We had an early flight from Santiago and were up with the lark at 5:30am to catch the first tube and bus to Santiago airport. The flight was nondescript however upon our arrival in Colombia our apprehension grew as we were about to enter the country in South America with the worst reputation for both drug related violence and anti-government terrorism. Neither of us quite knew what to expect and the good natured jokes made by friends back home about ransom demands began to develop a more realistic nature.

Our hostel was in the historic area of La Candelaria and after fruitlessly searching for a bus into town we opted for an inexpensive taxi. After checking in and spending an hour or so chatting to Javier, the very friendly owner of the hostel, about where to go in Colombia, there was no time for exploring Bogota so we decided on a quick dinner and an early night.

Refreshed, we awoke and set out to find out more about Bogota. Our initial impression of the Plaza Bolivar, the heart of La Candelaria was poor, as the plaza was drab and covered in graffiti. The four sides of the plaza are a miss-match of different architectural styles consisting of a 19th century cathedral, the neoclassical Capital (where congress meets) and the ultra modern Palacio de Justicia. Behind the Capital is the heavily fortified Presidential Palace which is surrounded by large iron railings and lots of armed guards. The abundance of dirty pigeons in attendance adds to the general dowdy state of the square.

La Candelaria is also home to some of the best preserved colonial era churches in Latin America so we took the opportunity to visit some of these. One of the best things we did in Bogota was visit the Nacion Botero, one of Latin America´s largest collections of modern and impressionist art. We eagerly scoured the gallery for some of the lesser known works of Picassio, Monet, Renior, Dali and Matisse. We also viewed countless paintings and sculptures by Botero who takes a sartorial view of human plumpness. In the afternoon, much to Gemma´s delight, we visited the Museo del Oro which houses the world´s largest collection of gold ornaments over four floors.

Finding ourselves in Bogota on a Friday night we ventured out in search of bars and maybe a nightclub. There were no indie rock bars so we had to settle for a hard rock bar playing rock music videos from the 70s onwards. Most of the clubs (from what we were able to tell) were a cab ride away in the north of the city so we decided to give it a miss.

The intention of our second day in Bogota was to visit the remaining sights which were the Museo Historico Policia where we were given our very own guided tour (by a very young policeman), we learned a little about Pablo Escobar and saw a room full of confiscated guns. We then visited La Casa Museo Quinta de Bolivar, the mansion where Simon Bolivar lived. A trip on the teleferico took us to the Monserrate church 600m above the city. The views from the church are spectacular and gave an insight as to how massive Bogota really is. Our day was crowned with a huge paradilla - a South American meat feast for two.

Having exhausted the sights of Bogota we decided to leave the city on our last day to visit the salt cathedral of Zipaquira. The journey to which involved dodging a large demonstration by socialists (we later heard it developed into a full scale riot), 2 bus journeys and a short trip in a taxi. Zipaquira itself is an attractive town with a lovely square and clock tower at the centre. The salt cathedral is 180m underground where we past 14 chapel sites built entirely from salt and the world´s largest subterranean cross carved out of salt rock. The clever lighting in the huge chambers made for quite a breathtaking spectacle.