Bogota, Colombia

In early October of this year my girlfriend and I decided on a spur of the moment trip to Bogota, Colombia. We live in Chicago and were able to see Depeche Mode in concert at Lollapalooza. We both love to travel. I like DM. She loves DM. We decided to knock out two birds with one stone as DM was scheduled to play at Parque Simon Bolivar the weekend we chose to go.
The trip there was brutal. We booked the 1:50 am flight out of O'Hare to Mexico City on Thursday through Mexicana Air and it was an hour late departing. Midway through the flight the pilot came over the PA asking if there was a doctor on board. Oh boy, here we go. Upon landing the flightstaff requested that everyone stay in their seats as paramedics needed to board the plane and take care of whomever the mid-flight sicko was who was needing care. No fewer than 8 EMTs boarded the plane and tended to the gentleman in the front row who needed help. We sat on the plane for an extra 30 minutes as he was helped and then escorted off the plane. After making our way through customs and rushing for the gate we were informed by the smuggest of airline workers that the flight was closed. The plane was still at the gate (and would be for another 30 minutes but they would not let us on). The rudeness of this guy working the gate made it all the more infuriating. The next flight leaving Mexico City for Bogota was scheduled to leave a cool 8 hours later. 8 hours in the Mexico City airport is like spending 11 years in Purgatory. It was absolutely painful. We made the next flight and finally arrived in Bogota a few hours later. I'm sure I've broken some sort of TravelBlog rule by complaining about flights and missed connections (as we've all had them) but it was a big part of our 3 1/2 day trip.
Bogota was fantastic. I was really surprised by how genuinely friendly the locals were. On more than one occasion locals spotted us looking around as though we were lost tourists (which we were) and came over to assist. No one became frustrated with our broken Spanish and more than a couple locals mentioned that Americans never come to Bogota and they were very pleased to see we had chosen to come to their country.
I am 34 years old and had never stayed at a hostel before but it was a good experience. We really enjoy meeting people on our trips and we were able to interact with a lot of younger people who were in the midst of extended trips ranging from a month to a couple years. It really added to the weekend. The hostel is called Hostal Fatima and I would recommend it for anyone looking for a hostel.
Overlooking Bogota is a white statue (much like Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janiero) depicting Mother Mary. It was a nice site. We visited the Simon Bolivar plaza and visited a couple churches and museums but mostly kept looking for the next cafe, restaurant, or street food vendor in which to part with our money. The restaurants were mostly ethnic ones along the lines of Italian, Mexican, American Steakhouses, etc. The bar scene was also plentiful and a ton of fun. While doing a Happy Hour at Yumi Yumi we were seated next to a young couple from Bogota who made the evening all the more fun. Fabio and Natalia were two of the most pleasant young people I've come across in my travels.
The Depeche Mode concert was on Saturday and my girlfriend and I took a leap of faith in showing up sans tickets. We needed to buy from a scalper as there was no ticket booth at Parque Simon Bolivar and we were both apprehensive in dealing with scalpers whilst not speaking Spanish well. We came out of the transaction unscathed and had a terrific time. I must say that the venue was poor (elongated, outdoors, no alcohol) but who can complain when hearing 40,000 non English speaking people singing along to Personal Jesus word for word.
An interesting thing about Bogota is that some of the men there apparently solve some altercations with their fists. In 3 days I saw 4 fist fights (none at drinking establishments) including an exchange where 3 police officers beat up a young guy at the DM concert and then let him run off instead of arresting him. Pretty bazaar.
The worst part of the trip is that we had so little time to spend in Bogota and I look forward to visiting again when I return on a longer stay to visit the neighboring countries.

---

Part of trip: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kakhastan

---