Joanne in Colombia: I mostly have places to stay

It's hard to believe, I am leaving on this trip in less than four weeks. And I have Christmas and Winter term start up to keep me distracted until I go.

At some point since I wrote the last post, I went onto Booking.com and found some places to stay. Who would have guessed that with a massive seat sale on flights to Colombia during high season, that many places would already be full!? Not me apparently.

That plus my recently acquired 'high falutin' standards' means the hotels are as much as all of my flights combined. No problem, who needs to save for retirement when you are living the retirement life while not retired? Not me apparently.

I get to Bogota at 4am on January 18th so I just booked a room for January 17 just to avoid hassles. I am booked for every night except the night before I leave. I was trying to decide if I should stay near the airport since I fly into Bogota at 5:30pm and fly home the next day at 8:40 am. As I write that, I realize, yes, just stay near the airport. But that really means I can't buy anything! Nothing! No buying something in Bogota and leaving it at my hotel until I get back. Anything I buy I have to carry with me and if you remember from my last post, I am only allowed a child's school bag as carry on for my Wingo flights.

Oh, yes, before I decided in the last paragraph to book a room near the airport, I was trying to figure out how to get to and from the airport/downtown. Bogota, I discovered, has a massive transit system with trains and subway called TransMelenio. I looked at their website and saw the massive map and how it does not seem to go near my hotel? But I can't be sure because I could not find a map that includes both subway stops and street names that are even close to the Booking.com street names.

I decided to stay in the touristy area of Candelaria. I don't have a lot of time there so this way I can be walking distance to the highlights such as the Gold Museum that literally everyone who's been there says is a must see.

I was talking to my friend Dottie last night. She loved Colombia and recommends a free walking tour company... I wrote it down... one sec... Beyond Colombia Walking Tours. Sure, I was intrigued by the 'historical tour' but she really had me at the free 'food tour'! I'm gonna look that up right now.

Oh man!! They are in all three cities. My trip might just be walking around, following the person with the red umbrella. Finally something other than cocaine and kidnapping.

(five minutes later). I am booked for the Food Tour on the 18th and the War and Conflict Tour on the 19th (so I still get to do the cocaine and kidnapping, I would hate to miss out). I'll look at Cartagena and Medellin later. This post has already been derailed enough.

https://youtu.be/yI7NnrxJ5Iw

-77777778875555555555555555558888888888888888888888 (Pigeon stopped by for a comment if you are interested in what she thinks about this trip -1 is 'exceeds expectations', 9 is 'very unsatisfied').

All of this food talk and video is making me think a cooking class might be a good idea. hmm. $120 CAD!. I'll wait until I get there and see what I can find. My falutin' standards are not that high.

What were we talking about...? Oh yes, hotels. I am booked in Masaya Bogota in Bogata (obviously). ...more googling. 7 minute walk from the bus stop to my hotel. Probably not at 4am though? Probably...

https://www.masaya-experience.com/en/bogota/

Then I'm booked in Santa Alejandria Hotel in Cartagena.

https://hotel-santa-alejandria.negocio.site/

And then the Jaguar Refugio in Medellin. Which you just know I booked because of the name. I got an email after I booked letting me know there are no windows in the rooms because of the street noise. 😕 But it's got a 9.4 - Fantastic! rating. So, we'll see (and you will get to read all about it I'm sure)