Colombia - Bogota

Bogota, city of taxis - 52,000 of them if I remember correctly, but according to whom I'm not sure. We arrived in Bogota on Friday afternoon and took a taxi (and we thought the drivers in Cartegena and Panama were crazy!) to the hostel in Candelaria district that we were staying at. This would be our first time sleeping on land for some five months. I can asure you I had no trouble adjusting to sleeping on land in a larger (normal sized) bed.

We spent a good part of the weekend with Verne and Troy who are now living in Bogota while Verne undertakes a PhD in dolphin research. We met Verne through our mutual friends Merril and Chris when we were visiting Cambodia a few years ago. Verne and Troy showed us a great time. First up was a party on Friday night, next day lunch at Crepes and Waffles and on to a huge park to see the summer festival (although it pretty much seemed to be all over), then Saturday night they introduced us to their favourite pizza place that rapidly became Ivan's favourite Bogota eatery before joining some of their friends at a new restaurant in a dodgy part of town. Sunday morning we all took the cable car ride up to the top of Montserrate, a mountain overlooking Bogota. The view is pretty amazing up there and makes you realise what a densely populated city Bogota is. We said goodbye to Verne and Troy and Ivan and I went off to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum). Definitely worth a visit.



Bogota viewed from Montserrate

 Ivan spent the next day recovering from a mild bout of gastro (we think picked up at lunch the day before) and I visited the Museo Bottero and the old mint and art gallery. Museo Bottero is a collection of works from the artist Ferdinand Bottero. His works are best described as fat and round and I think you either love or hate them, there's no in between. I really love them, because they are so fun.

Bottero's fat, round guerillas

dang that finger on the mobile phone camera lens

Err yum?

Although we had a great time with Verne and Troy, and there are some interesting museums and art gallerys to explore, I didn't really like Bogota. I found it a bit creepy - probably partly due to all the bad stories you hear about what happens to people, partly due to all the warnings people give you to be careful, partly due to the high presence of security guards and razor wire fences and partly because it is a city like any other with poor people, beggars and street kids.


with Verne and Troy