After arriving in Bogota from Curacao, I had just one day to spend in the capital before I “had” to head north to the small town of Suesca, where I had booked a Spanish course for a week. Suesca is famous for its climbing and this was also the main reason why I wanted to go there!
(Photos: views in the candelaria district in Bogota)
For the whole week, I had 3 hours of 1-1 Spanish lessons and in the afternoons I went climbing. First with my teacher Leyla who was also a climbing instructor, and then also with another climber I met at the hostel who took me on my first multi-pitch trad climb!! That was awesome! A multi-pitch climb means that the wall is too high for one rope, so after climbing a section you set up an anchor point on the wall where both climb to, and then you climb again from there while the belayer (me) is tied in on the wall/anchor and not standing on the ground. A Trad climb means that there are no bolted holds or anchors and that all gear has to be placed and removed again, things such as clams and nuts, which catch you when you fall.
(Photos: halfway up the cliff on the multi-pitch, climbing-traffic on the crag, views over las rocas)
On the weekend the sleepy town gets very busy with day-tourists from Bogota and a lot of climbers, too, so we spent Saturday climbing with some of the local climbers, whom my friend Stefan introduced me to!
However, after a whole week of climbing my body was quite tired so I decided not to climb on Sunday but to go for a hike instead to give my arms a break.
(Photos: views on the hike, the beautiful rock and Stefan and Jonathan working on the route Machina de Guerra)
On Sunday I headed back to Bogota, where I spent a few more days before heading back to Suesca for a long weekend of climbing again. This time I ventured out to the city entre again, walked up to the Monserrate viewpoint and visited the gold museum.
(Photos: el chorro square and streetart)
(Photos: views from monserrate and on the way up, gold museum and bouldering)
