Our flight to Bogota in Colombia is at 11:05, so we’re up at the airport by about 8:30, and duly check in for our one hour flight. How optimistic of us. We lounge about in the departure lounge until our flight shows as delayed, expected to leave at 14:25. It slips a bit further, and then shows as cancelled, so we join the queue at the gate. There are absolutely no Avianca staff to be seen, and the mood in the crowd is getting ugly: they’ve been waiting for five hours, and now no flight. Eventually, one poor bloke turns up, and is completely mobbed by people shouting at him. He can’t say anything, there’s too much noise, everyone is shouting at once, and some of them are pretty angry. An airport security guy tries to help, but it’s still no use, so he gets on the radio and a few minutes later five armed police turn up. They, in turn, get on the radio and arrange for someone from Avianca who actually knows what is happening to come down and explain. In the crowd are all sorts of people with connecting flights to all over the place, including a pair with a Machu Picchu trek booked who have already missed their connection to Lima. Here’s a picture of the mob after it has calmed down, with the police standing around discreetly in case it goes bad again. We’re at Gate 23A, having been to 23A, 31, 16, 31 and 23A again during the course of the day.
Eventually, the only passengers left are those for Colombia only. We’re all bunched at gate 23 A, and get to chatting, swapping coins in various currencies, and taking photographs like the one below. We’re surprisingly cheerful, really.
We eventually trot back to gate 31, get a free sandwich, and join the 18:30 flight to Bogota. We queue a bit more in the airport on arrival, then hop in a taxi to our hostel, which is in the old district of La Candelaria. It’s now pushing 9pm, and we hit another snag as our taxi grinds to halt due to a traffic problem on Carretera 4, one of the main routes through the district. He improvises, but in the end he drops us about two blocks away from our hostel at about 10pm. It had been a long day, but even so it occurred to me that we were now walking, late at night, through downtown Bogota, with no clear idea where we were going: a situation we usually take great pains to avoid. We hurried up the road, heart rates rising, mostly because Bogota is at 2600 metres and Panama at about 10 metres, until two local women asked us where we were going, telling us that the streets were “muy peligroso”, very dangerous, at night. We told them Hostel Alegria, and they walked us the remaining block or so, for which we were very grateful. A top day’s travelling, all in all J
The next day, we content ourselves with checking out the local area, getting hold of a map of the city, and trying the local food. Here I am eating a bean stew, which is delicious, but has somewhat of an, errm, effect on me later in the day. It was however more tasty than another speciality: hot chocolate and cheese, where the idea was to drop chunks of soggy cheese-like substance into the very sweet drink, which neither of us was really keen on !
Later, we find our way to the Bogota Beer Company, and drink something which isn’t lager, hoorah !
The main square is named after Simon Bolivar who led Colombia to independence and became President in the 1820s. Today it seems pigeons rule the area.
The following day we take the cable car to Monserrate, a Catholic church on the mountain above Bogota. Great views, and the weather is sunny.
We really like Bogota. It’s got a real energy to it, and there’s always tons going on. We managed to go to two concerts while we were there, one free (latin rock, a band called Veka) and one paid (Claudia Gomez, a Colombian guitarist and singer). In La Candelaria, there are many museums, exhibition halls, concert venues and libraries, so we also go to the Museum of Bogota, which is showing an exhibition of photos of Bogota; the Military Museum; and the Botero Museum, which is dedicated to Fernando Botero, a famous Colombian painter. All of the objects and people in his paintings are larger than life and slightly plump, like the Mona Lisa and the still life with fruit below. Apologies for the photographic quality.
We also sign up for a city tour with Bogota Bike Tours, which was absolutely fantastic. Mike, the owner and guide, took us to parts of Bogota which we would never have seen for ourselves. The fruit and vegetable market was fascination, and we tried many odd-looking but delicious fruits. This is a guanabana.
And believe it or not, this is a vegetable. I couldn’t eat a whole one, though.
We also tour the cemetery. A number of the persons buried here are believed to be able to help the living, and their tombs are kept spruce by supplicants. This is the grave of Leo Siegfried Kopp, who founded the Bavaria Brewing Company in Bogota in 1889, and did many good works whilst alive, not least brewing beer. It’s still going, but it’s part of SABMiller now, one of the world’s largest brewers and bottlers, now headquartered in London, England.
Whilst dodging traffic and pedestrians (no worries about cycling on the pavements/sidewalks here) we come across many murals, here is one with one of the fitter members of our team showing his flexibility!
Here we are looking less fit!
We finish up with coffee of course, and the barista is an artist!
On our last day in Bogota we decide to walk further around town. We come across this set of dancers being filmed, and they must be professionals as they’re smiling a lot and appear cool in the blazing sunshine.
We walk along Septimazo, the main street, which is closed to traffic as it’s Sunday (good idea – why can’t we do this in the UK?) The whole area is a mass of pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers in addition to the usual people selling anything you can imagine from memory sticks to emeralds! Here’s a great example of the locals enjoying their day of leisure.
The Sunday flea market was selling everything from clothes to gas masks, plus all the sweet confections the Colombians love. We reckon we need to restrict our time here or we’ll put on far too much weight and have to buy new clothes, maybe from the flea market!
All in all, a great week in the capital city – off to the country for a rest.
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