Bogota - Days 3 & 4

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We´ve had a couple of lazy days around Bogota while Amy gets over a bug (the first of many no doubt). Yesterday was great. We went to the Plaza de Bolivar where the locals were enjoying Bogota´s city fiesta. The square was filled with families, feeding corn to the pigeons, eating candy floss, riding llamas around the square and generally having a good day out. There were lots of buskers, from clowns to singers. The best and most unique for us was the guinea pig races - onlookers placed a coin on one of the numbered containers and if the guinea pig runs into that container then they win the money. It was all very comical and no-one was taking it seriously. Amy just wanted to stroke the guinea pigs... needless to say we didn´t let her.

Then onto the Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold). Wow - a very impressive collection that you have to see to believe it. Every conceivable item you can imagine made of gold and so beautifully crafted - much of it dating back hundreds or even a thousand years. All of it was housed in a modern gallery that London would be proud of.

We wandered around some more of La Candelaria district, impressed by the colourful houses with their chunky clay-tiled roofs. We lunched in a local cafe, sampling some more tasty Colombian dishes - arepas with chicken and rice being our favourite.

Today we headed off for the Botanical Gardens of Bogota. Our first impression was "it ain´t Wisley" however, there were 2 highlights which made it worthwhile. First, we saw 5 or 6 hummingbirds feeding on a huge bed of Kangaroo Paw flowers. They moved so fast that they were hard to photograph, but they were irridescent blue and tiny, tiny little birds. Then, the greenhouses were stunning, filled with all the usual tropical plants but many more that we´d not seen before.

We finished off today with a trip to the Museu Botero. Botero is a famous Colombia artist who paints people and animals as really fat charicatures - amusing, but not what we´d hang on our walls. Anyway, the museum was in a lovely Colonial building also with some impressionist paintings which were of course beautiful.

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Photos

Plaza de Bolivar
Feeding the pigeons corn

Museo de Oro
A golden mask in the Oro Museo Bogota

Jardin de Botanico Bogota
A hummingbird amongst the kangaroo paw

Comments

[Geoff]

Not in the slightest bit jealous!
Just looked at the blog for your first few days, looks like it's been pretty colourful! Here I am sitting at my desk working and looking forward to my week in Tuscany in September which seems pretty small beer compared to your big adventure! Enjoy, look forward to the next edition! Regards, Geoff