First Stop Bogotá

I began my journey in Colombia in the capital city of Bogotá. Like I mentioned in my first post about Colombia, the people there are super friendly, so I actually met Luisa and Juan within my first five minutes at my hostel. As I was settling in and unpacking my bag, Luisa and Juan came into my room and invited me to lunch. We ended up spending the whole weekend together, and I also met up with Luisa again later in Medellin (she was there for a business trip the same time that I was)! Luisa and Juan were childhood friends who had lived together growing up, and were keen to show me what Bogotá had to offer.

We spent our first night in Bogotá's Zona Rosa with a crew from the hostel. After dinner of empanadas we headed out to La Villa for happy hour drinks and later Colombian Pub for drinks and dancing. Colombians definitely know how to celebrate. Being Christmas season, the streets were brightly adorned in lights, and a Colombian night out involves simply buying a bottle of booze for the table at prices that aren't much higher than normal liquor store prices. We had a great introductory night to Colombia!

Zona Rosa with decor

Christmas tree in the square

Juan, Luisa and Lars

Bottle service

The next night we also went out, to the funky Andres Carne de Res. The restaurant/bar was enormous, with (I think) 8 floors of dancing, food, and enormous drinks. The decor was extremely strange, and part of the fun of the atmosphere is that the staff walks around in very weird costumes. Imagine if you are just enjoying yourself at dinner, and this scary pregnant man clown slowly walks by your table, with a zombie-like pace and demeanor? Needless to say, the night was certainly entertaining!

Pregnant zombie clown at Andres

The next morning I woke up and did the Bogota Bike Tours which is an amazing way to see a lot of the city in one day. Bogotá is the capital of Colombia, and also home to many of the countries most famed museums and architecture. Highlights of this tour include an informative and knowledgeable guide, the bullfighting stadium, the interesting graffiti, the red light district (would have never seen this area without the tour), and all the beautiful city parks.

My bike on the tour

The Bullfighting Plaza

Bogota is known for its political graffiti artists

Nacional Museum that details Bogota's turbulent history

Plaza Bolivar

The next week was spent taking Spanish classes at Nueva Lengua, which is an impressive Spanish school only blocks away from the hostel I was staying at (La Pinta), in the friendly and comfortable Chapinero neighborhood. The classes were really incredible and highly recommended if you are looking for a Spanish class in Bogotá. Class days run from 8-12pm on Mondays through Fridays and are broken up into grammar, reading and listening, and speaking sections with three different teachers a day. I liked this approach because then you could learn from teachers who were teaching the subjects that they enjoyed most, and you also had an opportunity to experience three different teaching styles.

In the afternoons I did some exploring around Bogotá in nearby towns. Keep posted for a blog update about my day trips to Monserrate and Zipaquira as well as my tips for the museums and food in La Candelaria!