27/04/2019 – Bogota, Colombia

We woke up after another night of a light sleep. After speaking to mum we realised this is probably down the altitude we are at! Bogota is 2640m above sea level. We have both had a few moments of light headedness/dizziness! We had a coffee in bed whilst speaking to Trudie and Pete who are in Scotland visiting Uncle Mike, and then mum and dad who were at home after having been to the rubbish tip. Then we went out to the living area and had our breakfast (croissants, boiled egg and banana) with hostel man John.

We had to film a video for a friends birthday, so Josh cable tied his camera to a ledge of our hostel window and we filmed us on the beautifully graffitiied street with cobbled stones just outside our room. We roughly cut it on imovie- I realised I hadn’t used imovie in over 8 years so was very rusty/had to google it to remind myself what to do! We sent that over and then ventured out to find some lunch. We went to a place that the lonely planet guide recommended called Quinua y Amaranto on Calle 11, and got directed up the stairs by one of the ladies working there, in her pinafore dress. We went up the rickety wooden staircase in a beautiful old brick building and sat down. As we were craning our necks to try and find a menu/stare at other customers food, the lady reappeared and asked us chicken or vegetarian? (in Spanish of course) so we opted to try one of each. She then brought us over one mango juice and one tamarinda juice. We didn’t know at the time but have since learnt that tamarinda juice is a typical latin American drink made from tamarindicus indica (can you tell I google-ed that!) after being boiled in water, had its seeds removed, liquefied and combined with sugar. It tasted kind of bitter/sour and Josh said it almost tasted fermented or kombucha-esque. It tasted like we should like it but it wasn’t quite there if I am honest, but we finished it anyway, almost like when you force a brussel sprout in because you know its good for you (not you Gilly!) Then Josh and I were each brought a soup. One was a lentil vegetarian type soup, the other chicken with corn on the cob, capers and potato, with a huge and beautifully ripe avocado slice and an arepa. Arepa is a Colombian kind of bread like delicious thing made from ground maize flour. Ours came with melted cheese in the middle. Both the veggie and meat options were scrumptious! Then the lady took those bowls away and brought up a plate of rice with sultanas and nuts, quinioa with mint and cucumber, and another georgeous thing which was kind of like stuffing mixed with a scotch egg but vegetarian? (I will try and find out what this is called!). After this we got presented with an apricot syrup/jam/glaze dish (This got left behind by both of us!). It was beautiful homecooked food, and came to about £4 each! I love that there wasn’t a menu to choose from too. Simple but effective!

We popped back to the hostel to use the wifi so that Josh could catch up with Uncle Mike via Trudie & Pete. Apparently the photos and blog are a welcome source of 2am entertainment for when he can’t sleep! This is similar to what I have heard from Gilly with her 2am babyfeeds!

Then we walked through the town and through the main square to tourist information and blabbed away at the ladies there in order to nab a free map. We continued walking down the road until we got to a coffee shop that had been recommended by John, called Arte y Pasion. We sat down (it’s a table service coffee shop) and were presented with a menu. It had different Colombian coffees to choose from, as well as different methods of brewing, such as the cold drip from Kyoto, the aeropress, French press, and even had a menu for which latte art you wanted (taj mahal, elephant, flower, the list goes on!) A bit overwhelmed by all the choice Josh and I each pointed to a coffee that we liked the sound of (mine apparently was sweet like dark chocolate, Joshs was peanut and vanilla-y). Then a lady came over and let us smell the ground coffee, before she weighed it. Joshs was brewed first using a Hario pour over filter method. Then mine was brewed using a chemex pour over filter method. (Josh is now obsessed with different filter methods!) We had it black and were absolutely buzzing afterwards! We walked back through the Plaza de Bolivar (big main plaza, bronze statue in the middle, loads of weird people feeding pigeons and letting them sit on their heads for photos). There were some people walking llamas around for tourists to pay to have photos with too! We walked to the Museo Botero. This is a gallery displaying the work of Colombias most famous artist, Fernando Botoro. His work is dedicated to all things chubby, chubby fruit, a chubby mona lisa, chubby hands, chubby bodies, a chubby mum and dad holding a chubby man child. Please if you are reading this, Google it! It was so funny Josh and I were genuinely laughing out loud at the pictures and sculptures. Josh said it is his favourite exhibition he has ever been too, and I think I could agree! Then we found ourselves in Bogotas museum of modern art (it’s a museum complex so its easy to wander around and find yourself in a different museum without knowing it.) I happened to see an advert for a Martin Parr exhibition as we were walking around. Martin Parr is a British photographer I have liked for a while, but I haven’t seen any of his stuff aside from on the internet as I can remember. As luck would have it his exhibition ‘souvenir’ was on now, and free! Isn’t that so random! We went up and through yet another amusing exhibition, full of beautiful bright colours and funny imagery depicting British culture. We had a short pitstop and sipped form our amazing filter water bottles (Pure-Hydration filter bottles – thanks dad!) These help us save money by drinking tap water, and reduce waste from plastic bottles too, double bonus! Then we went through the museum complex to the coin museum and had a little browse. Some of the coin presses/machinery was from Birmingham, England. Josh got told off because he was intrigued by the safe that some of the gold was displayed in and started fiddling with it. (He was more interested in the safe than the gold that was on display!) Then, all museumed out we went for another stroll. We meandered through the beautiful streets of the historical centre, the calanderia district, and through some streets that reminded us of the Brighton lanes. There was a nice vibe out and about, it’s a Saturday evening so it felt lively! We got back to our hostel and had a bowl of cereal and chatted to the daytime hostel guy (too late to re ask his name and there’s definitely a language barrier!) He moved here from Venezuala 5 months ago with his brother. We hopped into our room for a chill. I have started trying to rig up a proper blog online, so hopefully we can get it up and running soon, whilst Josh read his book. We reheated the leftovers of last nights dinner and layed low the rest of the evening.