Villa de Leyva to Bogota

After Villa de Leyva, we went to a hotel about 1 hour away recomended to us. It was in a really remote area. We took a collectivo for about 45 min and then had to walk a while. There weren´t even any cars on the roads to hitch a ride. It sure was a peacful place with lots of waterfalls and beautiful veiws of the valley.

After that, we went to Tunja. Tunja is a universtity town and they are usually pretty fun but we couldn´t think of a good reason to stay so we continued on to Bogota.

I needed to return to Bogota to get an extension on my visa. It was pretty easy to get an extra 60 days. I got fingerprinted by a computer that I had never seen before. You put your hands on glasss and it takes detailed pictures of your prints.

After taking care of the visa, we went to a soccer game between Colombia and Paraguay. The security was like nothing I had ever seen. There were two extra perimiter fences around the stadium. We had to show our tickets and get searched at both and a 3rd time to enter. Each time we got a lecture about how we aren´t to take pictures with my camera. There must have been more than 250 police in and out of the stadium. The international games are much safer than the league games because everybody favours the same team. I don´t know if they step up security for league games. In the news on TV, after showing the hightlights of a League game, they always say,"And it´s always the same stary after", and then show people thowing bottles at each other and fighting.

The fans were lounder an hour before the game started with the stadium about 1/5 full than Ihave heard at any sporting event in Canada. Colombia won with a little luck.

I´ve been enjoying Bogota. The first time I had some bad luck picking resturants and explored the same area. I´ve found some fantastic resturants and can get a stellar meal for under $10. One place that I like to go for lunch really has top notch food for $3.50 including salad, fruit, soup, drink, and 4-5 things for the main course. There is also a area in the north called Zona Rosa. It´s very much like Old Strathcona in Edmonton but it´s at least 20 times the size. It has endless trendy bars, nice resturants and a couple of malls that are more than a little too pricey for me.

Next we are headed south. I´m not sure where. No time to spell check!