Teresita Rosita has arrived in Colombia!
It's all a bit exciting - she's being a proper backpacker now, staying in a hostel, meeting travellers from all around the world, and exploring a new city with the fresh eyes of a tourist.
Teresita Rosita is in Bogotà, capital of Colombia and with an average temperature of 16°C, and unfortunately for Teresita Rosita she has arrived right on rainy season and it's been rainy!
Rainy and cold.
Teresita Rosita went walking her first day out in Bogota and after half an hour she was drenched to the bone, wishing she had some waterproof shoes (preferably of the gumboot variety), and that jeans weren't quite as absorbant as hers were proving to be. So she went back to her current home, got changed and tried again, and this time she had more luck. Well this time she jumped in a taxi instead, and went to see an Australian friend who just so happened to live in Bogota, what a happy coincidence...
Unfortunately he had to run away and work as the common people tend to, so Teresita Rosita stayed with his flatmates and enjoyed her first Colombian fiesta/rumba. It involved lots of aguadiente - the local drink enjoyed by the Colombian kids and lots of dancing... And at 3am when she went home Teresita Rosita felt like she had arrived in the right place.
And so her time in Bogota has unfolded, wandering the damp streets, perusing the street art that covers all the old area of town, going to the gold museum to look at lots and lots and lots and lots of gold, much of which supposedly hung from peoples noses and ears and lips.
At the Botero museum, Teresita Rosita saw lots of fat art, fat pears, fat violins, fat pigeons... What would Terisita Rosita look like if she was a Botero painting?
Big is beautiful as they say...maybe she should have stayed in Mexico a bit longer.
Then when night fell, Teresita Rosita set out with various groups of people - Danes, Germans, Belgians, Argentinians, Canadians, Colombians... They went drinking, they went dancing, they went exploring, they always tended to stay out a little too late as well, so Teresita Rosita was starting to get used to functioning with very little sleep.
And there was the rain. It rained and it rained and it rained some more. Pretty soon nothing Teresita Rosita owned was dry, but it didn't really matter because as soon as she left the hostel she was sopping wet. The roads became rivers, the potholes became lakes, and passing traffic became trecherous moving water falls.
So when on her last day in Bogota there was hints of blue in the sky, Teresita Rosita decided it was time to climb El Cerro de Monseratte, a 3000m mountain overlooking the city. Teresita Rosita joined the rest of the Sunday pligrams and started the steady, steep climb past all the food and trinket stands that the Latinos love to set up during these sorts of events. And it was pretty steep going. That, and the air was a bit thinner than she was used to back in Australia, so soon Teresita Rosita was huffing and puffing along with overweight Colombians, resting to take in the view whenever the clouds cleared slightly, until she made it to the top.
There she was met by the sounds of Sunday mass from the church atop the mountain as well as the next front of thunder, rain and lighting, this time a little to close for comfort. So she, waited and waited and waited, until she lost feeling in her fingers and toes and then she took the cable car down instead.
And so the rain continues, a lovely sound when you are safe and sound in a warm bed, but after 5 days of it, Teresita Rosita said enough was enough - she was going to the beach!
It's all a bit exciting - she's being a proper backpacker now, staying in a hostel, meeting travellers from all around the world, and exploring a new city with the fresh eyes of a tourist.
Teresita Rosita is in Bogotà, capital of Colombia and with an average temperature of 16°C, and unfortunately for Teresita Rosita she has arrived right on rainy season and it's been rainy!
Rainy and cold.
Teresita Rosita went walking her first day out in Bogota and after half an hour she was drenched to the bone, wishing she had some waterproof shoes (preferably of the gumboot variety), and that jeans weren't quite as absorbant as hers were proving to be. So she went back to her current home, got changed and tried again, and this time she had more luck. Well this time she jumped in a taxi instead, and went to see an Australian friend who just so happened to live in Bogota, what a happy coincidence...
Unfortunately he had to run away and work as the common people tend to, so Teresita Rosita stayed with his flatmates and enjoyed her first Colombian fiesta/rumba. It involved lots of aguadiente - the local drink enjoyed by the Colombian kids and lots of dancing... And at 3am when she went home Teresita Rosita felt like she had arrived in the right place.
And so her time in Bogota has unfolded, wandering the damp streets, perusing the street art that covers all the old area of town, going to the gold museum to look at lots and lots and lots and lots of gold, much of which supposedly hung from peoples noses and ears and lips.
At the Botero museum, Teresita Rosita saw lots of fat art, fat pears, fat violins, fat pigeons... What would Terisita Rosita look like if she was a Botero painting?
Big is beautiful as they say...maybe she should have stayed in Mexico a bit longer.
Then when night fell, Teresita Rosita set out with various groups of people - Danes, Germans, Belgians, Argentinians, Canadians, Colombians... They went drinking, they went dancing, they went exploring, they always tended to stay out a little too late as well, so Teresita Rosita was starting to get used to functioning with very little sleep.
And there was the rain. It rained and it rained and it rained some more. Pretty soon nothing Teresita Rosita owned was dry, but it didn't really matter because as soon as she left the hostel she was sopping wet. The roads became rivers, the potholes became lakes, and passing traffic became trecherous moving water falls.
So when on her last day in Bogota there was hints of blue in the sky, Teresita Rosita decided it was time to climb El Cerro de Monseratte, a 3000m mountain overlooking the city. Teresita Rosita joined the rest of the Sunday pligrams and started the steady, steep climb past all the food and trinket stands that the Latinos love to set up during these sorts of events. And it was pretty steep going. That, and the air was a bit thinner than she was used to back in Australia, so soon Teresita Rosita was huffing and puffing along with overweight Colombians, resting to take in the view whenever the clouds cleared slightly, until she made it to the top.
There she was met by the sounds of Sunday mass from the church atop the mountain as well as the next front of thunder, rain and lighting, this time a little to close for comfort. So she, waited and waited and waited, until she lost feeling in her fingers and toes and then she took the cable car down instead.
And so the rain continues, a lovely sound when you are safe and sound in a warm bed, but after 5 days of it, Teresita Rosita said enough was enough - she was going to the beach!