Almost 1 year in Bogota, Colombia

So my family and I moved to Bogotá, Colombia almost a year ago because of my wife's job.  We had been expecting to go to Kuala Lumpur and until December 2010 we were fully expecting the move out East however as with any job in the Oil Field sometimes things just don't work out the way we plan.

So in April 2011 we set out for Colombia.  Our trip didn't get off to the best of starts, I was very ill the night before we were due to fly and this illness kept with me until a day after we arrived in Bogotá.  Air France/Charles De Gaulle airport decided instead of allowing us to arrive with all our luggage we would be best served with only 3 of 6 pieces for the first 3 days of our move.

The first few days of Bogota were a bit of a blur to me, Illness and the increase in elevation took their toll and I felt a little under the weather to say the least.  Speaking of weather, Bogotá has the strangest weather patterns I have ever lived in.  I guess being so close to the equator and at such elevation is the reasons but every day on average any day of the year it will get to a high of 19C and a low of between 5C and 9C.  It also rains a lot, not predictably everyday like a tropical region just almost every day.  I have also noticed that almost everyone has a coat, sunglasses and an umbrella with them everyday, most likely you will use all of them everyday also.

So what have we seen and done so far while here in Bogotá. Lucky we have seen some of the major tourist attractions.

Salt Cathedral.

This is outside of Bogotá, here is the Wiki Salt Cathedral Link

        

Monserrate

A church on a hill, aren't they always!  Wiki link to Monserrate

View of Bogotá from Monserrate

Gold Museum 

This is right in the centre of Bogotá, Wiki Gold Museum Link.  It is a really good place to visit and the tours are in English. :).  All this gold got me thinking of about the Dwarfs in the Discworld books and their song about gold, I digress here are some pretty pictures I took.

Day of the candles

This is another Colombian holiday.... Day of Candles wiki link

Ciclovia

Before and after

We have also tried to take part in Ciclovia which is where they close the streets off to cars during holidays and on Sundays.  Although this too was not a smooth start.  The first time we took part on bikes, some idiot crashed into Amanda and the result was a broken wrist.

Amanda enjoying car free streets

This meant that biking at Ciclovia was off the cards for a while.  :(  but we did manage to do lots of km's running.  We are now back to cycling occasionally and running/walking to enjoy the rest of the time.

Looking over the city on a Ciclovia day

And finally for now

Cute and fluffy

While out walking with one of my friends here in Bogotá we discovered a stray sickly kitten under a bush.  Being the kind people we are we ended up rescuing the cat.  Clearly a cat from under a bush does not come without problems, this one has many but the main thing is he can't close his eye's properly. So far we have had two surgeries to try and fix this to no avail yet.   

Post 1st Surgery

Post 2nd Surgery

Cone of shame!

Cone of shame free and making a break for it

 Right that is enough about me for now... Next post when I think of something interesting to say.