Bogota

On Thursday, December 11, I took a bus from Manizales to Bogota. I traveled with a group of five Irish guys I met at the hostel in Manizales. They were all on their last week of a 14 month around the world trip. So there was some drinking in Bogota.

The thing that struck me first about Bogota was the climate. The temperatures range from the 40's to low 60's year round. It was damp and rainy. The weather reminded me of winters back in Tennessee. I didn't get my camera out much at Bogota, and I generally don't take it with me at night. But I got it out one night to take some pictures of the Christmas lights.

I went to a club with with the Irish guys. It was on the 40th floor of a downtown building. It cost 35,000 pesos just to get in (about $15 US), which is an extraordinary amount of money in Colombia. I can't remember the last time I spent that much money to get into a bar or club in the States. It was the kind of place I usually hate, but I thought, "what the hell". The DJ played house and techno music. People were really geting into the music, which was basically just one continuous beat with no words and not much change in music. The crowd would start clapping at certain times. I wondered why everyone was clapping because it sounded like the same damn song they'd been playing for four hours. I had a pretty decent time, except when it started getting really crowded at about 2:00am and the music started getting on my nerves, (not to mention the crowd was about 70% guys). Most European guys genuinely enjoy going to clubs that play house and techno music. Most American guys don't really enjoy clubs, but will tolerate them because there are girls there. But European buys really seem to enjoy them.

On Sunday, December 14, I took a flight from Bogota to Lima Peru. This will be country number four. Geez, I'm goin to need to pick up the pace if I want to get everything in.