Lederhosn on tour

After being sick over christmas and new years it has finally come to the travel part of the trip!

I left Bogota for a 3 day trip to Melgar. Its a 3.5 hour trip by bus, in which you step down from 2600m to 300m above sea level. From 15 degrees to 30.
Melgar is a destination which Rollos (the people from Bogotá) go to, to enjoy a weeend of tropical clima.
The city itself has nothing much to offer except being near to Bogotá and being warm. It is filled with hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. Rafting tours are also offered, but just recovering from my sickness that wasn't quite what i had in mind.
So just enjoying the clima of the "tierra caliente" at the poolside and going out for a beer or two at night.
Then back to Bogotá for two nights, and then off to leticia, in the Amazon. A trip i did together with my friend Matthias from Munich 1:50 flight time from Bogotá and 17.500 pesos tourist tax which all non-colombian residents have to pay on arrival. Then left the airport for a place to stay. We ended up staying at the Mahatu hostel, a bit out of town, now located at calle 7 no 1-40. 20000 pesos per night is what Gustavo, the owner, charges per night. He also had Antonio, one of the guides mentioned in Lonely Planet, come over and offer tours to the amazon. For us he offered basically two tours: one for 600000 going north to monkey island, parque amacayacu and puerto narino and the other one for 390000 to zacambu on the peru side of the amazon in direction of benjamin constant. We decided to do the second one, and off we went the next day. The food was delicios, we saw grey dolphins, a few monkeys, a snake, tarantulas, scorpions, a huge caiman and a smaller one. We went piranha fishing and for a swim in the amazon. The second night we had caipirinha, delicios! All in all a good experience, and we headed back to Leticia. On the way back we stopped in Islandia(Peru) and Benjamin Constant(Brazil). So we did a trip through three countries in one day.
There we decided to relax for a day, enjoying the hammocks. In the evening i headed out with some friends i met at the hostel to go to a club. The first one wouldnt let in the guys because we were wearing shorts. Imagine. In the middle of the amazon, 25 degrees at night, humid like you dont imagine, and they want you to come dressed up.. So we ended up in a bar on the street in the direction of the airport. We had chuchuwasa a "cocktail" made from cachaca, honey and secret ingridients which is served in a jug and you drink it in shot glasses. Then we headed out to a club close to the Orellana park. They had amazind brazilian girls dancing on the bar and good music. It ended up being a good night out.
The next day we headed up to Puerto Nariño. A city where the ambulance and a tractor belonging to the city are the only two motor vehicles. The 2 hour trip upstream was 29000. Once arrived, a guy working for Hector, the friar in charge of the "Alto de Aguilas", picked us up. Before we left, i had lunch. A soup, fish, frijoles, platano and rice for 10000 including juice.
So we headed to the "Alto de Aguilas". Where in the end we discovered we could have just left leticia the first day and done day trips from here, which would have been cheaper and probably a little more authentic.
We paid 20000 per person per night. The first day we organised a trip to go fishing, swimming and pink dolphin watching for 20000 pp.
The following day we chilled in the hammocks playing with the monkeys and the ara eating cocoa seeds and having a few beers in the evening. The sunset from the tower is awesome!
The next day we had to leave, matthias for Bogota and i was heading to Medellin via Bogota.
Medellin. Antioquia. Aguardiente. Metrocable. Paisas. And of course the Women. There is a saying that the prettiest women of the world are from medellin. Well lets wait and see. One day I already spent with sightseeing, the museom of antioquia with a lot of Botero's works, the parque Botero, and colombias only metro. Taking the metrocable at around 5:30 is awesome. You go up ( i took line K) with daylight slowly fading, and when you reach the top night has come across medellin and the whole valley is lighted up.

So far from south america. Lets see where travels take me from here.

English?
Oder lieber deutsch?
Espanol?
Francais?

I have no idea. Since english is the more international language, I'll stick with it.

Its time to share at least the beginning my travels. The rest will hopefully come as i go..

It all started with the Flight on the 22.11.2010. MUC-EWR-BOG. Munich-Newark-Bogota.
Being a proud bavarian I decided to fly in lederhosn. The stewardesses of Continental definately enjoyed it, and I enjoyed extra good service..
The security check in Newark (why do you have to go into the country and leave again, youre just in transit right?) took a little longer due to the lederhosn and its metal parts. Then after a 3 hour stay we continued to Bogotá where we met Claudia.

Everyone who hasent been to Colombia, let me tell you this: I'll bet with every single one of you: its far better than you imagine.

Bogotá 2600m above sealevel.
Lonely Plant writes (in german, it being the german version): Die Vorurteile laesst man aber bitteschoen zuhause. Bogotá rockt.

A city with 7 million people never sleeps. Its always crazy. But even more on the weekend.

With knowing barely a word in spanish other than hola and three months in Colombia ahead of me i had a lot of spanish learning to do..

I started working at a small restaurant as a trainee. I figured to stay in Bogotá the first months to be able to communicate in spanish would be a good idea.

Sightseeing in Bogotá: Museo del Oro(nice!), Cerro de Monserrate 3200m above sealevel (if the sky is clear, AMAZING), Placa de Bolivar(people ice skating with an air temperature of 15 °C, crazy! and plus the line waiting, looooooooooong..) with the Alcaldía (thanks Claudia!), la Candelaria (sweet little colonial style part of bogota), and the fashionable northern part around la Zona T and la parque 93.

The first weekend, I went to Vinacure. A club which is really a bit stranger than the bar in Star Wars (again quoting Lonely Planet). Living with a hostfamily has me have a totally different approach to bogota than the usual visitor.

The next weekend I had the pleasure of going to Andres Carne de Res in Chia.
WOW.
Go see it for yourself. Yes its expensive, but definately worth it!
Its a steakhouse-club-cirque-du-soleil-something crazy.
I dont know what to say. Its a blast.

Next up Villa de Leyva.
Its a town 4 hour busride from Bogota 18000 pesos for the bus=7.20 euros..
The busdrivers drivingskills made me think of the song {Der Charlie-Hans Soellner}

Crazy..

But Villa de Leyva is awesome! Some friends took me and we spent 30000 Pesos per person for a bed in a double room.
Being there on the 7th of December was great. Every 7.12. they have the Festival de las Luces with great fireworks.
The next day we took some horses to see the beautiful surrounding landscape.
The Busride back was even crazier. The bus was full and there was one more guy wanting to go to Bogotá, so the driver pulled out this little stool from under a seat and said: here you go! very funny!

Back to Bogotá.
Friday Usaquen. Something i forgot in the sightseeing tour. Nice place!
Saturday Andres D.C. The Bogotá version of Andres. Nice try, but its just not the original.

That brings us to today. Its only a short version of all the happenings but im not sure who wants to be mentioned and wants me to mention what so I'll keep it like this.

I hope you enjoy reading about my trip. The interesting Travel experiences should be continuing until the end of march.

With this being my first blog, please do comment, and if its just for the sake of me knowing you didnt like it...

Hasta luego!