After leaving Medellin it was time for something new and what better way of doing that then by flying into Colombia’s sprawling, high altitude capital Bogotá! Three thousand feet above sea level.

La Candelaria, it’s cobblestone center featuring colonial era landmarks like the neoclassical performance hall ‘Teatro Colón’ and it’s also home to popular museums including the ‘Museo Botero’ with Fernando Botero’s artwork, the ‘Museo del Oro’ displaying pre Colombian gold pieces, ‘Primatial Catredal’ and lastly let’s not forget the fantastic ‘La Mount Monserrate’ that looks down upon the whole city. Zona T is where the party is at here if you like your salsa and nightlife!

What better way to get things started off here knowing that night I am heading out to watch in the local bars a World Cup Qualifier with Colombia themselves up against another place I had a soft spot for on my travels… Chile! Zona T looks like the destined destination me thinks.

Once again I end up in probably wrong side of the city of Bogotá and it seems very dated within the location of my hotel. Luckily this time round I didn’t make any errors with booking longer then I should of in a dangerous location and if I wanted to move I could do! Let’s at least give it a day or two here and see what other delights Bogotá can throw at me! It looks very third world here and yes it’s pretty dam cold here to! Of course being English we can normally adapt to hot and cold fairly well it’s just I am in Colombia and expected it to be a bit of a heatwave that’s all throughout!

So I check in at my hotel and head out to explore wrapped up in a bit more then I have been used to so far. Once again I notice a lot like Medellin how bad the economy here is with the amounts of homeless people there are here, especially with missing limbs! It’s a cause for concern! Think it’s best I tread around here very carefully being as it’s my last stop East of South America before setting off to the holy Brazil!

After some careful research I discovered Zona T was the best place to actually go watch the footie that evening but yeah like Medellin I’m based a good twenty minutes away or so from the nightlife again 😦 . I use the evening as a good chance to test out the environment, food, drink and of course the most important thing, the football! Colombia ended up drawing that night 1-1 against Chile in a very tense close encounter with my main man James scoring! I had the colours and James 10 on my Colombia shirt and you could say the locals were a little impressed I was showing the support to a country I am infatuated with over my own! Aguilar beers were being thrown everywhere and passionate support being shown throughout, I am glad I put this one ahead over watching England’s boring qualifier World Cup Qualifier against the mighty Slovenia!

Next day I used it as a good opportunity to pick out a better area to stay in rather then ‘Calle 6’. I wasn’t happy with my current location and I headed home pretty sharpish after the footie yesterday to make sure I was up and feeling fresh for the next day. Calle 6 seemed to have a lot of market activity going on early on in the mornings with a particular Colombian preacher doing my head in yelling into his microphone about a certain Gringo passing by acknowledging me and making everybody who walked past me wave at me! Good Bants Amigo!

It looked as if once again Zona T and Parque 96 are my ideal choices for the location as these are much much more appealing then the dreaded smell of urine in Calle 6! I found a hostel called ‘Urbana’ smack bang in the middle of where I should be and at no more then 36,000 Peso a night (£10) with superb wifi it’s a no brainer! That same night I moved in and already felt a bit more at ease within my last stop in Bogotá. Christmas has begun here also a good month or so earlier then it should be, check out that Christmas tree!

The next day I headed on a day out trip to La Candelaria which I was looking particularly forward to. I had heard back in the UK that terrorist activity had been going on in Paris which I really wasn’t best pleased to hear about so close to the UK itself. Weirdly enough I feel less at risks from ISIS, Al Qaeda attacks here then being back there in a few weeks! La Candelaria has a lot of appeal to it and some of the houses here are all painted in very bright distinctive colours making it a very unique place to visit. I managed to come across a French cafe and thought be best to pay some kind of respects to those who had sadly passed away due to another hideous rebellious act of probably another religious issue the world simply can’t seem to maintain. Why can’t we all just get along!?

La Candelaria is supposed to be known as a dangerous place to visit but for me it seemed very touristic and the ‘Primatial Catedral’ gave me a good chance for some awesome selfies! It’s not dangerous, it just requires some careful planning of where to go and what to do. Certainly worth a visit if you’ve plans on visiting Bogotá. That night after getting together some superb photos I used it as a good opportunity to get some of my ridiculously out of date blog done and upload of media on to social media to keep up with all those at home taking an interest in this adventure updated.

I never made it up to Mount Monserrate as the weather took a nasty turn the next day which unfortunately for those who live in Bogotá this is something that happens quite a bit so I had to reluctantly stay in that day due to weather conditions. That same evening after the weather dried out I wanted the opportunity to leave this fantastic country out in style as tomorrow is the seven hour trip to Brazil with a stop over in back in Panama for a couple of hours :(. To kick things off I had Colombia versus Argentina world cup qualifier and ventured around Zona T trying to find a suitable venue to go watch it on a big screen and get in my last bit of Colombian food! Brazil has a lot to live up to! Argentina were the better team on the day from a neutral’s respective and deserved their win. It was hard watching two nations kick the hell out of each other that I both had a soft spot for also (Colombia more so!) The South American flair and passion you just don’t see from the England team back home!

I met up with some guys and girls from the hostel I was staying at and our first stop on the night was an English bar serving believe it or not, English beers! Would you even believe they sold London Pride as well! Yes it was a little expensive but certainly worth paying for. Think there was only so much Aguilar beer I could keep on drinking without bloating me out too much! Next up was an Irish bar, what’s going on here in Bogotá!? They secretly have a thing for us back in the Kingdom Of United and Republic of Eire it would seem! The night in itself I recall being incredibly lively and I know for sure Colombian’s love to dance. I even got taught how to salsa briefly! Well an attempted effort with two left feet at that! I even got to see a signed and autographed guitar of Shakiras and asked if I was free to play for a Colombian 5 a side team being as I apparently looked like a footballer! That night got very messy indeed and it was worth going to the lengths I did for which could well be my last night ever in Colombia. Or not.

After a night on the Club Colombias, Aguilars and Havana and cokes my head the next day was ever so slightly the worse for wear. Still though I’m particularly excited as I am heading to Brazil Brasiiiiilll today! The country I’ve dreampt about visiting since my late teenage years is finally going to happen! Even though it will be a fairly long flight I know I’m now reaching the final chapter in my trip and the closing stages of the adventure of a lifetime but São Paulo and Rio for me are two parts of Brazil that I know for me are going to be well worth it. Finally I get to meet the Cristo in Rio in the funnily enough area code 21! Yeah it’s that magic number popping up, AGAIN! Oh mis dias!! Brasil Brasilllllllll!!!