Bogotá, Colombia

I’m on a three week tour of Colombia. I flew into Bogotá about a week ago, the city at the beginning and end of my circuit through the country that includes Villa de Leyvia, Santa Marta, Minca, Guachaca, Cartagena and Medellín.

Bogotá sits on a Andean plateau at 8,660 ft altitude, surrounded by hills and mountains. The weather this time of year (late February-early March) is pleasantly cool, sometimes cold, with frequent but short periods of rain and thunderstorms.

My overall impression of Bogotá is of a bustling, relatively prosperous city, very clean compared to other Latin American cities I have visited. In fact, along one major boulevard, I saw trash and recycling receptacles spaced at intervals of about 100 feet, more frequent I can ever remember seeing anywhere. The city’s traffic is terribly congested and the main mass transit system, the TransMilenio, operates beyond capacity at rush hour. The architecture is diverse, ranging from 16th century colonial buildings to distinctive, modern high-rises, to favela-like slums. Like other major commercial cities, the residents seem quite purposeful in their movements, a bit “colder” and brusque in attitude than in the countryside or smaller cities; think New York, Paris, Madrid. I felt very safe in Bogotá, though I didn’t roam around too far or too late at night. Like any city, there are certainly places I wouldn’t want to find myself alone in at two in the morning.

I stayed at the Cranky Croc hostel in the historic La Candelaria district.  I usually try to avoid places with Anglo names on principle when I’m traveling in Spanish-speaking countries, but this place had a nice private room with bathroom available at a good price ($38/night). It’s in a great location, it’s safe and clean, the staff is very professional and friendly, and the guest are a mix of young backpackers staying in the dorm rooms and more “seasoned” travelers like me who prefer more privacy.

I walked all around La Candelaria to visit the main sights of the city. This part of the city is good for walking as there are many narrow streets that cars tend to avoid and quite a few of the main, wider thoroughfares are closed to traffic, pedestrians only.

I enjoyed the art at the Museo Bortero which features many paintings and sculptures of Fernando Bortero whose signature style is depicting people over-inflated. I find his work to be whimsical and happy, though I understand that isn’t always the intent of his work, which can also be political.

The Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) is amazing! Thousands of objects made by goldsmiths from the cultures that inhabited Colombia before The Conquest and many, many post-Columbus pieces. The pre-Colombus collection is arranged by the countries regions and the descriptive information (bilingual) provides a great summary of Colombia’s indigenous cultures and their histories.

I really enjoyed the Netflix series “Narcos”, so I had to visit the Museo Historico de la Policia (National Police History Museum) to see the radiotelephone that narco cartel boss Pablo Escobar used to talk to his wife while on the run. The transmissions from this phone ultimately revealed Escobar’s location which led to him being shot by National Police and DEA agents.

I also toured the Museo Militar (Military Museum) which gives one a good sense of the history and current status of the Columbian military. I’m sure the Colombian military has been involved in its share of controversies and atrocities but I also sense that it has done a lot to preserve freedom and democracy in Colombia under sometimes great pressure and difficult circumstances. I don’t think the country would have made peace with the FARC guerillas without the sacrifices made by Colombia’s service members.

The food in Bogotá is of great variety, quality and value. I ate at fine restaurants and struggled to spend $25, including wine and tried a café frequented by locals and street food which cost me just loose change.  I had a menú de día lunch at Capital Concina, guacamole with house-made chips, a delicious fresh tomato soup and then pork cutlets with a brown sauce over rice, washed down by a nice Argentine malbec. My favorite dinner was at Sant Just, a cozy French bistro where I enjoyed an appetizer of lightly seasoned oven-roasted vegetables followed by a small casserole of sea bass medallions in a lobster sauce, that meal accompanied by a smooth Chilean cabernet. I tried ajiaco, a traditional thick chicken-potato soup, for lunch at La Pureta Falsa, a tiny, super-busy old local haunt. And a simple tomato-cheese pizza, wood-fired, thin crust was delicious at Pizza Candelaria. Service was excellent everywhere.

I spent my last night in Bogotá people watching at the historic Chorro de Quevedo square, where a large crowd of young people had gathered to hang out on a Friday night, talking, drinking and playing/listening to live music. I enjoyed drinking chicha, a fruity, fermented corn beverage which I found similar in flavor, consistency and effect as pulque, a beverage made from fermented agave sap in Mexico.

I didn’t drink too much chicha because I had to catch an early morning bus the next day to Villa de Leyva, located in an intermountain valley three hours northeast of Bogotá. I bid the city farewell as when I return to Bogotá at the end of my trip, I’ll just be staying at an airport hotel prior to an early morning flight back home.

Airfares from the U.S. are typically cheaper to Bogotá than to the other international Colombian airports. It’s a nice city in which to spend a couple of days exploring.