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89 hours spent in freezing cold buses (just in Colombia) and we have been in Colombia for 5 weeks and have loved it all.
Starting up the top in Santa Marta and hitting the coastal towns of Taganga, Tayrona and Cartagena. And we thought Australia could get hot and humid so we were very relieved when we headed south to the coffee regions of Medellin and Manizales. And yes the coffee is fab! This region of the country is absolutely beautiful with the mountains full of coffee plantations, banana trees and bamboo. Further south to the very white town of Popayan where we were just not in synch with opening hours, the coffee shops opened in the afternoon (de needs her morning coffee!) and we were at a loss to find a place for a cleansing ale in the afternoon.
Off to San Agustin to an archaeological park where they have discovered some amazing rock idols that protected tombs (see the photos). We were surprised to find in such a small village a funky little bar called Casa de Tarzan, where we went to see a local band. The place was set up like a tree house and even had a bamboo firemans pole to get you to the different levels.
Back to Popayan and we were invited to one of the locals house for a party. We showed up at 11pm and there was nobody there .. they start partying a little later in this part of the world ... but by 2am we were salsa dancing in a tiny garage.From there we were supposed to head off to Ecuador but instead we decided to head back up north to Bogota to buy tix to see MUSE who were playing on the following Sunday (tonight .. yippee!)Once we had secured tickets, we popped to a small village in the mountains called Villa de Leyva for a few days and were lucky to stumble across a week long festival in which all the locals from the surrounding villages come to dance and drink in the main plaza. There were plenty of poncho´s and cowboy hats.
So here we are in Bogota and what a fantastic, funky and fun city with cool little hole in the wall bars and cafes and surrounded by mountains (pop of 8 million). We headed to a bar called Vinacure in which the staff all dressed in wierd costumes and body paint,it was in a huge old theatre and Gwen Stefani even did a show ... well a guy dressed in drag that looked like Gwen did. We were like movie stars there as there were no other tourists. We had our photos taken and they all wanted to make conversation and to make sure we were having a great time in Colombia. Even met a Colombian rugby player ... who would have thought they knew what Rugby was.Today is Independence Day where millions of people marched down the main streets with flags and tshirts calling for peace and liberation in Colombia. Even here we were specticals with a lot ofpeople marching stopping to take photos of us gringos!
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