No. 1: Bogota

The most terrifying thing about Bogota isn't the freak weather, nor the incredibly sinister men who sidle up to you after dark, and not even its disasterous meaty breakfasts. We instead assign this prize to its pot holes - yawning, sometimes bottomless chasms waiting to swallow you up as you mistakenly spend time worrying about the weather, or the sinister men, or your forthcoming gastric disaster.

This situation didn't stop us taking a bike tour around the city. For the most part, our guide Juan avoided Bogota's over 300km of bike lanes to lead us into 5 lane traffic. His rule was 'I go, you go' which worked well except for the times it didn't.

Although mad, Juan was also brilliant - blagging us into a coffee factory, showing us Bogota's many whores, and promising to take us out to play a game which involves gunpowder, lead weights and beer. There are over 8 million people here and almost all of them are amazing. (Absolutely all of them are better than us at salsa, but we're working on changing that.) People are desperate to talk to you mostly because they're very friendly and not because they want your money, possessions, or body. Taxi drivers demonstrate a widespread knowledge of English history (esp. regarding Nelson, Horatio and Wellington, Duke), salsa teachers invite us to drum and bass clubs, children laugh at Tim's hair.
We've been attempting to enjoy local specialities and customs, such as dipping cheese into our hot chocolate, enjoying plantains treated with blue food colouring, eating burger and chips with the plastic gloves bafflingly provided, and eating so much meat that stray dogs think we're made of pork.
Tim has only fallen into a pot hole once.

meat

meat

Not meat

biking Bogota