Ahhh, The Lizard Is Stirring…
January 5, 2009 by rtwsenior
This post is written a few hours after the last one was. Since there was no hot coffeepot inviting me to have a cuppa at the hostel, I decided to head down the hill to the most expensive hotel in town, the Hotel de la Opera, next to La Scala Opera House. I went in, made friends with the man at the desk by inquiring about their rates: $168 per night. Then, I decided to settle for breakfast in their bright yellow garden cafe, making friends with the two waiters while eating a fabulous omelet and toast, plus coffee for $5. `(I´m afraid I left my fine sunglasses there. At least, I hope so, because I haven´t found them since, though they could be lost in this backpack. )
From there, I set out on a walking tour of downtown Bogota….I have landed in the nicest part….finding a place to change my money and now a very modern internet cafe where I can, at last, luxuriate on the computer. There is only one machine at the hostel, so one must be quick.
Everyone is very nice at my Alegria´s Hostel here, but it´s cold at night and hard to sleep. I thought I was reserving a bed in a ¨three-bed dorm room¨ but I actually have four roommates, all guys, because the hostel counts the bunks as one bed. Mattresses are rawther hard and lumpy too. Doesn´t make for sound sleep, tho my roomies are very quiet.
Anyway, tomorrow, Ill catch a bus to Medellin where I have a private room already reserved in the Casa Kiwi Hostel, which sounds very good. Medellin is said to be very beautiful and it´s nine hours by bus north of Bogota. I am heading, by stages, up to Cartegena and then Santa Marta, both on the Caribbean Sea. Those cities should be warm and I can pack up all these winter clothes that I´m so very glad to have had here in Bogota. Today, however, while walking around town in my many, many layers, I was ready to strip down, as it´s now in the 70´s and sunny.
Little by little, I´m picking up the swing of travel once more…getting the familiar feel of walking interesting streets in an interesting country; struggling with my lack of language; overcoming the inertia of just wanting to curl up and roost somewhere, anywhere; and figuring out how to find the bus station and make plans to move on. My brain hasn´t quite caught up with my body yet. That takes a few days to work through the sluggishness of slow-thinking that produces. But, it will probably happen in my new town. One can hope, anyway.
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