Sasaima

I fell asleep to the sound of crickets and a ringing in my ear, expecting to hear something more. I woke to the eastern, equatorial sun and the sounds of a crowing rooster and barking dogs. The ringing had stopped, and for the first time in nearly two months, I enjoyed the peace and quiet of nature.

A few weeks ago, my friends and I traveled to a small pueblo outside of Bogotá called Sasaima. It's about 75km away and it's at a lower altitude, which means I didn't have to bundle up to go to sleep at night, I wasn't woken by traffic at 3:30am, and I breathed fresh air that didn't taste like gasoline. The trip was to celebrate some of their birthdays, but it was also a much needed reprieve from city life.

The journey there was exactly that, a journey. My friend Matthew said the trip would take us five, five and a half hours, Google Maps said two. I trusted Google, but should have listened to Matthew. As we now know, leaving Bogotá on a Friday afternoon is not an efficient process, as it took two hours alone just to leave the city. The traffic stands still for no apparent reason, leaving you to wonder if, in fact, we will actually make it there. Then when we do get some movement, we go forward enough to learn that a minor fender bender and a major disagreement in culpabilty was the root of your problems.

The impatience of wanting to leave and not being able to, the cacophony of car horns and motorbikes backfiring, and the intoxication of diesel fumes suffocating you were more stimulation and contributors to stress than were necessary, especially for what was the be the beginning of a vacation. But seeing the sun set behind the behemoth mountain from which I just descended was worth the wait.

The countryside outside of Bogotá is immaculate, and the rest of the weekend proved no shortage of breathtaking, calm-inducing beauty. I hadn't realised how much I tension I was holding in until that first morning where I woke up with the sound effects of a Disney princess movie and took a deep, calming breath of fresh air.

The weekend was simply relaxing with poolside chats, reading in hammocks, exploring the local  coffee fields, and good wine with good company. I love Bogotá and most of the pitfalls that come with city life. Yet, there's something irreplaceable about a sunset where you hear the birds and see the rainstorm coming in from west.

I have been missing that since being here. Typically, I would have that experience at the river with my family. So once in a while I hope to find ways to get out of the city, recharge myself with a sunset, and explore different places throughout the country.