Monday 14th December Had a good breakfast at the hotel & took a cab to the base of Cerro de Monserrate where we boarded a funicular train car to ascend to the park & the chapel overlooking Bogota. It was a good ride but still a fair walk up the hill to reach it. The highlight for me was that as we walked up through a garden of various plants we saw humming birds feeding from the flowers. Jane & I had seen this near Machu Pichu on Peru but there they ...

Saturday 12th December We had decided to take a friend's advice & visit Villa de Leyva, an old Spanish town about 120k north east of Zipaquirá & we went in style. A driver came for us in a Chevrolet 4wd & off we went but unfortunately he wasn’t too familiar with the vehicle, so first the windows were all locked & then he couldn’t operate the air conditioning. First we drove back along the road we came in on to Chiquinquira, whe...

Thursday 20th December Had a good night’s sleep but woke up & pulled up the blanket, a first in Colombia. Had breakfast at a cafe round the corner & then took our bags down the road to wait for a bus at the agreed spot. We were virtually hijacked into a 12 seater min bus & at 9.00, off we went southwards towards Zipaquirá on the way to Bogota. The bus climbed for some way & passed through hills before coming to rolling country with a ...

Wednesday 9th December Guillaume took us to the bus terminal & we took the 10.40 bus to Barbosa, on the way to Bogota. The bus was quite spacious & the ride was sensational. After following the gorge & crossing the Sogomoso River we climbed, twisted & turned for about 50km through the Andes, sometimes with drops of 100+m on one side & the vegetation kept changing as we went. In some parts the vegetation was tropical & lush whist in othe...

Sunday 6th December After a terrible night in the hotel from hell, we had biscuits & some of last night's chicken before walking down town & found a cafe for coffee. We then bid farewell & took a friendly taxi to Giron a small old town about 20k west of the centre of Bucaramanga. What a contrast to yesterday. The hotel is on the corner of the main square & is a converted house with a large courtyard surrounded by rooms on one side & with more...