26/04/2019 – Bogota, Colombia – Annnnnd relax!

We got up at around 10:00 and our hostel had provided us with coffee (on tap!) croissants, bananas and boiled eggs. Josh and I sat at the table with John (He lives here, the hostel is his and his mums but he basically runs the place) and we chatted about Bogota for a while. We went back to our room to enjoy some more wifi (instagram posts, Josh made some calls) before Josh got us to do our exercises and then shower. We got ourselves out the house and dropped some laundry over the road (£1.50 for our 3 weeks of washing to be cleaned, dried and folded!) After handwashing for 3 weeks this was another exciting treat! At the laundrette we bumped into our driver Ricardo from yesterdays taxi randomly! We feel local already! Then we walked to a restaurant (Parilla Express) that John had suggested, a kind of fast food/traditional Colombian style café. We both had the Bandeja Paisa that had been recommended (Rice, beans, fried plaintain, avocado, steak, poached egg, chorizo, Pork belly/crackling.) It was huge and sooo cheap and tasty! Then we wandered along to a district with rows and rows of bookshops. We went inside Libros Merlin which I had read about online. It was a beautiful old book shop that looked tiny from outside but was like a Narnia, walls of stacked books covering all sorts of topics, with old ladders so you could climb up and browse the titles. We found the English section and had a browse. I picked out a few books but none of them really took me. Kate would have loved it, it was proper literature stuff, but of course I only really knew the ones I had read previously in English at school! We continued to wander the streets of books and went into another shop. When I asked for books in English, the shopkeeper took me to her mate round the corner who opened a shutter door into a cubby hole of books. I am Malala caught my eye, I have been meaning to read it for a while, so we paid up and were on our way. We walked past another bookshop that I had read about that sells books in English. As we went inside we noticed special force policemen standing outside on either side of the door, both poised ready for action, one with a handgun and another a shotgun in hand ready to go. As we started trying to find the books in English we saw them come swiftly inside and pause at the stairs before descending them. Unnerved, but also slightly curious, we quickly left and didn’t look back! (Were those bangs exhausts or guns?! We will never know!)

We walked to the local supermercado (called Exito) to buy some groceries. (Again, excitement at a shop! earbuds! moisturiser!) But a sudden and urgent toilet requirement meant we had to waddle to the nearest café for Josh to have an espresso and for me to sit on the toilet. I don’t think my belly enjoyed that delicious lunch as much as I thought!) We walked past a pharmacy and tried to find loperamide but to no avail (I think they tried to sell us probiotics) ah well, will try and do some googleing to see what we can find here! Then went back to the supermarket to restart our shop. We stocked up on some groceries and food to cook for ourselves later, more snacks! Then walked up to the launderette and collected our laundry (the laundrette is also the snack shop so we bought M&Ms too) before going into the hostel to chill for the evening. We cooked ourselves some pasta and veg and sat with John over dinner before getting ourselves showered and into bed.