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| Sprawling Bogota from the cable car |
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| Our street in Getsemani, Cartagena |
Bogota’s a huge city, even more apparent when you take the (Swiss-made) cablecar to the top of one of the surrounding mountains. It sprawls from mountain range to mountain range across a vast high valley. We’ve seen only a few small portions of it, and we’re staying in one of the better areas, surrounded by great restaurants and cafes, and just down the road a cluster of shops and malls – so our only glimpse of the other side of Bogota has so far come only on our drive into the city from the airport. We started here in Bogota 10 days ago, then flew down to Cartagena for a couple of days of sun and sea. Cartagena is gorgeous (once you get past the Sunshine Coast style highrises). We stayed in Getsemani, a very old suburb, which originally used to house the artisans and workers who serviced the elite in the adjacent and very beautiful old walled city. Getsemani is now gentrifying somewhat, but is still a bustling blend of drugpushers , backpackers, family homes and the old interesting hotel like the one we stayed at, a gorgeous old place, only 7 rooms built around a courtyard, huge cool rooms with unglazed louvred doors and shutters, ceiling fans and cold showers, for which we were very grateful after sweaty days exploring the old town, or lazing on a Rosario island beach...
And then back up to Medellin, drug city turned elegant tourist mecca. We arrived early evening and left by midday the next day, so caught barely a glimpse of the place, but what we saw was fascinating. Most astounding, the Botero museum with its outdoor park of the local boy’s glorious vast fat sculptures. And then the excitement of renting a car in Colombia – we went with reputable Avis, just in case, but still ended up with an expensive 4 wheel drive which didn’t quite make it up the first hill – and there were to be a helluva lot more to come. So back down the hill we rolled, and an hour later we were on the road again in a Ford Explorer. A good move, as it turned out, because that big solid car with reasonable acceleration was just what we needed on the 300km, 5 hour drive up and down countless winding mountain roads to Maraquita. Stunning drive, through gorgeous country – but a lot of slow trucks which Gary overtook like a local. We got to Maraquita with just enough light left to find the way to our hotel, a simple but superb place perched on a hilltop overlooking plains and mountains, with a big open terrace on which we lingered over local style dinner and a few bottles of Chilean wine. A platform cantilevered over the hillside provided the perfect spot for early morning yoga before Gary’s friend Pablo flew in from Bogota and off we went visiting potential factory sites and avocado farms. First stop was a gorgeous piece of land, with a small but perfect house serendipitously featuring an avocado-shaped swimming pool, and the most wonderful bamboo and thatch barbecue area. Not sure how peaceful it would remain if a large avocado oil factory were to be constructed nearby, with trucks entering all day long...
Next day, another piece of land and then a private plane ride back to Bogota for Gary and Alex and the others, while Steve and I drove the rental beast back to Bogota. The main road was closed because of slips and mudslides, so we took a smaller road, which began slightly ominously with a police roadblock and a warning sign which my Spanish-speaking companion missed but which we began to suspect might have said something like “take this road at your own risk”! Anyway, at least there were very few trucks, as we climbed another vertiginous 2000m up a twisting mountain road, in excellent condition - for the first few kilometers. And then the devastation began. It’s unstable country at the best of times, but after months of rain, the steep hillsides were simply collapsing. And despite the valiant efforts of the repair crews, in many places the road was reduced to a rubble-strewn track over muddy streams and around giant boulders. Great fun to negotiate in our big beast, though there was the old road slippage tumbling away down a thousand meter drop which was slightly worrisome. And plenty of time to stop and take photos of both the slips and the magnificent views back down the valley to the Magdalena River. Despite detours, we made the 200km to Bogota in a respectable time of 4 hours, then took another hour of Nairobi-style driving to negotiate the few km to the rental car depot!
Dinner that night with the NZ ambassador to Chile, Peru and Colombia, a wonderful woman who was not only a great host, but who also set up some very positive meetings. So while Gary met next day with local politicians, Steve and I went sightseeing with Pablo’s wife Andrea, ending a long morning of gold museum (extraordinarily good) and Botero museum (more fat ladies - as well as a superb collection of 20th century art) with a very long lunch at one of Bogota’s many superb restaurants. Then yesterday another very long lunch, this time at Pablo and Andrea’s house in the country, a stunning place overlooking rolling hills reminiscent of NZ’s Northland, and filled with massive pieces of furniture recovered from demolished monasteries and theatres. The afternoon floated by, glasses and plates endlessly topped up by two attentive white-coated waiters, and too soon it was time to go back into town and get Steve off to his flight home.
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