Googie's Travelogues

From Cali, I caught a bus to Bogota, the capital city of Colombia. I was hesitant to take an overnight bus because of all the armed robbery related stories that I had heard, but since I am running short of time in Colombia, I had no other choice. The bus dropped me off in Bogota early in the morning, and I approached a policeman to help me with directions to my hostel. He called a younger policeman and put him in charge of me.

The young guy was surprised and excited to meet me, the only Indian he had ever seen. Within the limitations of my Spanish, we managed to talk about a few things while waiting for my bus. There were 2 other “touristy” looking people also waiting there, so I asked them if they were going in the same direction as me. It turned out that they were, so the 3 of us decided to share a taxi. I thanked the young policeman, and gave him a 10 Rupee note, which he gladly accepted.

My companions in the taxi were a girl from France and a local Colombian man. The guy was a theatre artist who came to Bogota often to perform in theatre shows. He was a nice man and voluntarily gave both of us his phone number and asked us to call him if we ran into any trouble while in Bogota. We parted ways in the historical centre of Bogota and I carried on towards my hostel.

After checking into my hostel and keeping my bags, I went in search of wi-fi and discovered a cosy little cafe with friendly staff and a really nice ambience. I had been in touch with a girl from Poland called Barbara who was reaching Bogota around the same time as I was. It turned out that she had arrived the previous day and we agreed to meet later in the evening at the weekly couchsurfing language practice meeting.