Our flight from Lima to Bogota left at 10pm and we landed in Bogota at 1am. Thankfully they have a great airport taxi service that prints a receipt for your taxi fare based on the address before you leave. This meant we didnt have to haggle at this late hour. Our hostel had provided us with a speech to recite to the driver so the directions were spot on!

The hostel, Anandamayi, is absolutely beauitful and exactly the place we were looking for. It is built around 3 internal courtyards and there are plants everywhere with hammocks strung up for relaxing. Our room is gorgeous and very comfortable. It was a bit chilly when we arrived so late but there were extra blankets.

We awoke after a great nights sleep due to very little noise surrounding us. We discovered the kitchen/common room only to find it had a great book exchange, excellent internet and a TV with cable and DVDs. Consequently, we spent a lot of time in here (me especially updating the blog) and met most of the other guests.

We also learnt that our hostel was run by a very spiritual lady, based on the articles on the walls and zen atmosphere! The bad news was we discovered a no alcohol rule and so had to resort to being teenagers and smuggle our grog in! Everyone has their own god and I think she should have been a little more accepting of ours in a bottle!

Our first night out was a Friday and Kate and Jane had suggested we head to Zona Rosa in the northern part of the city. This area is very modern and wealthy heaving with very western bars and restaurants. You could easily believe you were anywhere else in the world. Mark and i forgot to frock up so felt a little underdressed as we queued for our uber cool restaurant! Once we were seated this was forgotten and we enjoyed an excellent meal at Wok, various asian cuisine.

The next day we awoke from an even better nights sleep as we had found the hostels stash of hot water bottles! They were so cosy! Bogota sits at an altitude of 2600m and so we were slightly worried that Mark would suffer from altitude sickness again. As a precaution he rested a bit whilst I went off to an art museum.

The Donacion Botero museum is a fantastic collection of art that hosts 123 of Fernando Botero`s works, a native Columbian artist that originates from Medellin. I thought his work was really interesting as he makes all his subjects rotund and he even did a chubby version of the Mona Lisa (see photos). There were other artists work in there too as well as a mint museum. It was very well done.

In the afternoon Mark and I decided to get a cable car up Cerro de Monserrate which is a mountain that overlooks the city. This was another expedition to cure my fear of heights!

The cable car was much bigger than the one in Salta but only had 2 cars, one up one down. I faced the mountain on the ascent and stared at the trees at eye level whilst everyone else enjoyed the views they were getting over the city. When we got to the top the sun was streaming down and the church was conducting a service. There were some hyms being sung atrociously inside and I was we hadn´t got trapped in there! We marvelled at the size of the city before coming down.

Our next stop was the Police Museum which was full of young military cadets learning how to conduct the tours...a whole campful of soldiers! They were all very sweet and handsome but a lot of what they said was lost in translation for me, perhaps i was too distracted! For e.g. Our guide said Bogota was twice the size of England...erm, really?! The exhibits on Pablo Escobar were interesting, especially surrounding his capture and death, as well as the way a greater sense of order and transparency has been restored to the country recently too.

The rest of our time in Bogota was spent relaxing and wandering around. The city is absolutely beautiful and so BIG. Columbia is still getting over its bad reputation and the marketing at the airport says "The only risk in coming here is that you wont want to leave!" which I think is fairly apt. It is a more progressive city than we imagined and offers a lot to all tastes. Given the opportunity we would love to come back!

Our next stop is Villa de Levya which I`ll write about in the next blog! xx