This place is a disaster. The city is lively, the food is amazing, the women are gorgeous, the prices are cheap, the nightlife is endless, and the city is full of the nicest people I've ever encountered. The kicker? There are NO tourists. I have been here for 48 hours, crammed with going out till 5am and charging into the streets at 9am to explore the city and I have literally run into less than 20 other travelers. If there's an undiscovered paradise in South America, this just might be it.

I'm staying with REQ and his beautiful wife, Andrea and they have been amazing hosts. They picked me up from the airport at 10pm on Friday night, we dropped my bags at their very-cool apartment and went straight out. We sat outside at a popular sushi restaurant and ate dinner and drank saki. I had to order three entrees to make up for my day of airplane food and afterwards we dropped in at a microbrewery and drank some great beers and took a shot of tequila to fire things up.

We then headed to this dive bar that Req's friend, Javier, owns, and ordered a bottle of whiskey. We sat there listening to some up-tempo Colombian beats that I can only describe as a mix of reggae, hip hop, salsa and reggaeton. Javier, is a skinny dude with tats from his arms to his neck. His hair is a tangled mess of dreadlocks but this guy has charm. He's a natural entertainer and was probably put on this earth to run a bar. He sat at the table next to us making everyone laugh and stealing kisses from the beautiful 20-somethings that danced around the table. I focused squarely on getting my Spanish back on track while catching up with Req and Andrea and the life they've made for themselves here in Bogotá.

The next morning I awoke to Req opening up the shades in my room at 8am sharp. The blinding sun was the only thing that got me out of bed. We ate some breakfast and jumped on a bus to get across town, to the bottom of the climb to Montserat, a beautiful church that sits atop this huge mountain and overlooks the entire city. My legs were already aching fro the whiskey the night before, but we started the 45 minute march up the thousand or so stairs to the church and it felt good to sweat it out.

Bogotá sits at 2600 meters, so the first day of altitude was a test for this little hike. We arrived at the top gasping for breath and took in the view of the city. Despite its population of almost 7 million, Bogotá has a lot of natural beauty because it's situated along these big, steep, green hills.

We returned to Req's house for an amazing lunch prepared by Andrea and her mom. I LOVE the Colombian food. It is simply delicious. After lunch we headed to the airport to swoop Huntington and plotted for the night ahead.

There's a notorious disco/restaurant 30 minutes outside of Bogotá in a town of 100,000, called Chia. It's called Andres Carne a Res and it's owner, Andres Haramillo is well known as a nightlife visionary in Bogota and Miami. Saturday night was "Carnival"--a boisterous celebration of costumes, food, drinking and dancing--all to the drum beats of the traditional music of Baranquilla--a coastal city to the north.

After meeting up with Huntington, we went back to the pad and passed out for a much needed disco-nap. At 6:30 we took off for dinner and debauchery at Andres Carne a Res. Andrea sweetly volunteered herself to be the designated driver, which left the door wide open for us to drink as many different kinds of Colombian liquor as we could.

The party lived up to the hype and far out-performed. The place itself is huge and full of crazy decorations that must make it seem as though it's Carnival year round. We barley got in the door and had to stand in a long line, but the live music and crazy performers made it a lot if fun.

Despite the fact that this place has to be the biggest fire hazard of any establishment I've ever been to, it was amazingly well run. The staff of dozens works tirelessly to keep everyone fed and drunk--hundreds of people, eating and partying and dancing and laughing. We stood at a bar next to the loud, hectic kitchen and ordered a red-hot skillet of sausage, chicken, lamb, steak and vegetables. Each platter comes with a bunch of amazing salsas and avocado. Needless to say, I was in heaven. We laughed our way through dinner, constantly entertained by the seemingly endless procession of Carnival performers, (check out the photo of Huntington hugging the over-sized erection of Hugo Chavez).

After we finished gorging on BBQ, we bought a bottle of Ron Viejo--Colombian rum--and headed for the dance floor. There, we literally danced and partied for the next four hours, making all kinds of friends. The Colombian girls are drop-dead gorgeous and curious about the rare gringos--and the dudes, were amazingly friendly and outgoing--even introducing us to their female friends. I was floored by this for some reason...

At 2am we said goodbye to our friends and took one last shot of tequila. Still thirsty for more Colombian nightlife, we reluctantly let Andrea go home and we charged back to Javier's bar in Bogotá to keep the party going. The night ended at 5am with a frozen pizza and a lot of laughs.

Today we went on a bike ride around the city and checked out a couple really cool flea markets. I'm sitting here writing this in Req's apartment watching NY upset the Patriots with Matty, Req, some of his friends and the famous ricardo_emp, who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time tonight. Richard is full of stories from his extensive travels in Latin America and has been keeping us entertained during the Spanish commercials.

Right after the game Matt and I have to jump in a cab and head straight for the bus station for a 10 hour overnight bus to Manizales. We're going there to climb a huge volcano that I have had a really hard time finding reliable information on. I don't know what lies ahead, but I can't wait to find out. Bogotá has been amazing but it's time to get out in Mother Nature and bag a big peak.

Stay tuned...