Columbia Day 2: 20.000 steps

 I completely forgot how awful a jet lag is! I was so proud that I had managed to stay up until 9pm (3am our time), but unfortunately I was bright awake at 3am again. Well, at least that helped to get up as I had planned to go with a guy from another hostel to hike up Montserrat at 7am today. So bright and early I had breakfast at the hostel and went to his hostel around the corner. But no one was there, no answer to my messages. Luckily I had met some other people at my hostel who had planned the same hike for today. So I went back to the hostel and ended up leaving around 8:30 with Heine from the Netherlands. They are everywhere those Dutchies. 

We walked about 20 minutes to the starting point of the hike and I already realized then: this won’t be easy. Bogota itself is at about 2600m above sea level. And if you spend most of your time at or below sea level in the lovely flatlands called the Netherlands, you quite notice the impact altitude has on your body. 

The climb was 2,3 km and about 500m in altitude gain. All the way up with stairs. There were plenty people that climbed the stairs, some very fit and running up, some at normal pace and some looking like they are dying - including me. We saw some barefoot walkers and learned later that some people even do it on their knees or use other means to torture themselves while going up as part of a religious journey. Crazy…

The walk started off in the woods and the further up we got the more we were exposed to the sun. I’m glad we left reasonably early, in the afternoon sun this would have been torture in itself.

During the hike we got more and more stunning views of the city and after about 1,5 hours we arrived at the top. There’s a cute church up there and many tourist shops and restaurants. The only pity was that the smog clouded the view a bit. But it was definitely a trip worth taking. We quickly decided that it’s ok to take the furnicular down and arrived back at the hostel around noon. I used the time to rest and after a quick lunch at the hostel made my way to a free walking tour. It was a food & city tour and I quickly realized I wouldn’t have needed lunch before. Our guide Nicholas was cool and we’ve tried many yummy things like local fruits (and an amazing smoothie), empanadas, corn fried balls with cheese that he compared to the Dutch oliebollen (although they were way yummier than oliebollen), a local Colombian chicken soup and some really great BBQ meat (one was beef, the other one capybara - a kind of Guinea Pig). And of course some local drinks: a taste of the local Schnaps called Chicha and something the guide compared to mulled wine, without the wine ;-) The second part of the tour we saw a bit more of the city center and learned about the history of Bogotá and Columbia. Quite some dark stories I have to say.

The group was lovely, about 9 girls and one guy :-) two girls on the group were German sisters and as we found out my roommates in the hostel :-) the only pity of the tour: shortly after the start of the tour it started to rain heavily and wouldn’t stop. So we all bought a rain cape and off we go again. Through pouring rain and crossing streets which nearly became river crossings. Luckily after a while it stopped again and at the end of the tour we were all dry again. 

After we were waiting out another rain shower at the last stop, we made our way back to the hostel and got some rest. The two sisters and me went to a salsa bar after some time and I was quite proud of myself to get up & out. I was very exhausted, but going to bed at 7pm probably wouldn’t have helped my jet lag. The salsa bar our guide had recommended was nice and we had some more empanadas and a cocktail there. It was live music, but unfortunately no one was dancing. As it was very loud which made conversations quite difficult, we moved on after a while. The bar street was very quiet that night, so we went back to the hostel and had a last beer there. I’ve made it to 11pm :-) let’s hope I’ve conquered the jet lag now!