Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

From La Paz, Bolovia we took a flight to Bogota, Colombia. However it turned out that our flight was not as direct as we thought it was. First it landed in Cochabamba, then on to Santa Cruz (both in Bolivia). Then! it flew up to Caracas, Venezuela and finally back down to Bogota.

Our next surprise was how expensive everything was in Colombia. The currency is pesos with NZ$1 being worth around 1,518 pesos. Our taxi from the airport to our hostal cost 18,000 pesos or NZ$12. Bear in mind we have been paying NZ$2 on average up until this point. The hostal was 36,000 pesos a night! (or more than NZ$20, again we had been paying NZ$12 or less in Peru and Bolivia).

The hostal, "Platypus", was great.  It is Colombian owned but called Platypus because it is an uncommon name in Colombia and unlikely to already have been used.  If the name you want to register is already in use you have to try again - paying for the privilege each time.  Where is the Companies Office when you need it!!!  (the lawyer in me struggles free). 

The Platypus is apparently the party hostal in Bogota, though we didn´t know this at the time. As it was xmas they put on a free xmas dinner consisting of local Colombian food (tamales) and of course beers which you could buy.

The next day we hiked up a large hill (called Montserrat) for a view of the city.  It is also part of a pilgrimage the local people make at Chrismas and Easter.  There is a church at the top.  Needless to say there were lots of people who obviously never walk anywhere!

They use motorbikes for everything here!

Erin visited the gold museum while I played some football (Soccer, but I say football because I need to attempt to become more English in preparation).

You will have guessed that everything in the gold museum was made from gold.  It has a collection of gold artefacts showing the progression in design and technique of the various cultures throughout Colombia.  These are some of what I saw.

These monkey earrings were probably my favourite thing in the whole museum.  They are designed to show movement.

These disks are used by the shamans to put them into a trance.  They remind me of things we used to make as kids.

Death masks placed over the face.

Various gold rings.

Urns for ashes.  It´s a bit macabre but they were beautiful and very well made.

A seat used by the chief.

Random things.

A statue which comes from the south of Colombia.  We are going to see more of them later.

Spindles for spinning wool.

Various other things including bats, birds and toads which have special significance.

The museum was very good and I´m tempted to go back when we return to Bogota.