After being robbed I spent a week in Bogota, trying to figure everything out. Money we fixed through western union and was fairly easy. The holdup was that to get my money I needed my passport, and I needed to pay to get my passport. I was trapped in a classic catch-22, but with the help of the norwegian consulate in Bogota I finally got my cash. Immidiately had a great cup of coffee and a cake and the nearest cafe, just to celebrate my economic freedom.

Another problem was to get a police report. Everywhere I went they just sent me to another place, because I was a foreigner, or because it didn't actually happen IN Bogota, or whatnot. Visited at least 5 different police stations all over the city. Weekend didn't work, so not until monday I could get it. How many hours I spent walking around or taking busses around Bogota is unknown, but it was a lot! The bussystem in the city is a total chaos, but with the help of helpful Colombians it wasn't too dificult. The only problem with asking the locals is that they will often give false directions. The reason for this must be that they actually don't know where it is, but have a huge desire to help so they just shoot something out in the air. Finally got to the right police station, but the police in Colombia has "gone electronic", so I couldn't get a written police report, just a paper saying at which website the report is at. Having struggled my way through colombian bureaucrazy I was happy with it, signed and stamped just in case.

Also spent a day just figuring things out about the embassy. 2 months ago they shut the norwegian embassy around here and moved it to Caracas, but that information is not updated good. So I went to 3 different adresses to the embassy in Bogota. Nowhere to be found, but they told me that the swedish embassy has the responsability for norwegians. It was the swedes that finally informed me about the norwegian consulate and so I walked there and finally found the norwegian lion emblem on a small house on a side street. They helped me a lot, but I eventually had to go back to Caracas to the embassy to order a new passport. So after having struggled a bit figuring out how to get there I left Bogota friday morning after having spent a night at the Eldorado airport. Even though my stay in Bogota was mostly focused on fixing my life, I had an amazing time there. The city is awesome, full of culture and with a strong bohemian style and a young crowd. Definitely a place to go back to! Sundays they shut down the main highway through town and people come out to march or bicycle the streets. It's like a huge festival, and it's every sunday. I fell in love with Bogota on my sunday there.

Flew from Bogota to Cucuta, the border city between Colombia and Venezuela. A direct flight to Caracas was 350 dollars so that was pretty much out of the question. The halfhour flight I took saved me 16 hours in bus, and being a domestic flight it was fairly cheap. Cucuta was an ugly and hot city. Seemed fairly unsafe too, much like that other border city of Maicao where I had my entryincident two months ago. Left the city, passed fairly easy through the border. A mayor drug route into venezuela is in this area, so border control is quite strict. With my story, police report and emergency passport they let me through and only searched through my stuff two times. Small-local-bussed my way to Merida, back to the same hostel I stayed in before. Had bought dollars in Bogota, so it was fairly easy to get someone to sell me Venezuelan bolivares at black market rates. Spent the night there, partying with a couple of french guys from the hostel. Next day I took the bus down to las Gonzales where I surprised my venezuelan friends. Half hour later I was standing with them on the top of tierra negra, ready for take off. Had an amazing late evening flight, soaring for 40 minutes watching the nightfall. Getting dark we heading down to the landing where we landed safe and sound. Amazing to be back in the air. Spent the night there with them, flew in the morning again and got on a bus to Caracas. Got there in the morning, with the terminal being in a quite shady area of town. Took a bus to the metro and took that to the city center. Walked to the embassy, where Eirik and I were some 3-4 months ago. We did all the formalities, before I got the metro back. On the bus I missed the terminal and ended up somewhere I didn't want to be, and it was getting dark. So I got a securityguard to help me get a safe taxi, and we drove to the terminal. Being alone in a taxi in the suburbs of Caracas at sunset, driving a little randomly to "avoid traffic" as the driver said, I felt a little uneased. There are stories about taxies in Caracas out there, and recently having been drugged and robbed I was a littlebit more anxious than normal. But everything was fine and I got on my bus to San cristobal and from there to Cucuta and from there to Bucaramanga. It had been some exciting and tiring last 10 days, but I was finally back in Colombia with my passport on its way. Encountered no problems on my trip from bogota to caracas and back, and I met my Venezuelan friends in Bucaramanga, they were here for a paragliding competition. Throughout these two weeks I obviously didn't have a camera, but I travelled in known territory and I will go back to Bogota to get some snapshot of that amazing city. I have learnt a lot from everything that has happened in the aftermath of that nightbus into Bogota. It's not been easy, but never losing the spirit is the only way to keep going without going crazy and now I could finally relax totally again.