I have spent the past week in Bogotá. As usual I ended up staying longer than originally planned! Seems to be becoming a habit! Saturday I travelled from Sogamoso to Bogotá. I had lunch with Gilma before getting the bus at 4pm. Took about 4 hours and then got a taxi to the hostel. I have spent the past week doing a mixture of touristy stuff, 'normal' stuff and relaxing, which has been good. I have also enjoyed being able to find more 'international' food here...

On Friday (7th) Gilma (owner of finca) kindly invited me to go to a flower show in Tunja. I know nothing about flowers or gardening but have seen lots of lovely flowers in Colombia so thought it would be worth going to. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a really good day out. We got the bus to Tunja (1 hour) and had lunch at a nice restaurant. First stop was the flower display section which included a wide range of things all of which included a flower arra...

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the primary school where Juanita works. She teaches English there and I went into her lessons. It's a new, small private school with only 48 children! Must be a dream to work in, such small classes! The children are aged from 4 to 8 and have 5 or 6 lessons of English per week. I was impressed that the third grade (8 yr olds) were doing something that we teach in Year 7 (11 yrs) in England! On Tuesday I did some vocab teaching- fla...

Saturday I'd planned a day of catching up on blog and photo sorting,etc but didn't get very far! Went out for lunch with Gilma to a restaurant with a salad bar to go with the set meal, yes, a salad bar! I was so happy with my plate of salad :-) After lunch I tried an 'oblea', very typical in Colombia though I haven't noticed them before…..best described as two round wafers (about the size of a tortilla) with jam, arequipe, nuts, coconut in the middle. Sounds a...

I visited the hot springs in Paipa (1st Oct) as I decided it couldn't really make my cold any worse and might even help it! I also got to see a bit of the National Competition of the Bands which was on this weekend in Paipa. Gilma phoned and booked my spa circuit for me and I got the bus to Paipa, which is well know for its 'aguas thermales'. On arrival I had a quick wander then went to a bakery to get lunch, a chicken empanada and also a almojabana which is a ni...