Hey @Ali, I saw below that you were able to log into Sessionize, and see that your proposal was still under evaluation. Just as a precaution, I’m pinging @feanil, who can provide info on the timeline.
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Thanks @gabriel :-)
@gabriel @jill just received a mail to say my talk was not selected. Next time! Thanks for your help on this thread, and looking forward to meeting you both in Colombia! 
I did a little research and asked Felipe from eduNEXT for advice, and I think this is our best bet for a day trip:
Termales Los Volcanes at Chocontá / Machetá:
- 80km drive from Bogota, a 2.3h bus ride from Bogota’s North terminal station.
- For people who’d rather not soak, you can get off the bus at the Sisga Reservoir, and do all or part of the lovely perimeter hike (25km long, 387m elevation gain/loss).
Complexities:
- There are apparently 2 bus companies that can take us there, but neither of their online ticket sales are showing availability for that or any day I tried
Flota ta Valle de Tenza
Flota la Macarena - We’re there the week before Easter. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are definitely going to present difficulties – they’re big public holidays, so many places will be closed – but also, everywhere is likely to be crowded with people on holiday.
Thoughts?
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Thanks for looking into this @jill. 
Hmmm, travelling 2.3h both ways seems quite long to me for a day trip. The hot springs and hike do look awesome though! Let me do a bit of research over the next few days and see if I come up with any bright ideas.
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I feel you @Ali - it does feel like a long travel time for a day trip. I’ve never tried a hot spring, so that would be a cool experience!
@jill I said to @pooja on our social chats, I love how super organised you are (especially referring to your restaurant research! 
) Thanks for getting this started.
I also thought I could take a look at the Airbnb experiences and see if anything stands out - the bike tour was a real winner last year (not for @Fox unfortunately!) so maybe something on there that will inspire!
Agreed-- that’s a pretty long trip! We’d spend about 5 hours of the day just in transit-- so I think I’d rather see what AirBnB experiences are offering first.
…Just maybe not e-bikes this time. 
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True… the distance looked doable to me on paper, but now that I know the actual transit time, that is a lot to expect. We can surely shave some time off by hiring a van instead of taking the bus (Felipe found this one: tuvan), but it’d still be a long day.
I’d be cool with a city walking tour, but I’m more keen to get up into the forests and overlook the city… And it looks like there’s a bunch of trails leading out of the city and up into the mountains (click through for photos and more details):, e.g. :
- Bogotá-Sendero del río San Francisco: 1.6km loop, 160m elevation gain/loss
- Guadalupe - Aguanoso 4km one way ridge trail, 350m elevation gain/loss
- La aguadora con Rogelio: 8.7km loop trail, 560m gain/loss
We’ll need to take care with the elevation, and avoid hiking during the first couple days that people arrive, though.
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I love this idea! Keen to explore the city, but very very keen to hike
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I think Jill will leave me in the dust but I’d love to hike as well!
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I’m with @cassie and @DouglasDraper on this one - a hike sounds great! We could possibly do a city walking tour another day/night if we have time.
@jill If we decide to go the hiking route, perhaps we could decide which hike to do when we’re all there. It might be easier than on the forum. Thanks for finding these options by the way!
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Sounds good to me! Organizing transport should be no problem if that’s needed.
How about we tentatively set aside Sat 8 April for hiking/outdoors, so people can plan other activities through the week? That also gives us the week to settle into the elevation, rather than trying to race up a hill on our first day. 
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Sounds good to me! And yes, acclimatising first is probably a good idea. 
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@jill Let me know if I can help on the Bogota activities in any way. Lots of good ideas already but if you need someone to investigate a particular option or organize anything, please call on me!
Absolutely @DouglasDraper ! Would you like to organise something more socially-oriented?
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Sounds lovely :) I think you can add it to the OC calendar?
That seems like a good idea to me. Google and the spa reviews say it’s only a 1 hr 20 min drive, so I imagine that if we have our own van+driver, we can get there in 90 minutes? Would people who have arrived by then be interested in doing that on the first Sunday, April 2? Looks like there’s quite a highly rated Colombian restaurant near the spa, “El Meson De Los Angeles”.
I’m also up for lots of hiking in the mountains around Bogota! I think there are even some trails we can walk to right from the area where we’re staying/working. I’d be down for after-work hikes in the evening if there are some short/medium hikes with nice views.
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Hi @jill, Sure, social is fine.
I know there have been lots of ideas and a survey. Should I just pick one and organize? Or if there’s one you think is a winner I can research and post.
Also, not sure if we have a daily schedule? If not, I can build something and we can avoid scheduling conflicts.
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Done!
I am! I’ve emailed tuvan to see if they can drive us, and to request a quote.
So we can get a better idea of numbers, could anyone who’s interested in a day trip to the hot springs please 
this post?
Lovely yes! Let’s do that too 
Sure The poll was here, but I’m definitely open to more ideas.
I’ve added 2 tentative events to the OpenCraft calendar (Sun 2 Apr hot springs, Sat 8 Apr half-day hike), but AFAIK, there’s no daily schedule yet. @gabriel mentioned a collaborative hack-a-thon w eduNEXT, but I don’t think that’s got a timeframe yet.
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@jill My comes with a disclaimer: my partner and I would both love to come to the hot springs, but we are still waiting to hear the outcome of our visa application, so please don’t book anything for us just yet.