Our time in Bogotá had come to an end and we all agreed that we should get out before the inevitable mugging happened.

We (Katie, myself, Disa and Cecilie) went to the bus station to catch our night buses. We said goodbye to Disa as she was traveling North to Medellin and we were heading South to chill out in a place called San Agustin for a few days. The guide book describes it as a very relaxed hippy haven so this is just what we needed after a hectic time in a big city.

The bus journey as always was not without its problems. After stopping to pick passengers up whose bus had broken down we continued on into the night when around 3am in the most remote mountain road you can think of our bus broke down. So we had to wait for the next bus to take us to Pitalito so we could then change to another bus to get to San Agustin!

We eventually arrived in the sleepy town around midday and got a taxi to the top of the bluff overlooking the town. Our accomodation was built entirely of bamboo and wood and Katie and myself had a room tucked away in the rafters of the place with a split level bedroom with balcony and reception area. The bed was also made from bamboo and looked to be quite comfortable.

After our first night we agreed that as nice and as quaint as the accomodation was it was freezing cold and the bed was the most uncomfortable thing we had ever had to sleep on.

In the morning Katie and Cecilie had organised some horse riding. I decided that after my horse experience in Los Llanos I should admit defeat and never get on another horse again.

So I shall let Katie describe the horse riding....

Before we even got to San Agustin myself and Cecilie knew that horse back riding was popular in the area and had decided this was what we wanted to do. Paul decided to stay behind at the hostel and relax instead…

A local man we met whilst looking for the hostal said he had horses and he would take us out for four hours for a pretty cheap price. We arranged that he would bring his horses to the hostel at nine the next morning.

The following day the guy turned up as promised and we took a look at his horses. They were all saddled up and ready to go. We were almost settled to go when we noticed that one of the horses had some blood on the strap under his belly. Moving it aside I was shocked to find an open wound. They guy didn´t seem to think it was a problem and said he would just loosen the strap a bit! Needless to say, at this point I walked away.

The lady running the hostel called up another guy for us and he brought his horses for us. They were calm and well looked after so after agreeing a price we headed off. The ride was lovely, the horses were so well behaved but they also enjoyed going fast at some points, especially up hill so it was also really fun. Our guide spoke English and he showed us several of the local archeological site where stone carvings had been found as well as some amazing view points over the canyon where Rio Magdalena runs. We could see waterfalls, and small coffee plantations on seemingly impossible slopes. Four and a half hours and two sore butts later we arrived back to the hostel.