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Published: June 10th 2007
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Getting to Bogota
This was the 4th leg of our Dragoman trip. We started in Quito and went to Otavalo where we had already been. It was a little more interesting this time because we caught the Saturday market. Didn't buy much but it was lovely to experience the full market with streets and streets of stalls.
We left Otavalo very early in the morning. The hotel provided us with a packed breakfast. It was a couple of hours drive to the Colombian border. We were stamped out of Ecuador and into Colombia without incident. A guy called Russ met us at the border to help us get to the airport and take Cameron off our hands. There was a cycle race going on so the main road was closed. We were initially directed into residential streets. Very tidy little houses, attached in long rows, a variety of colours and shapes, often with a little garden in front. Definitely middle class. We upset one lady who was washing her car because we got very close with the truck. After making several attempts to get around a number of corners and going over lots of footpaths, it was dicovered
Hotel Ambala
Compact but pleasant that we were going the wrong way. We ended up back where we started and then took the correct detour. Never mind, we amused the locals for a while.
We finally arrived at Ipiales airport where we sat around a drank bad coffee and waited for our flight. There are only 3 a week. We heard a plane more than once but didn't see it land. The weather was bad and we discovered that they were circling waiting for an opportunity to land. An hour late, we got on the plane. After sitting for a while we were told to get off. This plane was making a number of stops and the next stop was closed because of the weather. At this point we were hungry and the cafeteria was closed. But another half an hour and the airport was open and we were off. An unpleasant trip, the plane landed twice more before getting to Bogota. We definitely went the long way around.
One Night in Bogota
In Bogota we stayed at the Hotel Ambala. Tiny little rooms. Had to step over the loo to get to the shower. But nicely decorated.
Arriving late we
Hotel Ambala
A cool old switchboard missed the opportunity to take a city tour with the police. A group dinner was planned but we couldn't wait and ducked out to get some fast food. It was chicken and potatoes and fantastic because we were starving. It was hard to get an impression of Bogota at this time because it was dark and very quiet.
We had a birthday in the group so we went to an English restaurant and put on party hats (Sesame Street characters). We jumped in one of the taxis that Aimar had directed. After driving for a bit he turned and asked us where we were going. We had no idea. Luckily we had Rica with us. She is a Puerto Rican born Texan so she told him in spanish to call his controller as other taxis were going there. We thought we were really screwed when he pointed to an english college. But next corner we had it. Bit of an adventure.
The restaurant we went to was called something Paraiso and was run by an English chef who had worked at the Ivy in London, and his Colombian wife. Fish and chips. Sausage and mash. Couldn't ask for
more! It was nice after so long in South America.
An afternoon in Bogota
After visiting Ville de Leyva we returned to Bogota for another night. This time we had a whole afternoon to explore. We were dropped off at the Gold Museum (
Museo del Oro). This was Pieter's holy grail. He had always wanted to visit this. There were 2 storeys of exhibits. They were refurbishing and I reckon the displays we saw were recently renovated. Laid out by culture, the pieces were sometimes set out in front of the shadow of a person to show how they were worn. The highlight was a room that you enter, it was dark and the door close behind you. Slowly the lights come up and there is music. First the floor in the center reveals a number of layers of gold pieces. Then the walls of the circular room were gradually illuminated, the light reflecting off a wonderful collage of gold. Like pieces were laid out to create shapes and cover the wall. Some little nose rings represented birds in flight. Fantastic.
We browsed the flea market but didn't go further as there was a protest march down Carrera 7.
Very peaceful looking but a couple of weeks ago the same group had broken windows and caused some problems. Walking back to the hotel the streets were busy and we enjoyed the lively colourful bustling working city.
The police provided a tour of the city as part of the hotel stay. The government is really keen to promote tourism and this way the police got to practice their english. We had a young fella who needed to improve his english, and an older fella who said nothing. We were not doing the usual route because of the protests which was a shame. We could have ducked off to do these things ourselves but it was cool to have the police showing us around. They showed us the area where the colonial city meets the modern city and we walked through the colonial streets which are beautiful. Then they took us to the Casa de la Moneda (coin museum). That was nice. They had one room with a vault in it containing a golden bullet .. or a shell. It was big, a good half meter in height. Next door was an art museum. Mostly modern, with a huge collection
of
Botero, the guy who does all the fat people paintings. The gallery also had Dega (sculpture and painting), Picasso, Renoir, Monet and a Dali sculpture.
Saying goodbye to the policemen we headed off in search of postcards. We only found some expensive ones, but at least we found some. Then we took a taxi up Carrera 7 to the National Museum. It was 5000 pesos to get in and included a temporary Sipan exhibition. That was funny as we had already seen the original in Peru. There was all the usual archaeology, colonial history and modern art. Each room radiated out from a central point. In one room we realised that the building was once a prison because they had left a few of the cells intact. In other wings the entire interior walls had been removed or the archways for the door had been left while the cell walls were removed.
Our Bogota experience was short but positive.
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