100% colombian

After going to the wrong airport, getting more than a little shit from the Brazillians about not having a plane ticket out of South America and a 7-hour plane ride, we finally made it out of Brazil and into Bogotà, Colombia.

Like Brazil, it is not what I expected at all. That´s about where the similarities end. The tranquility of our beautiful hostel (clay roof, courtyards with hammocks and Spanish-speaking women dressed in organge making us tea) and the cobblestone roads of the historic old town are in sharp contrast to the constant party in 100 degree weather of Rìo.

Yesterday, we took a tour of the police museum, which is apparrently not a very popular tourist attraction. Honestly, we just wanted to see Pablo Escobar´s bloody jacket from the day he was killed, but we ended up getting our own private tour of the beautiful building filled with artifacts of not only Escobar´s capture, but the whole history of the Colombian police force including bazookas and photos of be-headings. We asked our tour guide why there were police all over the street with machine guns, which we found to be a little unerving, but he explained it´s only because the president´s house is in the historic district and they are there to protect him. After that, we drank the best coffee ever for about 40 cents.

Everyone we`ve come in contact with here has been overly nice to us. One guy took one look at me on the street and said in English ¨Oh my god! Hello! Welcome to Colombia country! How are you?¨ Without my camera and Tori across the street, I have no idea how he even knew I was a tourist. In a small restaurant, we ate a 3-course meal for less than $6 total and the owners animatedly talking to us, shocked that we are Americans here to visit and just kept listing places to go and things to see and telling us to be careful.

Today, day 9, is consisting only of an extremely long 25-hour bus ride to the border of Colombia. There, we will stop in a small town called Ipiales for the day and then take another bus (only 5 hours this time) to Quito, the capital of Ecuador.