I have spent the past week in Bogotá. As usual I ended up staying longer than originally planned! Seems to be becoming a habit! Saturday I travelled from Sogamoso to Bogotá. I had lunch with Gilma before getting the bus at 4pm. Took about 4 hours and then got a taxi to the hostel.

I have spent the past week doing a mixture of touristy stuff, 'normal' stuff and relaxing, which has been good. I have also enjoyed being able to find more 'international' food here in Bogotá so have had more varied food, including vegetarian food, Mexican, oriental, chinese and thai. I haven't cooked once this week! Better get back to cooking some of my food next week!

A summary of what I've been up to:

Sunday- I wandered round the Candelaria area, which is the historic area of Bogotá and where a lot of the hostels are located. It's a nice place to wander and Sundays are good as some roads are closed for cars so there's no traffic and cyclists and walkers can enjoy cycling and walking there. I then went up the mountain on the funicular train to Monserrate which sits at 3152 metres. It was a clear sunny day and you get great views of Bogotá from up there. Was a good day to go as Sunday is cheaper too, but is also busy and you do get a bit squashed into the funicular carriages. I decided to go to see the changing of the guard so wandered in that direction. I saw some of the guards getting ready for it and then went to where you need to wait for the parade to start. It lasted 45 minutes and was worth watching I thought. There was a band as part of the parade and then the ceremony in front of the President's residence.

Monday- I visited a couple of museums with Megan who is in my dorm. I enjoyed visiting the Botero museum which houses the artwork of Fernando Botero, a Colombian artist (painter and sculptor) plus his own collection of other well-known international artists. Botero is known for painting and sculpting large, plump people. We got a few postcards and went in search of stamps, which we had to get from the post office. I knew stamps were expensive, they cost over 6,000 pesos each, which is £2 or so per stamp- needless to say I'm not sending many cards from Colombia! (You also have to take the post to the post office to post them as there are no post boxes and it sounded like if I wanted to send them in envelopes I'd have to go back with my passport!) My guide book says it would be unusual if you went to the Plaza Bolivar and there was no demonstration going on as Bogotá often has protests. Today there was a display of names/faces of people who are either missing or dead in Colombia. Some of them dated back a long time, but others from only a few years ago- very sad. (There was a big student protest on Wednesday, though I didn't see any of it as I was in another part of the city)

Tuesday-Megan and I went to the salt cathedral which is in a town called Zipaquirá. We got the transmilenio bus, which is a bit like having an underground or tram service, but instead it's buses with their own lanes. Then we changed to a bus to Zipaquirá, it was an easy journey (about 2 hours total) but unfortunately we'd just missed the start of an English tour so had to wait over an hour for the next one. Gave us time to get lunch- a vegetable filled arepa for me! It also poured with rain, the bouncing off the pavement kind. Luckily we only got a bit wet going to start our tour, good job I remembered my umbrella! The underground salt cathedral was created in former salt mine. It would have been good to see the original one but this one was built in 1995 as the first one was built by the miners for their own use but was too small and unsafe for the increased number of visitors. There is a huge cross carved out of the salt and chapels within the cathedral. After the visit to the salt cathedral we went to the museum which was interesting but didn't understand everything as it was in Spanish. On our return to Bogotá we decided to go for thai curry at a little bar near our hostel that comes recommended in the LP for both the curry and its cocktails! And so there started an unplanned evening of cocktails to celebrate my birthday in UK time (ie 6 hours ahead there so my birthday had already started!) We stretched the money we had and then Megan went and got a bit more. They had a big range of lovely 2 4 1 cocktails, which was a perfect way for me to celebrate my birthday! (albeit a little early- thanks to Megan for a fun evening!)

Wednesday- Am still a bit of a child when it comes to birthdays and it was weird to have no cards and presents to open! However it was nice to have lots of FB messages and emails, a birthday phone call from Gilma (from finca in Sogamoso) and Skype chat with mum :-) My birthday here in Bogotá was better than expected, well actually I wasn't really expecting anything, but I had a lovely day! Victor Eduardo (from the San Gil family) happened to be in Bogotá with his dad so I met them for lunch at one of Bogotá's malls. It was lovely to see them and they very kindly also bought me a birthday cake J Afterwards I went to the cinema and saw "Source Code", which was a nice way to spend the afternoon. I had a chow mein for dinner, which turned out to be made from pasta rather than noodles but did have lots of vegetables as requested! On return to the hostel I shared the cake with people who were there, who then encouraged me to go out for a few drinks so I abandoned my plan of an early night!

Thursday-Got in rather late so didn't go to the visa extension office this morning as I'd kind of planned! Was rather a lazy day but had a nice vegetarian lunch and relaxed in the afternoon. Got my stuff ready to go and apply for the extension on Friday and went out for a nice meal with Megan- the restaurant had a wood fire, just what you need on a cold night in Bogotá- the evenings are really cold here!

Friday- Last working day before my original entry stamp would run out so I had to go today! Went early as recommended, getting up at 6.30. Was there for 7.30 and got my paperwork checked but then had to go and make the payment at the bank, unfortunately the bank didn't open til 9 so wasn't really worth going early! Had breakfast at a café and once I was back at the office I had my extension within half an hour. I can now stay til 18th December if I want, though I think I better not because I'll never see the rest of South America at this rate! Went back to bed at the hostel as I was feeling tired and coldy (again) and slept a few hours- decided to stay an extra day so the rest of Friday was another lazy day. I went for a few drinks in the evening with some people from the hostel- ended up at a reggae bar. Was ok, but I miss cheesy music! Ha ha

That brings me to today, Saturday 15th- I checked out then went to the Museo del Oro- the Gold museum. They have tours in English so I did one of those. It was really interesting and found out about the pre-Colombian people and their traditions. I then wandered the rest of the exhibition and took some photos. There were lots and lots of gold artifacts, a very impressive collection. I decided to spend the afternoon catching up on the blog and hopefully sorting out some of my photos before I get a night bus tonight to my next stop- Medellin…..