Bogota, Colombia

Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017--Villa de Leyva to Tunja to Bogota

My guides had said it would be a 3 1/2 to 4 hour trip from Tunja to Bogota, and it is an hour from Villa de Leyva to Tunja.  No direct buses run from VdL except very early in the morning--before time for breakfast to be served at my hotel.  I didn't want to get up that early, and I didn't want to miss breakfast.  But I didn't want to delay too much.  My plan called for getting up at 6:45 to shower and get ready, to go to the front desk to pay my bill at 7:15, and to head up to breakfast when it opened at 7:30.  I figured that would allow me to get on a bus around 8:30 for Tunja and get me to Bogota around 13:30 to 14:00.  Then it would take another hour of combined walking and taking a local bus to get to the apartment.  So I told the apartment owner that I would arrive at 15:00 or maybe a bit later.

Well, the hotel was dead when I went down at 7:15.  I rang the dinging bell on the counter and waited with no response.  I tried it again.  After 5 minutes, I decided to walk to the front door and ring the doorbell.  Well, standing outside visiting was the man who was supposed to be available for guests at the desk.  I paid and walked upstairs for breakfast.  It was dead there, but it was still 7 minutes before time to start the service.  I went to the room and waited.  At 7:30, I went back up and it was still dead.  I looked up the man working downstairs, and he said in Spanish, "Breakfast doesn't start until 7:30."  I pointed out that it was already 7:32.  He started trying to explain, I think, that the lady would be there soon, but I wasn't sure.  Anyway, I got the impression that breakfast would be when it would be which bothered me based on my plan and the long trip ahead.  I said, "No desayuno?  Nada?"  Which means, "No breakfast. Nothing?"  Then the man called the woman on the phone.

Anyway, it means that I did not get out of breakfast and away from the hotel until an hour later than I planned.  I did manage to get the last seat (middle of the back row) on a mini-bus leaving for Tunja.  Then, we arrived in Tunja in only an hour instead of the 1 hr. 15 min. it had taken going there.  And as I walked into a terminal, a woman was urging me to rush for a bus for Bogota which was behind one other bus in line to pull out of the station.  I got on it, paid my money, then waited. We just sat there.  They were still trolling for more people to get on the bus as other buses pulled around us leaving, including another bus or two headed to Bogota!  I knew that this was sometimes a problem at stations here; I even read a blog entry where a woman left a bus after paying and got on another one ready to leave because she wasn't sure when hers would ever leave.  As I looked around ours, we only had about 7 passengers, so I began to worry we might sit there another 45 minutes or an hour until we were full or almost full.  But 15 minutes later, with only 2-3 more passengers having boarded, he pulled out of the station. 

The fact that we had waited so long there made me wonder if this was a "local" bus which would stop at every town and even along the highway to pick up passengers and take much longer to reach Bogota than the premier buses.  My fare was also a factor in my wondering it, because it was half of what I thought it might be.  But the bus moved along at a fast clip and only made two official stops.  (It stopped a few more times, because all buses will stop anywhere to let people off where they want to get off.) 

As we traveled along the highway not far out of Tunja, I saw a sign indicating 89 km to Bogota.  An hour later, I saw another that said it was 42 km to Bogota.  That didn't fit with what my guidebooks had said.  But sure enough, within 2 hours we were in Bogota.  And another 30 minutes later, I was off the bus at the terminal.  We had made up more time than I had lost at the hotel.  I stopped by the tourist office to ask the lady about the bus, because I got the impression from reading that only prepaid electronic slap cards are used now.  She said that it's true, but I could just ask someone to pay for me and give them the cash. 

I found the stop and waited.  My bus 166 was supposed to pass every 6 minutes.  Lots of buses were passing including several with the same route number.  But about 6 minutes after I arrived, a 166 came.  I just asked in English, "Will anyone pay for me and let me give you the money?"  A man in a suit got up, slapped his card so I could get through the turnstile, and sat back down.  I handed him 2200 COP and sat in the seat in front of him. 

From then, all I had to do was use the GPS on my phone, watching the blue dot showing our location as we moved through the city.  I knew where I was supposed to get off this bus.  It took over half an hour because of heavy traffic at one major intersection.  But I got off just where I expected and walked directly to the building where my apartment is located.  It was 13:30 when I arrived--an hour and a half earlier than the owner expected me! 

He was cleaning the apartment for me.  He let me leave my bags, gave me, a key, showed me a few things I needed to see, and then asked me if I would mind coming back in an hour after he had finished cleaning. 

I went out exploring.  It's a great neighborhood.  Enrique Olaya Herrera National Park is across the street.  Also across the street and beside the park are main buildings of the National University of Colombia with other buildings scattered all around the neighborhood.  Another university is off to one side, too.  So there are small streets within 3-4 blocks of here filled with restaurants, copy shops, etc., frequented by students.  I just wandered to see what I could find in all directions and returned two hours later.  But I made a stop before coming into the building at a sandwich shop which had lines of students earlier.  It was about the size of a large elevator inside with one woman working.  She had pre-made sandwiches (3 kinds) on display.  I bought a "regular" with ham, cheese, and tomato inside a baguette.  She asked what sauce I wanted, and I took guacamole which she said was picante.  She spread about 5 teaspoons of guacamole inside the sandwich and then put it inside a griddle to toast it panini-style.  It cost about 67 cents!  And it was delicious.

I've spent the rest of the day in the apartment.  I did a load of laundry, I watched the first episode of Narco on Netflix, I made a couple of phone calls.  The apartment is very nice--roomy, modern, and clean.  It will be home for 5 nights/4 days.