Sweet, Sweet Bogota

And thee shalt not be worried. I have arrived in one piece to my first destination, Bogota, Colombia. And what a great place be welcomed to.
The flight here was a bit exciting and I met some really nice people. The first thing meeting me at to Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg was a big screen saying my flight was canceled..
After a couple of hours delay I came to Frankfurt were I had already missed my flight to Bogota. They managed to book me in on a flight via one of my favourite vacation countries, Dominican Republic, however with a nice present of 9 hours waiting. A train to Frankfurt center for a couple of hours, a big coffee at Starbucks and a few small chats to Germans later I was on a flight to Dominican Republic for a short transit, then another stop at Panama City (seems to be a sweet country!). It’s funny what a missed flight and sudden changes of plans can bring. On the plane to Dominican Republic I heard two girls speaking Swedish. With my friendliest voice and a couple of minutes later, I managed to get both of the girls in the airplane bathroom with me, all naked!
OK, that might not be all true, not even close to the truth, but at least we had a nice conversation and exchanged some good stories:) On the transit stop in Panama City a guy behind me asked if I was Swedish. He was from Peru and had been studying in Umea for a year but was going back to Lima, Peru. Awesome dude who also happened to be surfing. He told me when I get to Lima, he’ll show me around and take me out for some surf and we exhanged contact informacione.

This is the brightest side of missed flights, delays and to the common man – misery. And reminds me that every situation, however shit it might seem, can bring some good things. In this case, some wonderful people that I hope to meet again on my travels.

I’m sitting here writing this in a hostel in the area Candelaria in Colombias capital Bogota. Since I hadn’t done any research, booked anywhere to stay or even looked at places to stay I was kind of in a very.. free situation, to put it positively. I got my bag and made it out of the security controls and walked towards the little tourist information desk. When the woman showed me on a map where the best area to find hostels were, two brittish girls were standing blowing me in my ear to get a look at the map.
We shared a taxi to the hostel area in town and I thought I might as well check out what their hostel was like. I hadn’t even reached the check-in desk before a spanish speaking woman lead me to an empty bed in a six bed dorm:) Neither did I have to check in, say how long I was staying or pay before hand. No, no, no, apparently you pay when you leave and the friendly and laid back staff was incredible!
In my dorm (hostel room) stood a dark curly haired and bearded guy saying “Welcome to Colombia! My name is Daniel”.
He turned out to be super cool, and one of the friendliest and most helpful people I’ve ever met. That after noon he showed me around Bogota City for a couple of hours, before happily showing my appreciation by buying him a late lunch.

The first night at the Hostel Sue offered a Party Bus Tour which I wasn’t late to jump on with the rest of the hostel people.
And let me tell you dear friends, the Colombian night life is something above the ordinary. First night was great, and the second night, a saturday off course, was even more spectacular. I can without hesitation say this was the craziest night in my life!! (no mum, I didn’t do drugs).

Yesterday was raining so we just walked around town for a bit, but the good weather today made me go up super early and take the cable car up the mountain looking over Bogota. Got some amazing photos and also had a really nice day. Now, we’re sitting drinking a couple of expensive beer at the hostel. 2000 Colombian Pesos, approximately 1 US dollar or 6,9 Swedish kronor do we have to spend on this poisonous drink.. Ruthless!

Well, here is the garden section of the excellent hostel Sue.

From today’s trip up the mountain looking over Bogota.

To be continued.

EDIT:
Here’s a panorama from the salt cathedral in Zipaquira. Biggest underground cross on the planet measuring 16 metres high and 10 metre wide.