Quiet Sunday in Bogota

Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017--Bogota

All morning was spent in more research.  First, I started looking at flights between Medellin and Pereira.  One airline had non-stop flights, but with small planes and very limited luggage allowances.  The other airlines all went through Bogota with a change of planes, so they were going to take 4 to 4 1/2 hours at the shortest.  I went back to read about buses and found that the 8-hour trip I had been told it would be was untrue.  It is a 5 to 5 1/2 hour bus trip.  Since the airport in Medellin is an hour out of town, that means that taking a plane would involve as much time as taking the bus.  So I gave up on buying an air ticket and decided the bus would be simpler and cheaper in the long run.

After deciding to take the bus, I realized I was back to another problem I had tried to solve before and I have been asking everyone here to help me decide.  There are three cities close together in the area will I will go after Medellin--Pereira, Manizales, and Armenia.  Each sounds nice and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.  Armenia is probably the prettiest, but it is very hilly, gets lots of rain and is deep into the mountains meaning that it takes a long time to get out of it when heading elsewhere.  Pereira is the biggest of all of them and doesn't have that much character, but it is a major university center making it interesting, and there are very nice hot springs just outside of the town.  Manizales is much like Pereira--a true city and a university center--while being smaller and higher up in altitude with more rain.  I will probably stay in Pereira and make a day trip to a hot springs and maybe another day trip to Armenia.  My next stage of planning is to start looking for a place to stay in Pereira including the possibility of staying one night at one of the hot springs resorts.

In the afternoon, I wandered around the area of town called Chapinero.  It's a large district, so I mainly confined my explorations to a section of it that is known for alternative lifestyles.  Along with longtime residents, it now has lots of trendy students and young adults and is the area where lots of gays live.  Walking down one of the main streets in the district brought back memories of Carnaby Street in London back in the 60s and 70s.  Lots of the stores sell clothing that requires a bold and brave person to buy and wear--one who really wants to stand out as an individual rather than one following a fashion trend that others have adopted.  The business district within this section of Chapinero isn't as pretty a neighborhood as I expected mainly because it is getting to be rather old.  But the section just to the east abutting the mountains has wonderful neighborhoods with nice, fairly new apartment buildings with big windows providing nice views and letting in lots of light.  I saw lots of men who looked gay walking into business district area from that neighborhood.  And further on out beyond this bohemian conclave are moder office, shopping, and entertainment complexes.

This evening I have been reading and relaxing.  I'll watch an episode of the Netflix series Narco before heading to bed.  Tomorrow is my last day here in Bogota.  (Speaking of that, I looked up the Pope's schedule and was relieved to see that he does not arrive until Wednesday morning on his plane.  I was afraid he would arrive on Tuesday and that I would have traffic problems trying to get to the airport for my flight.  However, now I have to worry that his day to be in Medellin is next Saturday--my last day there.  I'm going to have to go to the bus station soon after I arrive to buy my ticket to Pereira because there may be thousands of people heading out of Medellin that Sunday after spending Saturday trying to see the Pope!)