Monday 14th December Had a good breakfast at the hotel & took a cab to the base of Cerro de Monserrate where we boarded a funicular train car to ascend to the park & the chapel overlooking Bogota. It was a good ride but still a fair walk up the hill to reach it. The highlight for me was that as we walked up through a garden of various plants we saw humming birds feeding from the flowers. Jane & I had seen this near Machu Pichu on Peru but there they ...

Saturday 12th December We had decided to take a friend's advice & visit Villa de Leyva, an old Spanish town about 120k north east of Zipaquirá & we went in style. A driver came for us in a Chevrolet 4wd & off we went but unfortunately he wasn’t too familiar with the vehicle, so first the windows were all locked & then he couldn’t operate the air conditioning. First we drove back along the road we came in on to Chiquinquira, whe...

Thursday 20th December Had a good night’s sleep but woke up & pulled up the blanket, a first in Colombia. Had breakfast at a cafe round the corner & then took our bags down the road to wait for a bus at the agreed spot. We were virtually hijacked into a 12 seater min bus & at 9.00, off we went southwards towards Zipaquirá on the way to Bogota. The bus climbed for some way & passed through hills before coming to rolling country with a ...