Chocolate caliente con queso, por favor

Yes you read that right- yesterday I had my first experience of hot chocolate with cheese in. It's a traditional way of having hot chocolate in Colombia and I was very interested in trying it out, but if I'm honest I was a little disappointed. I'm quite a cheese enthusiast but this cheese was very mild and rubbery so it didn't really add anything to the chocolate taste unfortunately. Still, I'm fully in support of anything that gives me an excuse to add more cheese into my diet. At the same time I tried my first tamale which is rice, chicken, vegetables and spices cooked inside a banana leaf. It's not the most visually appealing thing ever so please excuse the lack of photo, but it was really tasty. I did take a photo of the place itself just to show how small and easy to miss these lovely little places can be.

Aside from food, I've ticked quite a lot off my Bogota to-do list since I last checked in; 

- I got a bus out to a town called Zipaquira to visit an underground salt cathedral (overrated & personally wouldn't recommend it)

- On Saturday I went out to a place called Andrés Carnes de Res which is half restaurant half club and is so big it takes up two whole blocks. It was a lot of fun but made me horribly aware of just how bad English people are at dancing- it seems that everyone in Colombia can salsa like a professional. A Peruvian guy staying at my hostel tried to teach me but when he tried to get me to do a sort of shoulder shimmying move my British-ness got the better of me.

- I visited a part of town called Usaquen on Sunday to wander round a flea market. I had to get on one of the buses they call 'collectivos' where the driver goes around shouting out where he's going and you just have to get on and see where you end up. Luckily I managed to keep track of the streets and didn't end up in the middle of nowhere- I just love it when I manage to do something like that successfully. 

- Yesterday I went up Monserrate, the main mountain in Bogota. You can walk up if you have a death wish but I went with the easy option (obviously) and got the cable car up. The view was incredible as you can see for yourself: 

I've made plans for where to go next too- on Friday I'm heading up to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast then next Wednesday I'm getting a boat out to a place called Casa en el Agua to sleep in a hammock next to the sea for 3 nights. I won't torture you with photos of how amazing it looks but if you fancy being jealous of me today feel free to look it up! 

I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to consolidate my very limited Spanish, hasta luego!

Postcards from Bogota

Hola chicos! I think it's fair to say that when I arrived in Bogota on Monday I was questioning why on earth I'd flown half way round the world alone. The city looked intimidating, I couldn't understand anything and I was exhausted from nearly 24 hours of travel- though I did watch lots of films on the plane (FYI Birdman is a very strange but interesting film, 7/10).

Fast forward nearly 72 hours and my feelings have completely changed. I've had three days of Spanish classes which has already helped me out a lot, though my inability to roll my 'r's is pretty upsetting. My hostel is lovely, I've met some really interesting people from all over the world and I've 100% been reminded why I've decided to drop everything to do this. Now, I don't think I'll be able to count Bogota as one of my favourite places in the world but it does have a certain charm about it. A few little observations:

• There are dogs wandering the streets all over the city, but so far Colombian dogs (los perros) seem very friendly.
• The pavements are really high off the road- those with little legs would struggle.
• There are little stalls selling fresh juice and food everywhere- in the break at my Spanish school everyone heads over the road to buy 'arepas con queso' which is basically a flat hot bread sort of thing filled with cheese. This, combined with how cheap food is (e.g. on Tuesday I got a fresh juice, bowl of soup and beef with rice and veg all for 8000 pesos, which is £1.79), may be problematic for my waist line.

Yesterday I went on a walking tour of all the street art in La Candelaria district which was so interesting and gave a real insight to political and social issues that Colombians are currently facing. For example, despite Bogota hardly being a hot holiday destination, Colombia is actually in a drought at the moment which has left hundreds of indigenous tribes suffering. To add to the problem, Colombia has lots of raw materials which big American companies are after, for example petroleum. In order for them to tap into these resources, the companies redirect rivers or create dams, leaving these tribes with even less water to survive on. The unofficial number of fatalities caused by this in 2015 alone is around 700 people. The tour guide, Jay, told us all about this and loads more and it really has given me a different appreciation for the country and its inhabitants, especially as he said how desperate Colombians are to change the typical violence and cocaine associations that many people have with the country. 

Here are just a few examples of the art we were shown:

If you ever happen to find yourself in Bogota with a couple of spare hours I highly recommend you take the graffiti tour.

Until next time, hasta luego!