04/05/2019 – Exploring Bogota, Bogota, Colombia

We got up and had breakfast in the hostel before heading to Exito (supermarket) for some supplies. We went to a nearby artisanal market and browsed the magnets, keyrings, ponchos, blankets etc etc. There is so much beautiful stuff we could buy here but we are trying to be very selective seeing as we will have to either post it back to the UK or carry it on our backs for the next year. I think the biggest craft market in South America is in Ecuador too so just getting a feel for prices until then I think. Except we definitely need a magnet for the collection, currently got our eye on a little sack of coffee beans with Colombia written across it, but we still have a few weeks to make that decision (thank gawd, Josh and I are not the most decisive!) Then we went back to the hostel and chilled before heading out for some lunch with John. We went to a place called PitaWok, which had hummus and falafel and pitta – John had never tried it before! It was lovely and we treated John as a little thank you for having us. Then John took us on a lesser trodden path in Bogota, it all seemed very local. We walked through a local fruit/veg/fish market with some cafes (John said, it’s nice, it is cheap, but you eat with the pigeons!) Then he took us through what looked like a small lively bar and the back opened up into an area of people playing the Colombian national sport - tejo. Tejo is a mental Colombian game where you basically throw a metal puck into clay target pit, aiming for little triangles of gunpowder that explode on impact. As you can imagine it is noisy, plus, from what we witnessed, it is mainly (but not solely) played by men who have drunk a fair few beers prior, during and after the game! I think the locals were delighted to see mine and Josh’s jaws drop when we saw what they were up to!

Then we continued our tour to a little café called ‘El Cometa’ that you probably wouldn’t look twice at if you walked past it. John sat me and Josh at the diner style table and then went up to order. In the 15 minutes we were waiting there was never an empty seat, a very popular place for the locals it seemed. John treated us to coffees, donuts and little jammy dodger style biscuits, which was a lovely treat. We then walked a little way more and John took us up to the top floor of a run down looking bar, it was kind of like a working men’s club. It was a huge floor of both table tennis tables and what looked like pool tables. I don’t think Josh could believe his luck! The guys grabbed a beer each and then we all played some table tennis. After a good hour we decided to leave so went to pay up. As we were at the bar we started watching some older men play on the pool table, except the pool tables had no pockets, and there were only 3 balls on the table! We asked John what was going on so he said he would show us, so we bought a game. On further research I think it is actually a French game called Carom billiards or something? Anyway I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t awful at it! We paid up (beers, games and all came to something like £4!) Then went back to the hostel. We got ourselves showered, had a bowl of cereal for dinner and did some vague packing before bed.