With trepidation we arrived in Bogota! It's fair to say we were a little nervous about this stop on our travels. The Internet being a blessing and a curse for travellers these days, you sometimes feel ignorance would be bliss. We arrived at our hostel in Bogota after a successful taxi ride from the airport. We say successful due to the amount of cautionary tales you hear about taxis in Bogota! We would throughly recommended Uber to anyone visiting the city, as it took all of the 'what ifs' out of our journeys.
Immediately working out why Bogota is nicknamed 'The Refrigerator', our jackets got their first outing of the trip. It's funny how 16 degrees Celsius can be such a shock to the system to two people used to England's climate!
We chose to stay in La Candelaria, Bogota's historical district with a wealth of fantastic museums and colourful streets where restored houses, crumbling buildings and modern additions sit comfortably side by side.
Our first morning was spent exploring the area including the bustling Plaza de Bolivar surrounded by an array of historic buildings, churches, the cathedral and several llamas. The afternoon was dedicated to the fascinating Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), containing thousands of pieces of gold from the pre-Hispanic cultures of Colombia.
The slightly strange thing about travelling in low season and staying in La Candelaria over a weekend is that pretty much everything closes around 6pm. That, the fact that sun sets early and the location of our hostel up a quiet street led to a paranoid dash to and from a restaurant on the Saturday evening. Between the bouts of paranoia, we enjoyed a a lovely meal at El Gato Gris, a candlelit restaurant in an old rambling house.
The next day, we took a Sunday trip with half the residents of the city to Cerro de Monserrate, 3152 metres above sea level, to get sweeping views of the city. From here, you really get a good idea of how sprawling Bogota is. Up via an extremely steep furnicular and down via cable car, this was a different perspective of the city to enjoy.
Having worked up an appetite, we took the opportunity to visit La Puerta Falsa to try Ajiaco, following in the footsteps of Simon Bolivar at this historic cafe, which has been around since 1816. Ajiaco is a hearty dish consisting of chicken, three varieties of potatoes, rice, avocado, corn on the cob, a herb called guascas and sour cream to mix through it - sounds strange, but it tasted delicious.
Feeling both warmer and ready for more exploring, a rainy Sunday afternoon was spent enjoying some amazing art in La Candelaria at the Museo de Arte and the Botero Museum. This collection of museums (which also includes Casa de Moneda) held by Banco de La Republica really is very special.
A drought of double rooms (despite a seemingly deserted La Candelaria!), led us to split our Bogota visit in two, heading to San Gil, Barichara and Guane during the following week.
Having explored La Candelaria on our first visit, we decided to stay in El Chapinero for a couple of nights the second time round. El Chapinero is a well located, slightly rough around the edges but safe area and near to the parts of town we hadn't had a chance to explore yet. Like many large cities, the different districts feel incredibly distinct. We spent our Saturday night in Zona G (G for gourmet!) and Zona Rosa. A little like a compact version of LA, high end restaurants, bars and nightclubs cater to wealthy locals strutting around in their finery and skyscraper heels. Worlds apart from a Saturday night in La Candelaria, we felt like this was where everyone had been hiding! On the budget of backpackers, we had to choose carefully but had a fantastic meal at De Lucca, where we ate incredibly good Italian food surrounded by the beautiful people of Bogota.
One of the main reasons we had come back to Bogota was to visit the salt cathedral in nearby Zipaquirá. About 250,000 tons of salt were removed to form the salt cathedral, which sits 50 kilometres north of Bogota. We went on a Sunday and it was clearly a popular excursion for locals! Whilst this wasn’t the serene experience we were expecting, it was interesting observing Colombians as tourists, with families taking no prisoners to get their photographs in strange formations around the small chapels representing the Stations of the Cross and a nun taking the art of the selfie to a new level. Initially the crowds slightly took away from the spectacle but any doubts we had about the visit were put to rest when we made it into the main body of the cathedral, where cavernous spaces have been carved out 180 metres below ground to form a spectacular nave and several chapels. It really is a fascinating archetectural feat and being one of only three salt cathedrals in the world, it was well worth the trip.
We spent one more evening in Bogota before taking a (very) short flight to Medellin.
