Hello again. It has been three years since Kate and I fled the police in Bogota and now I am back. I am back and ready to continue my travels across Colombia and Central America. I can’t wait to tell you all about it and bring you along on my once in a lifetime adventure.

[Quick one grammar police, these blogs will continuously change tenses due to when I have the time to write]

We go! Of course the trip had to start with a few hiccups. Let’s just say don’t bring your festival bumbag with you through Heathrow security. Luckily all was fine and boarder control were not waiting for me at the gate.

Sadly on this adventure we say goodbye to Kate and hello to Ollie, my boyfriend who I forced to come travelling with me on our third date, crazy.

Everyone says travelling will either make you or break you as a couple but I am not too concerned. We are both incredibly sociable so we won’t be one of those annoying isolated couples in the corner and we like to do similar things, such as hiking. Although, Ollie loves birds and I am really trying to get into them.

In my head it was all going to go swimmingly but I had my very first ICK when I was on the plane… Ollie loves airplane food. Yikes.

Time to introduce our very first travelling friend, Ash. Ash sat next to Ollie and spoke to us all about her next two months working in a monkey sanctuary in Ecuador. Ollie was very impressed but I was more impressed by the fact she fit all her stuff in a cabin bag. Ollie was the main conversationist here but I did mention a time a chimpanzee tried to throw a boulder at me… ZZZ… we’ve arrived in Bogota. Next action, get a taxi to Granada Hostel.

My first thought when we arrived at the hostel was “it is going to take me a while to get into this hippy lifestyle.” The reason this crossed my mind was because we were told we could sleep on hammocks until our check in, which was in nine hours. In a second, I reignited my fear of heights.

We decided to fly on New Years Eve which in hindsight was dumb. It meant the whole of Colombia was sleeping on the day we arrived. Nonetheless, empty streets in Colombia is a rareity and so we decided to take advantage and I gave Ollie a tour of the centre. We saw the catherdral, the government houses, and the bottom of the Monseratte. The only problem was that a lot of walking meant my step addiction also resurfaced.

We finished our day by strolling around the Candelaria. Heads up, the Candelaria is supposedly one of the most dangerous parts of the city but maybe ignorance is bliss. The cobble streets and spanish architecture gave me nostalgia and I remembered doing all of this with Kate. We then got back to the hostel, had some food and quickly fell asleep.

Time for the next hiccup and I have lost my bank card. Sorry Mum and Dad.

But there is no time to lose, we began Day 2 by climbing up to Monseratte which is roughly 1186 steps and over 1800 feet of elevation. Google recommends you stay in Bogota for four days prior to get use to the altitude but obviously we didn’t do this and so I did find it very tough. I just can never believe how Colombians do these hikes with puffa jackets on.

When at the top I felt a serious sense of accomplishment as this was our first hike of many, even if it was more of a walk. The top was beautiful and a sense of nostalgia overcame me again as we went to the same pretty white stoned cafe Kate and I did.

On our way back to the hostel we found some delicious Venezuelan empanadas and I wish we had got more. The rest of the day was spent looking for a raincoat for Ollie as it start heavily raining here in the afternoon. Ollie has got to win an award for the worst packer, he didn’t pack a raincoat, swimming trunks, sandles, beard trimmers (he’s hairy) and the list goes on… but we managed to find one and haggle it down. Kate was right, Colombia has gotten much more expensive than when we last came.

We then finished off what felt like a big day by visiting the Museo Botero. I have nothing more to say other than Ollie said I reminded him of …

We decided to finish our very short trip in Bogota by escaping an American consipiracy theoriest, ranting about globalists and giants, and went for a delcious candlelit meal. I had chocolate pork.

Time for Salento.