Bogota

In Bogota we were incredibly fortunate to be invited to stay at the house of Jordan´s friend from high school. Laura, living in Colombia at her grandfather´s house for the summer, really made our stay in the capital city. Exactly halfway through our trip, it was very comforting and relaxing to stay in a family home. 

After getting lost in a taxi because Jordan wrote down Carerra 114b instead of 14b, which landed us in the ghetto 100 blocks off, we finally arrived just in time to go meet Laura´s family for dinner. All local Bogotaños, they were patient with our Spanish, welcomed us to Bogota, and gave us some tips on what to do.

On Sunday July 11^th, Laura took us to Parque 93 to watch Spain win the World Cup. It was fun to watch the game on a huge screen in a park with hundreds of festive Bogotaños. 

The city sits at 2,600 meters, or roughly 9,000 feet in a valley surrounded by green mountains. So why not go up even higher? To gain some perspective on the enormous city, we rode the cable car up to Monserate, a cathedral and view point on a high hill above the city. Despite the ever present clouds, we still got a good view of the expansive sprawl that is Bogota.

North of Bogota there are several large salt mines. Deep inside one mine, what started as small alters to keep the miners safe evolved into an enormous underground cathedral. Sunday mass is held 180 meters under the ground in a great space carved out by the removal of many tons of salt. It was a pretty impressive sight to see. 

Another tourist staple is a visit to the Museo de Oro (gold museum). This incredibly impressive collection houses gold artifacts from indigenous tribes spanning northern South America beginning in the years BC. 

We enjoyed the museum collection of comically balloon-like figures painted by Botero, Colombia´s most famous artist. The museum also housed cubist artists such as Picasso and Leger, as well as collections of colonial art. 

Plaza Boliviar

In between museums and historic sites, we exploried the various districts and tastes of Bogota. Here we are in La Puerta Falsa, a famous old snack shop, trying the local delight hot chocolate with white cheese! Very tasty!

The historic colorful La Candelaria district

Canaleza, a delicious hot drink of brown sugar, mint, cinnamon bark, and aguardiente

La Candaleria district...

On our last night we ordered sushi with Laura and her grandfather then headed off to a night bus to travel 8 hours west to Salento.