August 31-- Part I--Well sit back now and you'll here a tale, tale of a 9 hour trip

1973 Dodge Dart--Our first excursion out of Bogota lasted about 9 hours and this was our ride. Our destination was 2 hours away up through the mountains to a small town called Fusa. I longed for a SUV and car seats for the kids, but we managed well and had a nice time.

In the back seat of the Dart. It took 1 hour to drive from the North side of Bogota (affluent area we are in) to the South side (which is much poorer). The change in class was very evident. It made us realize just how well-off our area is. 

The streets were packed the entire way with cars, cabs, motor bikes, bicycles, and the occasional horse and buggy. It was a long, slow drive through Bogota, but very interesting and well worth it. We got a better appreciation of this city of 8 million people.

Look very hard (we tried to zoom in on this). It is a mountain side full of houses. All those little brown things are small houses. It was sobering to see all these little houses covering the mountain side. This is the poor section of Bogota.

Our tour guide/driver informed us it is against the law to take pictures of policemen! Good thing this guy wasn't looking. 

Poorer area of Bogota. Took about 1 hour to get here from our side of Bogota.

Banana cart amidst the traffic (we are at a traffic light).

This picture is taken in the mountains. We spent about 1 hour driving further through the mountains (Bogota is in the mountains on a plateau). The Andes were beautiful. All along the side of the mountain roads are these little stands where you could get food. There were also large work trucks on the roads b/c they were doing construction on the mountain roads.... remember the Dodge Dart. Yeh, I was nervous. We were miniscule compared to the trucks. 

Notice that the clouds hide the top of the mountains. It was lovely.

Our tour guide knows all the places to eat. This was a little stand/restaurant where we stopped to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat.

Our cooks-- outdoor cooking and eating!

Jorge Rico was our tour guide. He did an excellent job taking us around. We felt good in his care (not to be confused with car :) For snacks, we ate Arepas, Chorizo, and Papas. It was very delicious.