I well and truly earned this view of Bogota
Yes this view was truly earned, but not in the sense my family would endorse. But before I tell you about that let me share what I saw on my way there. As is the norm at the start of the day, I miss a few turns or take a wrong turn until I eventually warm up. On one of my little detours I found myself on a street without motorised traffic but an enormous number of bicycles.
The road was closed to all, except for cyclist. With bike police ensuring no traffic - they stopped me!
It was fantastic seeing hundreds of cyclist using this road without fear of traffic - perhaps it was a special event or a Sunday morning thing, There are lots of road cyclist here on very swish bikes - Nairo Quintana is obviously making an impact. Tough climbs for them too!
When I found the foot of the mountain I parked my bike and decided that I would walk up, it's said to be a 45 minute climb. I found what was the start of the path but the large gates were locked and two policeman were turning people away. I walked down the road and had the choice of a funicular railway or a cable car. I eyed both queues and chose the shorter of the two. The Funicular queue was unbelievably long and my thoughts turned to estimating how long it would take me to reach the front, my guess was 2 hours. So I walked around the corner where the queue for the cable car was, This was no more than a 15 minute wait. The time passed quickly in the gentle morning sun. But just before I reached the front of the queue, I was made aware that this queue was just to obtain a ticket, the queue fro the cable car was around the corner. The price of the ticket was around £2, which is a special price for Sundays. This would explain the enormous number of people here.
With my newly acquired ticket I walked and walked and walked before I found the end of the queue for the cable car. I reasoned that I had nothing else to do so I might as well stand in the warming sun and people watch. The first hour went reasonably quickly but I did contemplate forgetting it and going back to the hotel. I stuck with it and after 2 and half hours I was in the cable car. The views were majestic and gave a great idea of the size of Bogota. The sun had got up and it was becoming hot, so ascending the 1000ft was appreciated as at the top it was more pleasant and cooler. I took a few pictures of the church and the views but the place was so crowded it was a little unbearable. I decided to head back down, reasoning that there must be a long queue for the car down as the numbers up here were increasing exponentially.
I was not wrong, there was another long queue for the car down. Not nearly as long as the one up, but if I stayed here too long the queue would only get longer. I was back on the downward journey after about an hour. So my day was 3 1/2 hours queueing for a ten minute photo opportunity - good eh? Whilst queueing it suddenly struck me that I didn't have Tinks with me, she was not in my bag, which was half open. She'd either been stolen or I'd left her on the bike. Either way, I was not counting on her being in my ownership for the rest of the journey. It made me realise in that one moment, how hard it would be without a GPS. My journey down was spoilt by my negative thoughts surrounding this loss.
The photo foreshortens the true height but the top is at 3100 metres
I quickly made my way through the crowds and towards the car park. As I walked towards the bike, I could see that she was, still attached, my anxiety was instantly relieved.
Back at the hotel my evening will be spent getting into travel mode again, packing up my things and planning my route. Virtually every day I do some washing, but my clothes are getting to the stage where hand washing does not really properly clean them. They need a good soaking and machine wash.
I enjoyed my day in a strange way and I reckon if queueing became an Olympic Sport, the Columbians would definitely medal with the Brits just behind them, literally!
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