The planning for this South America trip has been very much of the same ilk as the previous one up the Silk Road – scant. A flight to Bogotá, (a known entity – or so I thought) and a fair idea of the places I’d like to see in South America in the 3 months I have.

Bogota has grown a bit in the 35 years since we lived here. The buses look modern, unlike the ones that seemed to have been held together by tarpaulin and string. Motorbike riders wear helmets as protective devices and not as a fashion accessory. But traffic is heavy and one still wonders why there are not more accidents – the rule, if you don’t look you don’t see, still applies when joining a lane.

I have been lucky that a friend has welcomed me in her home in Chapinero, a nice residential area in the north of the city. All the things one wants to see are downtown – the streets and squares of the old town, the museums, but easily reached – buses are frequent (one needs to buy a card – no cash) and taxis cheap.

The gold museum is stunning. Well displayed by regions and with sufficient information in Spanish and English. The intricacy, beauty and care invested in each piece brings home the difference in how the indigenous peoples viewed the value of gold – as offerings to gods, and what the Spanish did with it – melting it into money.

The Cerro Monserrate is 1968 ft (600m) above Bogota (which is at 8666 ft (2600m). The church at the top is a place of pilgrimage and many will walk the 1500 uneven, very steep steps up as penitents and supplicants (and nowadays, as an exercise). The bronze sculptures of the Stations of the Cross are displayed surrounded by greenery. The views over Bogota (on a clear day) are superb and far reaching. I took the funicular up, but did walk down – hard enough, with the addition of the stones being slippery, polished from many feet. It took me 40 minutes to get down – it can take 2 hours to get up – and my legs were jelly.

On Sunday I took a bus to Zipaquira, a town 50 K north of Bogotá, known for its Salt Cathedral. The Muisca people mined the salt here long before the Spanish arrived. The original Salt Cathedral, which we visited on school trips in the late 1980’s, closed in 1995. This new one is a whole “experience”, a major tourist attraction. As it was Sunday, it was very busy. The queues were well regulated and a lot of young people (they looked like high-school children) were there to answer questions and point the way – once you got near. (No signs from the main road towards the Cathedral – I asked a policewoman.)

It was lovely to spend time in Bogotá, but it was also time to move on. The flight to Leticia is under two hours, but it will all be new to me.