The flight from Leticia to Bogota was about 1h 45 mins - after 24 hour bus journeys and 2 weeks on a boat it seemed like a cinch; we'd hardly settled in by the time we came into land. On taking off we saw a mass expanse of jungle, and coming in to Bogota was very different with mountain ridges and small towns dotted among them. We arrived in Bogota really excited but at 2600 metres above sea level I could already feel the altitude.

Took a taxi to our hostel (Masaya) in La Candelaria - an old colonial area in the centre with narrow streets and a "whiff of bohemia in the air". On the way I got my first view of the Transmilenio - a leading example of BRT and very very exciting for a transport consultant! The hostel is pretty cool... our dorm fronts onto an open terrace and our bunks have curtains on them! Headed off to get some lunch (we'd only eaten biscuits since breakfast) and ended up in an old converted train carriage situated in a car park. With the help of food my altitude sickness went from blurred vision and dizziness to just a dull headache. At one point I was sending an email but my periforal vision was so bad I couldn't see the words at either end of the line. Alex, of course, feels fine. We walked along carrera 7, which is the main street that runs north - south and into the Centro as everyone was leaving work - the place was packed. We like Bogota.

Day 46 - With double curtains we managed to have a really long sleep, and I woke up feeling a lot better (so long as I don't walk too fast). Went for breakfast and then had a second breakfast in the form of street fruit bought from some man and his trolley. Today we had planned to visit the SDG (my company) office in Bogota. It's located some way from La Candelaria in the business district of Chapinero, which meant it was a perfect excuse to ride the Transmilenio! Loved it. We walked up towards the office from the BRT stop and on the way a nice man - Rene - stopped to give us directions and later came running after us to show us the building. He also gave us his business card... just in case we needed anything! So nice!

It was really nice visiting the office and I don't think Alex disgraced me. We took them our hammocks since they are too heavy to carry - ideal office furniture! Federico (who was in London when I was working there) gave us lots of advice about where to go in Bogota, and on his advice we walked to the Zona Rosa for lunch. It's a trendy area of shops and bars and quite a nice opportunity to be around normal Bogota people rather than gringoes. Apparently there is a really important football game on today - the Colombia versus Ecuador qualifying for the World Cup. We arrived at the Bogota Brewing Company at 1pm... the game was due to start at 3:30pm. So we settled in and watched the terrace fill up with yellow shirts around us (which is bizarrely the colour for both teams). By 3pm it was totally rammed. 3:30 came and went but the pitch was waterlogged and the rain almost torrential. By 4:30 they managed to commence play and luckily they won 1-0.

We took a taxi back to our hostel since we weren't really in the best shape for negotiating a bus in a strange city. Federico was talking about the cost differential between Colombia and London and had said that a taxi back would "cost about one pound". I didn't take him literally at the time, but sure enough after a traversing half of the city it cost us just over a pound!

In the evening we went to a cool little cafe near the Plaza de Bolivar called La Puerta Falsa (the false door) and had a hot chocolate, which comes with two pieces of bread, a piece of cheese and a cheesy maize bun that you dip into the hot chocolate. I ate too much and then slept really badly!

Day 47 - We found a really busy little local cafe for breakfast and had some amazing cheesy maize buns. I also ordered a cup of tea, expecting it to come black, but instead it came with just hot milk, which meant the teabag couldn't brew. It was pretty distressing.

The morning was overcast so we spent it in the Museum of Gold, which was a really cool collection of pre-hispanic gold, copper and silver. By the time we emerged the clouds were parting, perfect to go up the teleferico for a view of the city. Before heading up we went to a cafe for a bowl of ajiaco (soup with three types of potato, chicken, capers and maize, and served with avocado and rice). The teleferico (cable car) took us up to the Cerro de Montserrate, which is a mountain overlooking the city to an altitude of 3200m. Alex got really annoyed with the other passengers pushing and shoving (as she does on every public transport we go on). It's quite funny. The view from the top was amazing, and we could see the city sat in the plateau between peaks and clouds. There's a church at the top, which had some Catholic service underway when we nipped in. There was also a curious street that lead to nowhere, but was lined with souvenir shops that further along became food stalls all selling the same, repulsive, fried miscellaneous meats.

I came back to the hostel to have a nap while Alex went off to the bank. When I woke up an hour later I stuck my head over the edge of the bunk to see if Alex was there and smashed my face on the bannister that stops me from falling out. She wasn't there, which was making me a little anxious as to whether she'd even made it back from the bank, but when I found her in the lounge she told me that we had actually had a conversation when she returned.

While I was sleeping Alex had booked us on the 'party bus', which leaves the hostel to go to Andres Carne de Res at 10pm. Andres is located an hour out of Bogota at a place called Chia, but is apparently worth the effort. Despite our reluctance to join the party bus, it was proving to be a lot more economical than a taxi there and back. So after some more down time we donned our party dresses and met our fellow party-goers that were split between two busitas, including Joe from Leticia! Alex and I were sat in the front next to a very sweet old driver blaring out 'party music', while people passed rum and coke from the back. It's all a bit absurd, but not totally unpleasant. We arrived to a spectacle akin to the Moulin Rouge - a huge single storey building surrounded by lit windmills and full of chaos and random stuff. The whole evening was totally bizarre but a LOT of fun despite it taking half an hour to buy a drink. I also got to try some aguadiente, which is the Colombian spirit that is served in terracotta cups and tastes of aniseed. The only real problem with Andres is that it was so rammed that it wasn't really feasible to eat a meal. So when we got back to the minibus at 3am and found we were the first there (we were due at 2:30... who'd want the job of running a party bus?!!) we went back towards Andres and bought an amazing burger, which probably saved my life.

Day 48 - Unsurprisingly I feel a bit hungover today. Alex, however, "just feels a bit tired". Then I remembered that she somehow missed out on the aguardiente, Damn her. We went for a walk through La Candelaria and enjoyed the traffic free roads (every Sunday they close the roads to traffic until 2pm, which is amazing) - the roads are instead full of cyclists, pedestrians and skateboarders. We found ourselves at the Plaza de Bolivar just in time to watch the Colombian equivalent of the race for life. We bought some fresh satsuma juice from a street-fruit man and sat on the steps of the Cathedral to watch people and dogs passing by. We then went in search of breakfast and finally found a cafe that was open and willing to serve us huevos rancheros with a croissant!

I spent the afternoon updating this blog and waving to Alex´s family on skype (thanks for the encouragement). In the evening we went back to The False Door for a hot tamale (rice, maize dough, chicken and half a slice of carrot wrapped in banana leaves and steamed)... really stodgy and therefore perfect + some Colombian fruit juice (feijao). Early recovery night.