Bogota, in all its wet glory

Poor ol' Colombia is being hit with one of its wettest winters in last fifty years. Never was that more evident then being in Bogota where it rained pretty much every day, and some days violently hard for the entire day. At that altitude (2700m) the town can get pretty cold and miserable in that weather. But Bernard and I made the best of it. We did a tour with our hostel of the local fruit market (lots of different fruit in this part of the world) then went to play Tajo which we had watched in Salento with some amusement. Its very hard to play and it took me at least my first beer to hit the clay pit – but by my second beer I had the knack and was beginning to play rather well.

It was a little bit diconcerting being in Bogota – our safety briefing when we arrived at our hostel was pretty severe with neighbourhoods you simply must not visit – don't take you passport outside the hostel unless you absolutely must, and don't flash your camera around too much. Walking around we felt safe enough during the day, but didn't stray far from the hostel for our evening meals.

We visited the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) which is overwhelming with the vastness of the displays. You can see the craftmanship going from skilled to damnright impressive over the centuries – and the wealth of some of these indigenous tribes is incredible. After that we visited the Museo de Moneda (Money Museum) which had a lot of old machinery and currency – some of the Spanish coins from 18^th century were very impressive. Finally we visited the Botero Gallery right next door and particularly enjoyed the Mona Lisa – complete with an active volcano in the background. But we both agreed that the Museum of Antiquolla in Medellin is far superiour a collection.