Bogota

                  After a last minute shuffle of plans, I threw my idea of starting my South American adventures in Peru and heading north to Colombia, I hopped off the plane in Bogota (where the immigration officials were not amused in the slightest by my lack of preparedness, and after waiting for my computer to load up for 10minutes to check the address of my hostel she asked me how long I was staying in Colombia and I shrugged with the gringo-est smile I could muster... she just told me to get the hell out. It was the only time she spoke english to me...). I still managed to find my way in the frigid air to my hostel in the Candelaria district, which was about what you can expect quality wise for $7 a night.

                I spent the next few days reuniting (the traditional Colombian way that involves drinking aguardiente from 2pm till 2am) with my friend Juan Carim, taking a great bike tour of the city with a new Israeli buddy (Ofer Paran), and then heading up to the monastery on the mountains to the east of town. Then, as I was perusing the local Museo del Oro, I started to feel ill. I ended up getting extremely sick with a high fever, stopped up nose, and a slew of strange symptoms that made it seem like it could possibly have been a mild dengue fever if it wasn´t the worst flu I've ever had. After a few days of enduring my sickness in the cold rainy climate of Bogota, I decided to head for the warm rainy climate of Medellin. I figured if I was gonna be sick, I might as well do it somewhere I would enjoy the weather (plus I didnt wanna miss the Feria de Flores)

               My plans got delayed because the first day I planned to leave, I could barely get out of bed (good luck on my part it turns out, since the police discovered a bomb in the bus terminal that day). I finally mustered up the strength to get down to the bus station and realized that going from Bogota, hovering at a cool 8,000 feet above sea level, to Medellin at 4,000ft  on a road that goes from 8k ft to sea level several times was a terrible idea. I couldn´t for the life of me unblock my ears and there were moments that I thought they were definitely gonna burst... but I made it to Medellin without incident and crawled into bed to suffer for the next few days.

Me and Juan (purple shirt) with my new Colombian friends!

Overlooking Bogota from the Monserrate monastery.

The beautiful misty mountains of Bogota east of the city.

At the Plaza del Toros on my Bogota Bike tour with Mike, our guide.

The view out of my hostel window on a chilly Bogota morning

Tradition goes that if you whisper what you want in his ear, it comes true... But I use logic so I passed on this one haha

My introduction to Tejo, the wonderfully Colombian game od hurling heavy metal disks across a room towards gunpowder targets... And you only pay for the beer you (have to ) drink (15beer minimum)... Needles to say this makes for an interesting morning activity.

A beautiful sunset in the Candelaria distric of Bogota after an afternoon rain shower.

Candelaria rainbows over Monserrate monestary hovering above the plains of Bogota like a watchful angel.