Bogota

Bogota the capital of Colombia and a city of 8 million inhabitants is where we start our Latin America journey. The first four days of our trip were spent acclimatising to the region and attempting to get to grips with the Colombian way of life.

When we arrived on the Sunday we were perhaps lulled into a false sense that Bogota was a quite city due to the fact that lots of the roads close each Sunday for ‘ciclovia’ to allow the residents to use as cycle lanes. It was business as usual again on Monday though, with all the chaotic drivers back on the road.

On the second day we decided to try out the public transport offerings and take the transmilenio buses to La Candelaria, a bohemian district. La Candelaria is the heart of Bogota and contains many of the historic buildings which survived the 1948 riots.

The main busses run through the city run like a metro or the tube in their own bus lanes through the main arteries of the city. Whilst beggars on the tube aren’t an alien concept the number of beggars and buskers that join the busses at each stop are unmatched. On one 20 minute bus journey there must have been at least 5 sets, a mixed array of sweet sellers, beat boxers, singers and magicians each trying to win over your last shrapnel from your pocket.

As typical backpackers we spent the Tuesday on a walking tour around downtown Bogota which led to us spending the Wednesday exploring more from the recommendations provided. We ventured to the famous Museo del Oro and Museo Botero and spent the afternoon drinking chicha, a corn and sugar cane based fermented . The drink was once outlawed by the Colombian government after a big pay off from a Bavarian beer company to sell more beer.

Museo del Oro or gold museum is as you may guess a museum dedicated to the pre Colombian era golden ornaments. These were sacred to the indigenous people, holding a religious meaning as they sacrificed their gold to the gods. The Spaniards talked of a legend of el dorado or the lost city of gold.

The Botero museum held works of Fernando Botero one of the most famous Colombian painters which held his private collection along side his own work. Some highlights were Picasso , Salvador Dali and of course all of the fat imagery from Botero himself

One of the highlights of the walking tour was seeing emerald corner on Plazoleta del Rosario, where emerald traders openly buy and sell mined emeralds. It was a bit like a stock exchange where dealers were openly trading using white pieces of paper to best show the colour and clarity of the stones.

Overall Bogota was a great introduction to Colombia, but we’re somewhat glad to be escaping the mayhem (and crazy taxi drivers) and heading into the hills to visit Salento a town in the coffee triangle.

Some key take aways from Bogota

• Taxis and Ubers are cheap with some very questionable driving
• Street food for breakfast means business (empanadas and arepas)
• Still trying to get to grips with the currency
• Dom’s Spanish is no where near as competent as Niamh’s
• Bogota is an extremely bike friendly city with 120km of roads closed for cycling on a Sunday