Arrived in Bogota on Tuesday morning after sleeping through the whole 8 hour bus journey and went straight to bed again when we got to the hostel. Just relaxed that day after eventually getting out of bed and watched a few films. Mark and Pat Kearney from PwC checked in that night after flyin in from Dublin for a 6 week holiday. I knew then that we would have to go out Wednesday night cos they were flying to Medellin on Thursday, Got up on Wednesday and got a bus to the Catedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral for those of you not fluent in Spanish like myself). Its an active mine where they mine for salt. In the mine they have 15 chambers for the stations of the cross and they have a Cathedral in the mine about 200ft below ground where people still go to mass on a Sunday! It's an amazing place and its unreal how they're still mining there for salt in a different part of the mine while there's loads of people visiting the place. The whole mine is 85% salt and the rest stone. Pictures will show it better hopefully.

Got back to the hostel and met up wit the two PwC lads and realised that it was time to start drinking before going out. Went to a club called Quiebre Canto, good night had but the club was full of gringos, not many Colombians at all unfortunately! Of course Mark and Pat didn't arrive back at the hostel until 8 that morning cos it was there only night in Bogota and wanted to experience it properly or something like that! I was in bed early as usual.

Was in good form on Thursday so went and done more touristy stuff, starting to feel like an actual backpacker at this stage. Went up to Monserrat which is a Cathedral built on top of the mountain surrounding Bogota (also feeling a bit holy with all the cathedrals I visited in the two days!). You can either get a cablecar or a train up the mountain, unfortunately the train was closed which more or less goes vertical up the mountain so got the cablecar which is more or less vertical too. At the top we had class views of Bogota which is a huge city! Walked around and went in to the cathedral to say a prayer for all of yas. The top of the mountain is 3000m so altitude was kicking in, every step into the church was tough. Back down from the mountain on the cablecar and went to see the government buildings and the Police Museum which had loads of stuff on Pablo Escobar and massive gun exhibitions, very cool museum and I'm not normally into them! That night another group of people from the Pitstop in Medellin arrived in the hostel and we played drinking games before me, Jonny and Mick went out with two Colombians that Jonny had met when he was in Rio. They brought us miles from the hostel to some random area of Bogota where there were no gringos and nobody spoke english. Had a great night chatting to the locals in my drunken Spanglish!

Didn't wake up until 12 or so that Friday when I got Will's mail about doing the border crossing to Ecuador the next day which meant I had to get a bus in the next couple of hours to Ipiales. Gave him a ring and at that stage it was too late for him to check out of the Pitstop so he decided to renew his visa and spend another week in Medellin and we woud meet up in Peru after I done Ecuador (bit of a mix up between us). Wasn't in no form to do the border crossing at that stage either. It was about 1 in the afternoon at that time and Mick and Josh were in some student bar where the beers were €0.50 so went and met them for a few. Place was packed with students! A good few drinks later and I was having a dance off with some Colombian which of course I won! This was about half 2 and the whole place, about 300 people were there clapping at us, great crack! Went back to the hostel about half 3 and got a few hours sleep before the party bus that night! All the crowd from the hostel went on the party bus that night, It cost about €10 and they had free tequila and vodka on the bus aswell as bringing us to two of the best clubs (Cha Cha and Penthouse) in Bogota where we all got in free! There were loads of Irish on the bus and needless to say the tequila was destroyed and everyone was locked! Not too many people can remember both clubs, me included!

Somehow managed to get up early on Saturday to watch Liverpool beat West Ham 3-2 thanks to Fernando's goal. It was great hearing the Spanish commentator sing "There was something in the air tonight the stars so bright Fernando" when he scored, quality! Back to bed after the game and took it easy that night, 1st Saturday night since I started travelling when I didn't go out. That night Josh the american guy and two english lads went out looking for a club, the area around the hostels is dangerous at night and it is recommended that you take taxis everywhere. The lads deceided to walk and got jumped by a group of 8 Colombians, one of the english lads got stabbed in the arm and the other guy got a few punches and had his money taken. Luckily for Josh, he managed to run away in time. The english guy probably wouldn't have got stabbed or the Colombians wouldn't have started hitting them only for the english lad punched one of them as soon as they approached them...should have just given them his money, he was only carrying about €15 anyway! Still scary enuf though.

Woke up on Sunday in better form and listened to the end of the all ireland, said my goodbyes to Jonny and Mick who were heading north to Cartagena and got the nightbus to Cali. Had a great time in Bogota, probably cos there was a good crowd in the hostel but it is dodgy enough as proved by the lads getting mugged on Sat night! Would defo recommend a few days there though, especially from Wed to Sat.