Around Town, Monserrate and Zipaquirá

After class during my week in Bogotá, I made time to explore many of the surrounding city neighborhoods. The museums in Bogotá are world renowned, so I spent an entire afternoon checking them out one day-- although a true museum aficianado would certainly be able to spend more time than one day at all of the amazing museums. My favorite was the Museo Botero, which highlighted the work from artist Fernando Botero. One of Colombias most famous artists, his style is unique; his figures are often stretched and obese, with exaggerated features.

Another highlight was the Museo de Oro, or the Gold Museum. The museum features the biggest collection of pre-Spanish gold work and carvings, and also talks a lot about the history of the native indigenous Colombians. This indigenous population was largely exterminated by Spanish colonization, and now less than 4% of Colombian people are from indigenous descent. It was moving to see the historical artifacts from these indigenous peoples.

After a day at the museum, I went to the restaurant Antigua Santa Fe for a tasty bowl of ajiaco, a traditional Colombian soup made with chicken, potatoes, and a Colombian herb called guascas. It is served with a corn on the cob in the soup, drizzled with cream, and also includes rice and avocado on the side. It is really good, and I am on the look out for a good recipe so that I can recreate this dish at home!

Ajiaco

Another afternoon, I decided to check out Monserrate, which is the mountain that rises 10,341 ft behind the city of Bogotá. You can ride a cable car to the top to check out the church up there. Since it was Christmas time, the mountainside was also highly decorated with lights. The views looking down on the city were pretty great.

The cable car and the city behind

Bogota and me

The city peaking through, under the bushes

Christmas decorations

Another very pleasant afternoon excursion was to the quaint town of Zipaquirá, home to the famous Catedral de Sal or Salt Cathedral. It is a Catholic church built underground in an active salt mine. The tour of the mine and the cathedral takes several hours, and the underground carvings are made mostly entirely of salt (although there are some marble carvings as well). Complete with a light and water show and a 3D movie at the end, it's truly a unique tourist attraction. The town of Zipaquirá was also very nice-- a cute little colonial town with much more charm than its neighboring capital city.

Main room at the Salt Cathedral

Crosses carved out of salt

Marble carvings in the salt

Light show in Colombian colors

The safety miner at the entrance

Main street in Zipaquira

Zipaquira plaza

As my time in Bogotá came to a close, I really grew to love the city. It is a cosmopolitan city with a fascinating history, beautiful art and architecture, and an engaged citizenship. When I was there, I witnessed several protests in the streets due to a conflict over the mayor, who was overturned by the government the week that I was in Bogotá. The Colombians I spoke to about this conflict were opinionated about the matter, and I saw in the Bogotán people the foundations of a healthy democracy, where opinions could be openly expressed without fear of violent outbreak. It reveals how far the country has come in just a few decades towards democracy and freedom for its citizens.

I can't end my story about Bogotá without mentioning a lovely dinner and new friendship with Clara. I had never met Clara, but we connected after being introduced through a mutual friend on Facebook. A genuinely kind and friendly young woman, Clara and I had a great dinner and we talked about traveling in Colombia, living abroad (she had been an exchange student in the US), and perceptions of Colombia from the US.

Clara and I

Clara's mom came to pick us up after dinner and drove me back to my hostel, and they both offered any assistance that I could need throughout my journey, in case of any emergencies. The experience with Clara and her family proved again just how amazingly generous most of the Colombians I met were.

After my class finished on Friday, I made my way to the airport. Bogotá was fairly chilly, with temperatures hovering in the high 60s for most days, so I was ready to explore what the Colombian Caribbean had to offer. Next stop, the lovely colonial town of Cartagena!

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!