural setting was a real highlight, particularly the divinities carved into the mountain face overlooking the stunning gorge of the Rio Magdalena.

Our penultimate stop in Colombia was Cali, the biggest city in the south-west, famed for its salsa clubs and its rich Afro-Colombian heritage. It doesn't have the same obvious attractions of Cartagena or Medellin, but the colonial quarter of San Antonio was a cute place to stay with some artsy shops and cafes, and it was here that we happily coincided with Luke and Emma, a couple of friends from back home, who were also travelling through South America. We had a great day and couple of nights with them, swapping travel highs and lows, catching up on news from home, comparing travel gadgets (absolute travel geekery) and laughing until our sides hurt. One night we braved one of Cali's salsa clubs which was full of Caleños dancing salsa energetically yet effortlessly, and fortified by rum we even attempted a dance ourselves. It is quite common for total strangers to dance together and a couple of men came over to ask Emma and me to dance, with varying degrees of success…I used to think I could dance a bit of salsa, but that belief was soon corrected! We had an absolute blast for the short time we were with Emma and Luke… even though we have met some great people on this trip, it makes such a difference hanging out with actual, proper friends, as opposed to the transient friendships you make en route, and it made us think that actually coming home, and being surround by good friends again, might not be so bad after all.