Bogota...What a Riot!

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Well arrived in Bogota from the Caribbean coast and was shocked to find out it was pretty damn cold, if we'd bothered to do our homework we would have found the the capital of Colombia lies at an altitude of around 2600m which is, to state the obvious, pretty far off sea level.

Due to several recommendations we checked into hostel Sue (you'd love the place mum) which turned out to be a great little place in the university district of Bogota, hence loads of young people and hence loads of bars...perfect.

The ultimate fun stoppers
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Spent the first few days trawling through the bars making sure safety standards were being adhered to, bouncers were keeping crowds at or below capacity and acceptable hygiene levels were being maintained....we might have had a drink or two as well. Managed to catch up with loads of people we have met in our travels which in some strange stretch of coincidence happened to all be in Bogota at the same time. Two big events occurred in Bogota while we were there and neither will we forget in a hurry.

Me and the fun stoppers having some...fun
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First was Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame playing a big gig in one of the parks, not being big Pink Floyd fans we weren't planning on going but we were virtually forced by everyone in the hostel to go out and buy tickets the day of the show.  Will never regret a dollar of the $50 we paid (have been told that tickets else where in the world including Brazil are around $200) as it was a brilliant show both musically and visually and we heard so many songs we liked but never realised were Pink Floyd..as our mate Richie said "If you're not a Pink Floyd fan before the show you will be after it" and he was spot on.

Carnage
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The other big event was the riots for George Bush visiting to sort out a free trade agreement or something, not being overly political I wasn't that fussed about George coming over but was very excited about the riots that were bound to ensue.  Unfortunately we had a rather big night before so everyone slept in and we got down town after the major rioting had finished, although Jo swears she saw Bushes motorcade and we all saw the smashed shop windows, burnt bins and general trash that a riot creates.  We did catch a few minor little clashes with the riot police, with people lobbing bricks and had tear gas shot vaguely in our direction...even a vague whiff of that stuff stings, would hate to take a direct hit.  After wandering around for about an hour trying to see some action we gave up as everything had really died down, the riot police even posed in a photo with me and it appeared they were having as much fun as the rioters.

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On the way back we managed to get detained by some undercover detectives for about two hours as we didn't have a single passport on us between six of us.  Fifty phone calls later to confirm that we weren't a multinational Islamic Jihad cell they let us go...idiots could have drove us to our hostel ten minutes away and it would have been done with in 15 minutes.

One downside was I managed to get pick pocketed in downtown Bogota but must say it was quite a professional job with a nice distraction technique and very light fingers involved..impressive but I still want to kill them.

An absolute tragedy
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Other downside was trying to get my British Visa which took three days and about $50 in taxis for a job that should have taken an afternoon, not the most helpful embassy staff on the planet..one in particular..but I wont name names due to fear of getting my visa revoked...you know who you are!

Well Bogota was both a relaxing and hectic time, but with too many people in the hostel only too willing to drag you out every night of the week, and with our little or no will power we decided it was time to hit the road again and check out the coffee growing region of Colombia.