Cha cha cha in Bogota . . .

 Today we had our last full day in Bogota and for once, the sun was almost shining and the Plaza Boliva was now open after being closed for a weekend festival. As you will see from the photograph, it wasn't worth waiting for unless you're Jack Duckworth i.e. a pigeon fancier!  OK, I know that he's dead in real life but so was the square.

After the square we visited the Casa de Moneda (the Mint) where we learned about the development of the Colombian currency from gold tokens to the current day peso.The museum was in the original Mint and the building itself was beautiful.  We then indulged in a spot of cha cha cha.  As you will see from the photograph we have both put on rather a lot of weight from eating too many empanadas (the equivalent of a Cornish pasty). Actually, we were in the Donacion Botero an art gallery full of works by Fernando Botero who appeared to specialise in the larger examples of the human form.  There was also an excellent selection of paintings by the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Lucien Freud (who we didn't know was born in Berlin) and Henry Moore who according to the blurb lived in Munch Hadham, rather than Much Hadham.

 We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant near to our hotel which we're unable to use in the evening as most of the restaurants in the historic city centre close in the afternoon and evening.  Hence we've had to use the two restaurants in a nearby hotel every night.  The skies darkened so we brightened up our lives by having our rather grubby deck shoes polished in the square for 3000 peso or £1.

Tomorrow we fly to Cartegena for three nights which we're really looking forward to although it's the penultimate destination on our trip.  We follow this by 10 nights on a Carribean island, called Providencia, which is nominally part of Colombia.  It's said to be less developed with modest, laid back facilities and with temperatures of more than 30 degrees there is no hot water! 

So depending on the w-fi facilities in both places, this may or may not be our last posting.  But if you don't hear from us again, just think, white sandy beach, palm trees and hammock and pray that they have adquate supplies of Sauvignon Blanc!