¡Hola !
You ask what is it like? Awful & dangerous!!!!!! Obviously when travelling independently I have to choose my own hotels.The internet sites They are like house adverts - they never show they are near the steel works or sewerage farm. my hotel was in a very safe neigbourhood, the people there were nice ( on the whole) but nothing worked.
Turning on some of the lights seemed very dangerous!!! The doors on the rooms made me feel that I couldn´t unpack my case and kept it locked at all times. My safe neighbourhood was not near any tourist haunts.
My hotel had lots of colombian tourists , so you can tell it was cheap. 99 pounds for a weeks bed/b.fast, beer, laundry, internet. Taxis I have never found so cheap or as honest as here. But there is a problema. My hotel phones for a safe cab but how do you get back? Everyone drills it into you don´t take a cab on the streets. Using taxis all the time ( buses here are brand new, the roads are great but they are dangerous for robbery Some have been held up!) I got to know the direction of my hotel.
One day I was going to their famous gold museum and I noticed the cab was going towards the mountains - not the city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very calmly ( well alright, controlled hysteria ) , I said "This isnt the normal way is it?" The driver , who looked like an film extra who ALWAYS played the cruel Mexican bandit, gave me this smile and said" I am turning left now, señor", which I knew was the right way. You have to be so careful here.
Now I know you will read this the wrong way but nonetheless is true. Within three hours of arrival at my hotel I had a 23year old girlfriend. She was really helpful & taught me a lot (NO! not that!). The woman was a recepcionista at the hotel and spoke no english. SHE paid for the taxis when we went out sightseeing, paid for coffee or a coke ( the drink not the white stuff), always warning me not to get money from my pocket. " You are always showing too much money" she would tell me. She never accepted a share of the fare/bill. Wages are not high here so if there was a scam it didnt cost me anything!!!!!
It is only 2 years since the army was fighting guerillas here in the capital so security is tight. Your bag is X rayed and you have a body search at any shopping mall. At the aeroport on arrival you are body searched by the customs then further along by the police and lastly before exit by the army.There are sniffer dogs all over the aeroport!!! I suspect this is to stop private enterprise rather than to stop smuggling as there were kilos of the white stuff discovered on the national airline, Avianca, when it landed in Madrid some months ago. Found, of course, in the diplomatic pouch no less.
The altitude makes me feel tired by 3 in the afternoon and I can´t wait to get away from here. I been to Avianca´s office this morning to change my ticket to the first available flight.
The weather is T shirt warm during the day but cold at night.On my second day I was caught in a deluge. Stepping off the pavement to cross the road I fell into a foot deep hole and got very wet. Still it wouldn´t be a South American holiday for me if I didn´t do that and twist an ankle. I´ve added that to my bout of sciatica with is probably from my heavy suitcases.
The above is a true account of Zorros adventure since he left the UK, with his permission, I will keep you up to date with any further adventures that he informs me of
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