Columbia Day 1

 I can’t believe it. I’m on the road again. After 5 years I’m solo backpacking again. And from my first day I can say I don’t think Colombia will disappoint me. But let’s start with how I got here. 

As you may know, my last couple years I spent most of my holidays with Scotty in South Africa. Which was great. What a beautiful country and still so much to discover. And of course great to see the family. And now it was time to go backpacking and explore more of this beautiful time. And as Scotty misses his family and I understand that he wants to go there, we decided to go at the same time, but to separate destinations. 

When I started telling people „no Scott is going to SA, no I haven‘t book an organized tour, I’m solo backpacking!“ there were a lot of surprises faces  at that moment my stubbornness kicks in: “remember I’ve done that in the past quite a lot?” But I have to admit that the start of every solo trip has that little bit of “uuh, what am I doing?”  But I know that it luckily never lasts long ;-)

So Monday evening Scott left for the airport, which gave me the time to frantically finish work and packing. And Tuesday morning it’s my time to go to the airport. Bright and early to catch the 9:30 am flight. Getting to the airport was no issue, and then the first surprise of the day at check in: do you have your MIG form? My what??? So it seems I hadn’t read the immigration website too well and discarded this thing as an out of date COVID measure. Silly me. The lady at the counter tried to calm me down: it’s quick, just go to this website. What a relief. What she didn’t mention: that a 30 minute rush application costs nearly 200€. But what do you want to do? 

Long story short, I got the document, checked my bag and did all the other fun things you do at an airport and I’m finally on my way to Bogota! The plane was reasonably full in the back, but quite empty in the front. So despite me having „only“ silver with KLM anymore I ended up in a lovely quiet area with the whole row for me. 2 movies (Barbia & a Rebel Wilson comedy), reading the lonely planet and a lot more time later I’m in Bogotá. 

At the airport it feels like „been there, done that a lot“: go through immigration, get your luggage, get cash, sign up to airport wifi to tell everyone I arrived safely, go through customs and order an Uber. Except for the get cash part all went smooth (don’t even ask!) and the Uber took me safely to my hostel. I’m staying in the old city center of Bogota, La Candelaria, very pretty. After a little break and thinking about how the rest of my trip should look like, I’ve decided to start exploring the area. Really, really cute streets, houses and cool graffiti everywhere. And I just love the mountains around, such a beautiful view. I’ve actually just agreed with some guys from the hostel, that we’ll climb to a view point tomorrow morning. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. While exploring I ended up doing one of the touristic highlights of the city: El Museo del Oro. Quite cool exhibition about the history of metallurgy in South America. 

After that I went back to the hostel, not only was it’s starting to get cool and drizzle, but for me it’s already midnight. While here the clock only shows 6pm. So back at the hostel I decided to have a drink and try to stay up at least until 8pm ;-) And that’s also how I ended up writing this blog entry. So stay tuned for more, I promise it won’t be daily and that exhaustive. 

















Comments

Scottl1976 said…
Looks amazing so far Beanie!!!! Missing you in hot Joburg. I’m up early to the airport to see the kids for my own solo adventure 🤣🤣
8:34 PM
Meg said…
Amazing Sabine!awesome pictures. Keep them coming!
5:29 AM
MaPa said…
Wir lesen wieder gespannt von deinem Abenteuer und freuen uns über die schönen Bilder. Liebe Grüße aus Bruchhausen
11:44 AM
Jessica said…
Whoop slo travel. So fun Sabine. Can’t wait to hear more!
8:42 AM
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