Day 50 - Bogota - On yer Bike!
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2009
1
60
178
Trip End
Jan 26, 2010
Bogota, Colombia
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Our first stop was to a small fruit market known as the egiptian market where Mike chatted with the fruitsellers and introduced us to a variety of fruits we had never encountered before, slicing a few open so we could see and taste a sample. We also visited a beautiful church on the fringe of the egiptian neighborhood before heading to Casa Museo Quinta de Bolivar, which is a wonderful house where Simon Bolivar once lived. At several places en-route Mike would show us landmarks, statues or houses where he described their relevance and history. On the way to Simon Bolivars former residence we collected Mikes dog, Paquita, a street dog that Mike had adopted, and as we subsequently found out, affectionately well known to the locals. Our route also took us passed the bullfighting ring, and into the National Park where we sample some local food from street sellers, played soccer and watched some very competitive roller skate hockey. In all we spent nearly 6 hours cycling. On the way back we lost Paquita, which caused some considerable anxiety to Jody and Niamh who had grown very fond of her, and Niamh then had a puncture. Mike quickly fixed the puncture before resuming our journey. We arrived back at the shop and about 10minutes later Paquita arrived unscathed, to the delight of Jody and Niamh, having made her own way back through the busy Bogotan streets.
You cannot go wrong with this as a way to get to know the city, and its great to get simple advice from someone streetwise about the Do's and Don’ts www.bogotabiketours.com
We finished the afternoon off with some Crepes from the resident French chef. The only thing that spoilt our day was finding, on return to our accommodation, that we had not been able to change rooms at all, I think my disappointment was clear as I left the reception without uttering another word. We prepared for the night ahead by rummaging through our bags to find earplugs given to us on one of our flights. My fears were confirmed at about 8pm. We had jumped into bed early and Christie was reading the Amber Spyglass when there was the sound of thunder above us, so loud was it that we couldn’t hear Christie read even though she was barely two feet away. I was not to annoyed with the music,it was the Buena Vista Social Club after all, they couldn’t be that monstrous if they were listening to one of my DVD’s. It was the thunder of their feet on the floorboards, what in hells name were they doing. We were disappointed to find it had not subsided after about 20 minutes, I had had enough. My initial thoughts were to pack up and move out right there and then, but Christie encouraged me to take the less extreme approach of going to talk with them. When I got upstairs I found three boys in their early twenties practicing salsa together in preparation for the night ahead. They were very apologetic, turned the music down and moved their practicing to the common room which did not bother us at all. I also asked them to take care when they came back in the morning. Fat chance I thought.
