Bienvenidos a Bogota, Colombia!

The name itself conjures up images of a dark and intimidating city, not a place to linger. But happily we found the reality was a different story. A lively city bustling with students of one of several universities, of politicians and their staff making their way to and from the congress, a city filled with life. We felt safe walking around, almost fooling ourselves that we might blend in with the hordes of youngsters going about their daily business and hanging out in the Juan Valdez coffee shop. It seemed a great place to linger and study Spanish, like the Chinese students (all only-children) living in the same building as our hostel in the historic Candelaria area opposite the law faculty.

We enjoyed spending time with Allison, an old friend of Yemi's from university days, who was living in Bogota volunteering in a 'Comedor' or community dining room. She was bravely trekking across this city of seven million people, five days a week, to teach English and lead workshops involving everything from kite making to playwriting.

We continued to be amused by an odd pair in our hostel we dubbed 'Batman and Robin' - William, a Colombian guy in his early twenties from Medellin and Norman, a fifty-something French-Canadian chap from Quebec. They had met the previous year and mysteriously become friends - we discovered that Norman was apparently helping William get a visa to live in Canada (although he had already been refused twice) and Norman had dreams of buying a property in Colombia with William's help. Neither seemed particularly well-equipped to help the other, given that William seemed to have little knowledge of anything that hadn't been on TV (he didn't know that China and Japan were different countries, and had never heard of a country called Russia) and Norman seemed rather vague about how he might help Willie get into Canada.

I chatted with the hostel owner Ligia, a lovely warm lady who even gave me free Spanish grammar classes and homework to do, helping me get the hang of the past and future tenses. Her charming son, Sabastian, and his petite girlfriend recommended places to go in Colombia and chatted to Yemi in perfect English.

This made up for our somewhat abortive arrival in Bogota, when exhausted from our flight from the UK, we arrived at the hostel's rather confusing address in a taxi to find no sign and no answer at the door - I was convinced we were in the wrong place but all turned out ok when the Chinese students let us in and called the owner. My limited Spanish went into use straightaway, as I attempted to explain that we had made a reservation and that we were rather annoyed that no-one was here to greet us! The owner's aunt was hurriedly summoned to let us in and placate us until the morning. But all turned out fine in the end, and Ligia and her two cleaning ladies seemed to take a shine to us, making daily cups of sweet black coffee and hugging me tightly as we departed with good wishes for our journey ahead.

All the best from Colombia

Hasta luego!

Soph & Yem xx