~ wander.essence ~

Friday, March 22, 2024: We arrived in Bogotá at 1:10 p.m. on Friday. We’ve never been through a faster and more efficient immigration and customs process. We got our suitcases and then proceeded to get a yellow taxi 🚖 to our hotel. Our taxi driver was super friendly and talkative, and of course he only spoke Spanish. We somehow managed to sustain an hour-long conversation with him despite much being lost in translation. The traffic in Bogotá, especially coming out of the airport at the beginning of the Holy Week holiday, was insane.

Usaquén & BioHotel Organic Suites

We finally checked into BioHotel Organic Suites in the Usaquén neighborhood, in the northern part of Bogotá. It’s an upscale neighborhood that is known as one of the safest in the city, with lots of restaurants and cuteness to go around. Unfortunately, it’s far from everything there is to see in Bogotá.

The hotel gave us a warning card when we first arrived with things such as: “Never show your identification card, passport or money to strangers. Show your ID only if requested by a police officer wearing a proper uniform.” They told us to be aware that people often pose as police officers to steal IDs from people.

We hadn’t had lunch and though it was getting close to dinner time, we had some delicious soups and beers for a late afternoon snack in the little bar area. The young cook who worked at the bar, Fabian, had been studying English two days a week and was eager to practice his English with us. He chatted with us for a good long time, talking about his country and how no one spoke English in Colombia, which we had quickly figured out. He gave us lots of recommendations of things to do. It was fun conversing with him; he was quite the talker.

After lunch we ran over to the nearest supermercado to pick up a few things. One of the employees followed us around as a sort of personal shopper, explaining what items were and showing us where to find things. Of course she only spoke Spanish, but we got the gist of things.

We took a 10-minute walk to Usaquén Park where we found the adorable restaurant, 80 Sillas. And yes, they do have 80 seats, set in a redone colonial farmhouse on the southwest corner of the plaza. We each had a glass of wine and I had Ceviche with camarones: AL ROCOTO: Creamy avocado, sautéed corn, onion, cilantro and tigre de rocoto (hot pepper). It was scrumptious.

Mike had the catch of the day (corvina) pan-fried, creamy corn and leek purée with roasted beetroot salad. It was all so good!

The atmosphere at this place was fabulous. I added lots of great music to my Spotify playlist by using Shazam to identify the songs.”Man Funk (feat. Leron Thomas)” by Guts; “Soulful Dress” by Sugar Pie DeSanto; “Guadalupe” by Jaguar; and “Muy Tranquilo” by Gramatik were some of the songs. The music and ambiance made for a very mellow mood.

We passed by a colorful cafe near Usaquén Park, had gelato for dessert, then walked back to our hotel.

Steps: 7,675; Miles: 3.25. Weather Hi 74°, Lo 51°.

Saturday, March 23: We enjoyed the morning view out of our 6th floor room in Bogotá. We had a huge buffet breakfast but I was really annoyed because one of the Colombian waiters asked me if I was for Biden or Trump and when I said Biden, that “Odio a Trump con todo mi corazón”  (I HATE TRUMP with all my heart), he started arguing through Google translate (using MY phone!) that Rockefeller started as a shoeshine boy and made a fortune without any help from the state. (He didn’t mention that Rockefeller made his fortune on the backs of hard-working Americans by paying them slave wages). He said Trump didn’t start any wars, and I told him neither did Biden: Russians started the war against Ukraine and Israel started the war with Hamas after an attack by Hamas. Besides Trump promised to get us out of Afghanistan, yet it was Biden who did it.

He couldn’t believe I could support Biden and kept arguing with me, continuing to use my phone no less, to tell me why he was for Trump, writing in Google translate. Every single thing he said was was based on misinformation. I was infuriated and couldn’t believe I had to argue with a Colombian man who can’t even vote in the U.S. about OUR freaking presidential election. A good way to get my blood boiling my first morning in Bogotá.

La Candelaria: The Museo Botero

We took an Uber to La Candelaria. We went first to see The Museo Botero, also known as the Botero Museum. It primarily houses works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero; however it also includes artwork from Botero’s own private art collection by other international artists.

Fernando Botero Angulo (April 19, 1932 – September 15, 2023) was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style, also known as “Boterismo,” depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece. He was considered the most recognized and quoted artist from Latin America in his lifetime, and his art can be found in public places around the world.

Some pieces we found included a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (1978) and the intimate Pareja Bailando (1987).

Botero’s works are simply named (Flowers, The Hunter, Still Life) and feature dodgy dictators, nimble dancers, dogs and birds. Curvaceous bronze statues display equally generous girth. Amidst the collection are haunting studies of Colombia’s drug-cartel violence in the 1980s and 1990s.

The museum was founded in 2000 when Botero donated more than 100 of his own works, along with 85 from his personal collection of other artists’ works. These included pieces by Picasso, Monet, Matisse and Klimt. The painter curated the museum himself.

The museum, which is free, is managed by the cultural branch of the Bank of the Republic and is part of La Candelaria cultural complex along with the Gold Museum, the Luis Ángel Arango Library, the Miguel Urrutia Art Museum, and the Museo Casa de Moneda.

We also perused the Colección de Art, part of the Banco de la Republica’s complex. This collection features 800 pieces by 250 artists spread over 16 exhibition halls at two addresses reached via elaborate staircases within the same museum complex as Casa de Moneda and Museo Botero.

We found an exhibit titled: “Geographies: Body and Territory:” “In the sixties and seventies, landscape painting in Colombia acquired connotations linking it to eroticism, violence and the human body… Other works refer to the physical conditions of a specific natural setting and allude to the sensory impressions they provoke…”

The collection has been reorganized into five time periods spanning the 15th century to modern day. Most includes oils by Colombian artists, including giant figurative paintings by Luis Caballero (1943-95) on the first floor. Two first floor falls toward the east focus on 17th and 18th century religious objects.

The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria

The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, often called the Iglesia de la Candelaria, is a Catholic parish church in Bogotá. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the patronage of Virgin of la Candelaria.

Before continuing to Plaza de Bolívar, we stopped for lunch at Balcones de la Canderlaria. I enjoyed AJIACO SANTAFEREÑO (a chicken and potato soup accompanied with rice, avocado , capers and crema de leche).

Mike had CHANGUA BOGOTANA (Sopa típica a base de leche, huevos, cilantro y cebolla, con calado, queso y almojábana: a typical soup with milk, eggs, cilantro, onion, with cottage cheese and meat).

Plaza de Simón Bolivar

We made our way among throngs of vendors, pigeons, and street performers to Plaza de Simón Bolivar. It is marked by a bronze statue of Simón Bolivar, the city’s first public monument, cast in 1846 by Italian artist Pietro Tenerani.

Simón Bolívar (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire. He is known colloquially as El Libertador, or the Liberator of America.

The square has changed much over the centuries and is no longer lined by colonial buildings. Only the Capilla del Sagrario dates from the Spanish period. Other buildings are more recent and represent different architectural styles.

Casa Colonial

After visiting Plaza de Bolivar, we left La Candelaria and came by accident to Casa Colonial, which had a cute cafe in it called Nossa, as well as many other businesses and a lovely courtyard. There we ordered cappuccino and a blueberry cake and a coffee cake. Mike posed with the waitress because his shirt matched their uniforms.

Along the way, we’d seen numerous emerald shops for which Bogotá is famous. Attached to the café was an emerald shop, Fienne: fina Joyería en Filigrana, where I wandered and did a bit of damage buying a raw emerald necklace and earrings.

Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of emeralds. In the past, they were mined in dangerous conditions, similar to that of the diamond industry in Africa. In 2005, the government abolished tariffs and taxes associated with mining, effectively ending the power of the black market and associated elements.

By some estimates, the country accounts for up to 90% of the global emerald trade. They are known to be of high quality due to the perfect combination of chrome, vanadium and iron, giving them a vibrant green shade.

We then went to search for a non-pedestrian street where we could catch an Uber and found ourselves in a shady part of town. We waited a long time for an Uber, but in the app it showed the Uber driver picking up Mike but it was someone else. Mike called to report that it wasn’t him but Uber never answered. He cancelled the Uber but we weren’t sure it took.

We walked back toward La Candelaria where, near a Dunkin’ Donuts, we tried for another Uber and finally caught one back to our hotel in Usaquén.

Usaquén Park

After resting a bit in our hotel, we wandered through a small mall near Usaquén Park, then walked through the craft market, where I bought a pair of copper earrings and Mike and I each bought miniature leather wallets. The crafts on offer were creative and unusual.

Then we went to dinner at Osaki where I had a Tiger Roll (Tempura-fried shrimp with corn, avocado, scallions, topped with ceviche-style emulsion, pickled chilies, and macha sauce) while Mike had a Spicy Maki roll (Catch of the day tartare and tempura-fried shrimp, with dynamite sauce, crispy chili, and avocado 🥑).

So far, we hadn’t gone wrong with food in Bogotá. We found quite a variety of cuisines from different cultures and quaint, charming restaurants.

Steps: 8,122; Miles 3.44. Weather Hi 73°, Lo 52°. Partly rainy.

La Candelaria

Sunday, March 24: Our second day in Bogotá, which happened to be Palm Sunday, wasn’t nearly as pleasurable as our first. First, we took an Uber to La Candelaria in order to go on a Bike Tour with Bogota Bike Tours. We didn’t quite find the meeting place at first, and we ended up in a cute little plaza. I wish we would have simply hung out there, but we’d arranged the bike tour so off we went to get our bikes.

Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo

For a short 15 minutes we enjoyed this plaza before our bikeride. Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo is the place where, supposedly, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, a Spanish conquistador, established his garrison, shortly before founding the city of Bogota there in 1538. The first Christian church in Bogota, the Humilladero Chapel, was built there. In 1832, an Augustine priest named Father Quevedo purchased the site and built a fountain there. The original fountain was destroyed in 1896, due to pipe damage from a collapsing bridge.

The small and lively plaza is adorned with graffiti and murals that narrate stories of the city and the country, creating a colorful and lively open-air gallery.

In the plaza, there is a small white chapel called the Hermitage of San Miguel del Principe that was re-built in 1969 on the site of the very first chapel in Bogotá.

Bogota Bike Tours

We left the charming Plazoleta and went to Bogota Bike Tours to pick out our bikes. We got ours and had to wait a long time because they kept accepting more and more people. They divided the unwieldy group into 3 smaller groups and we took off, for about 5 minutes. Right away we stopped at the Bogota sign, where we listened to the guide, Eduardo, talk for about 15 minutes about the history of Bogotá. It went on and on. I was ready to start riding and even though he was speaking in English, I could barely hear or understand him. My mind wandered. I simply didn’t want to hear that amount of detail.

This is why I hate tours and why I rarely go on them. Sometimes I forget how much I hate them and I sign up for one because it sounds promising. Then I realize very quickly why I hate them so much.

Finally, after the guide’s endless diatribe, we continued on. It was rough going because the city is extremely chaotic, with apparently all of its 12 million people out on this Palm Sunday of Holy Week:  people, children, dogs, vendors, taxis, cars, convoluted roads, cylindrical concrete barriers and people dawdling obliviously on sidewalks. I could barely maneuver around all the obstacles on that bulky bike. I hated every minute and was gritting my teeth. I thought, “There is no way in hell I want to continue doing this for four freaking hours!”

Then we came to what seemed to be a nice green park in an area with British-style homes. Within minutes, inside the park, we were in the middle of a huge tent city, with plastic bag tents everywhere. Apparently these were refugees from Venezuela who were protesting their inability to cross through the Darien Pass on the border of Colombia and Panama. Though people are not allowed to sleep in city parks, Eduardo said, these people were sleeping there anyway, in protest.

In the midst of the tent city in the park, Eduardo said we’d sit at a kind of food truck for 10 more minutes while everyone had a drink. In a while, we would stop for lunch with the whole group. He was talking again about the reasons people were sleeping in the park although it was illegal.

By this time I’d had enough. It was 12:00 (we’d begun at 10:40) and the ride was due to go on for another 2 1/2 hours. I said I wanted out! I told Mike I wanted to go return the bike and escape this hellish ride. So we did; we rode back about 2 miles through the gnarly crowds and obstacles, with the kindly old repairman of the bike tour leading the way. On the way back, young boys doing wheelies whizzed around us all helter-skelter. I was surprised we made it back without having an accident of some kind. I was never so happy to escape an unpleasant situation!

Will I never learn my lesson about tours??

Back to Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo

Luckily, I had a chance to return  to the colorful Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo that I had wanted to explore earlier.

After leaving the Plazoleta, we went in search of some lunch, finding more colorful street murals along the way. A cute pink VW bus popped up in our path and of course we had to pose with it. We stopped at one adorable café, but they didn’t seem to have a menu for lunch and only offered beans, rice and something else which we couldn’t determine. Cuteness doesn’t serve to abate hunger, so we left and continued our lunchtime search.

Lunch at T-Bone

Finally we ended up at a cool place called T-Bone. The waitress spoke a little English and was super welcoming. We ordered three dishes which we thought were small plates, but they ended up being huge. First, we got Choripán: Grilled argentinian chorizo sausage butterly cut, served with chimichurri sauce and sourdough bread. We got a Buratta Salad which was huge. Lastly, we got Paipa al Horno: Artisanal paipa cheese melted in the oven with baguette. There was plenty of balsamic vinegar to go around and the portions were so huge we couldn’t finish the meal. The place and the food were enjoyable, although extremely filling.

The Museo del Oro

We finally made it to The Museo del Oro, one of Bogotá’s most visited tourist attractions. It displays a selection of pre-Columbian gold and other metal alloys, such as Tumbaga, and contains the largest collection of gold artifacts in the world. Together with pottery, stone, shell, wood and textile objects, these items, made of a metal sacred to indigenous cultures, testify to the life and culture of the different societies which lived in present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

The Gold Museum contains more than 55,000 pieces of gold and other materials from all of Colombia’s major pre-Hispanic cultures. The collection is laid out logically, with descriptions in Spanish and English, over 3 floors.

Second floor exhibitions break down findings by region, with descriptions of how pieces were used. There are a lot of mixed animals rendered in gold (jaguar-frog, human-eagle, etc.). Female figurines show how women of the Zenú in the pre-Columbian north, played important roles in worship.

The third floor showed how gold was used in ceremonies and rituals.

“Metal objects (transformed by goldsmiths) return to the earth as gifts to the gods imbued with profound religious meanings, they are offered up in lakes and caves, in order to restore the balance in the world.”

The Museo del Oro was packed with people which made it rather unpleasant. Entry was free on a Sunday so everyone in the city must have decided to come. Also, I didn’t think it was quite as nice as the Gold Museum in San José, Costa Rica. But there were a huge number of interesting objects there.

Usaquén & BioHotel Organic Suites

After our exhausting Sunday in Bogotá with the huge crowds we encountered on that infernal bikeride, as well as the hordes of people at the Museo del Oro, we returned to our room to relax for a while. We were both full from our lunch at T-Bone so we prepared to go in search of something light to eat when suddenly it started pouring, with thunder and lightning ⚡️ ⚡️ over the city. We decided not to bother going out, but we had a light dinner in the hotel. I enjoyed a small bowl of CREMA DE ZAPALLO CON CHONTADURO Y CAMARONES, a soup with chontaduro (like sweet potato) and shrimp. Mike had asparagus with hollandaise sauce and ham. It was perfect because they were small dishes and we didn’t have to go out into the thunderstorms or to fight any crowds.

Steps: 7,538; Miles 3.2. Weather Hi 73°, Lo 56°.

Monday, March 25: We hoped our last day, Monday, in Bogota wouldn’t be so stressful. We were beginning to feel we’d made a big mistake coming to a Catholic country during semana santa (Holy Week).

Monserrate

Monday morning, we made our way by Uber to the Monserrate station to catch the Teleférico 🚡 up to Monserrate, a mountain over 3,150 metres (+10,300 feet) high that dominates Colombia’s capital city. A church (built in the 17th century) has a shrine, devoted to El Señor Caído (“The Fallen Lord”). The altar statue has many miracles attributed to it. The church was built after the original chapel was destroyed by an earthquake in 1917.

The Mountain, already considered sacred in pre-Columbian times when the area was inhabited by the indigenous Muisca, is a pilgrim destination, as well as a major tourist attraction. In addition to the church, the summit contains restaurants, a cafeteria, and souvenir shops. Monserrate can be accessed by aerial tramway (a cable car known as the teleférico), by funicular, or by climbing, the preferred way of pilgrims. The hike is up 1500 steps to the top (a 60-90 minute walk).

When we arrived at the station, the whole place was bustling with people in action: snack and souvenir vendors selling their goods, people sipping coffee and eating at cafés, taxis and cars honking, and buses barreling through. We saw long snaking queues of people in two spots. The super long queue to the left was to go up on the funicular. The queue on the right, which at first glance seemed shorter, was to go up on the Teleférico, or cable car. We first stood in the line to buy our tickets and chatted with a young family; they were visiting from Reston, Virginia (about 15 minutes from where we live in Oakton). They live on Lake Anne, where I go to walk at least once a week. We talked to another man visiting from Houston whose parents were from Venezuela.

We got our tickets then stood in the very slow line for the Teleférico for at least 45 minutes. Finally we inched to the front of the line. When the cable car arrived, they squeezed 40 of us into the gondola 🚠.  In all, the process to get onboard took a full hour.

At the top of Monserrate we encountered hordes of people. The church at the top, a major mecca for pilgrims, was packed and a service was going on. The priest’s sermon was being broadcast on speakers throughout the park.

We wandered around, admiring the hazy views of the sprawling Bogotá below. All of downtown Bogotá, south Bogotá and some sections of the north of the city are visible facing west – a sprawling 1,700 square kilometers – making it a popular destination to watch the sunset over the city. We’d read that the metro area of Bogotá has a population of nearly 13 million people. This compares to Washington, DC’s metro area of about 6 million. We could see and feel the sheer size of the capital from that lofty viewpoint.

We followed the stations of the cross, set amidst beautiful gardens. Somehow we were doing them in reverse. Here, I show them in the proper order.

We dreaded getting in the line to go back down. Quite by accident, we found the funicular line to go down, which seemed short and fast moving.

I wish we could have been up at Monserrate on a quiet day. It is quite a lovely setting.

Usaquén & BioHotel Organic Suites

At the bottom on Monserrate, we walked to a main street so we could catch an Uber.

We finally caught an Uber back to Usaquén where we went to Oliveto for pizza. Two women carrying mochilas, the famous indigenous handbags of Colombia, stopped to chat with us and gave us some recommendations for Medellín (they were visiting Bogotá from there). They suggested we to to the Laureles area and eat at the organic market called Saludpan, which serves healthy meals.

The craft market was still open, so we stopped at a few stalls for a raw emerald necklace, earrings and a colorful straw bowl.

We returned to the hotel after lunch because we had set up hour-long deep tissue massages at 3:00 with Andrea and Melissa at the hotel spa on the terrace. The massages felt fantastic after our crowd-induced stress over the last couple of days. After our massages, we got beers and relaxed in the open-air hot tub on the terrace. It was such a nice way to end our time in Bogotá as we would leave for Medellín on Tuesday morning.

When we left the hotel to walk to dinner, the light was beautiful on the surrounding buildings. As we got about halfway to Usaquén Park, it started sprinkling and of course we’d left our umbrellas behind. We got inside the mall and Mike offered to run back to the hotel for our umbrellas. By the time he returned the rain was coming down hard and fast. He had already gotten soaked on the way back to the hotel and had changed his shirt. We then splashed through the rain and through roads torn up by construction to go to Mediterráneo, which we found to be closed, possibly due to the construction.

We backtracked and stopped at the first available restaurant, Wok, a chain eatery with sustainably sourced Asian-fusion food. We shook the rain off as we sat down in the covered courtyard dining area. I had a wonton ramen and Mike had Miso ramen de vegetales and we each enjoyed glasses of wine. We shared a sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

We talked to a local couple who warned that in Bogotá one must always carry an umbrella as it rains some each day and is always cloudy. The man said if you carry an umbrella, it’s sure not to rain, and if you forget to carry one, it will surely rain. So funny, but it always seems true!

By the time we left the restaurant it had stopped raining and we had a pleasant and cool walk back.

For me, Bogotá’s weather was a welcome relief after the heat and humidity of El Salvador and Nicaragua. I loved the cool days and cooler nights and we were lucky to only have had rain a couple of times. It was very comfortable all around. Tuesday we would head to Medellin where it would be about 10 degrees warmer.

There is a lot to like in Bogotá, especially the museums, the vibrant street art, Monserrate, and the diverse and excellent restaurant scene. We’re not really night life people, so we missed that aspect of the city.

Steps: 9,181; Miles 3.89. Weather Hi 73°, Lo 56°.

Leaving Bogotá for Medellín

Tuesday, March 26: We enjoyed a rather leisurely morning in the hotel and then checked out. We got to the Bogotá airport way too early because we thought we’d encounter the usual congested traffic in he city. Luckily we got there rather quickly. We waited for or our 1:30 p.m. 55-minute flight to Medellín.

We arrived in Medelllín at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26.