It was a very early start, it was still dark when the alarm went off. We needed to get to Armenia, an hour away on the bus, to catch a bus to Bogota. As the light of dawn came over the village so too did the church songs. Whether it is a special weekend for religious prayer, this was the second day in a row when music started blaring from the church at 6am. To be fair, it wasn't too bad - it was more soft, gentle kind of music you could sleep through if you wanted.

We walked up the street to the music and were just in time for 6.20am bus to Armenia via the small village of Caucacia. Armenia seemed relatively modern with some nice houses and a big army base. The bus route didn't seem so direct and we pretty much saw whole town from the bus. Despite still being early on a Sunday, people were out cycling and jogging - this is the first place in Colombia we have seen people indulging in sport other than football.

To our surprise, we managed to get on the earlier, 7.30am bus with Bolivariano. There was nice comfy seats and even free wifi on board. The road out of Armenia took us further up into the mountains on narrow, windy roads. All was going well, watching a bit of the scenery go by, reading and watching a movie until the kid in front of us was sick. It stunk so bad that the lady across the aisle from us threw up. Fortunately the bus was quite empty and we managed to get a couple of seats right at the back of the bus - the worst place to sit, next to the toilet but still better than our designated seats. Maria might have been joining the others in filling a sick bag otherwise.

We got to the outskirts of Bogotá in really good time but going through the city was a nightmare. I guess the city is big with a population of over 8 million. It took an hour to get to the Transport Centre and then we had to wait another 30 minutes in the taxi queue. It wasn't for the lack of cabs, it was just the number of people wanting one and having to log your journey with an operator.

The taxi ride was maybe only 10 minutes and thankfully he knew where he was going. Bogatá's streets are very clearly marked with the 'Calles' running east-west(ish) and the 'Carreras' running north-south(ish) so it's very easy to follow on a map too. We saw our hotel from a block away, a nicely painted building sitting proudly on a corner. It was only as the taxi slowed down that we took in the surroundings - all the shutters were down on the shops and they were covered in graffiti tags. Drunks or junkies were lying on the pavements just metres from our hotel - had we chosen a bad hotel, it was very cheap compared to others in Bogotá.

Once inside the hotel, there was a double bolt on the door, it was actually very nice. Our room was on the small side and overlooked the street outside and what might have been a scrapyard or maybe just an empty block opposite. It seems that the drunks and junkies use this area for sleeping and ******** - yep, one of the guys just dropped his pants and shat on the pavement.

We went for a walk to try and find someting to eat. Carrera 7, the main pedestrian street, was just one block away. We noticed very quickly that it's a lot colder here, even with a hoodie on, you could still feel a bit of a chill. The street was packed and there were lots of vendors selling their wares off the pavement. It's quite a different feel here to other parts of Colombia but that is maybe a combinaton of such a big city and where we were actually walking. It would probably compare closest to downtown Medellín where you weren't supposed to walk after dark. We had walked the opposite way from the La Candelaria district, supposedly the safer area with bars and restaurants, so opted just for a Subway sandwich and a couple of of beers and bottle of wine from the supermarket.

We had cable TV in our room, so we settled down with the wine and Warner Brothers - we're getting right into Big Bang Theory & Two and Half Men.