Bogota, A City Reformed

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I decided to take a break after the last entry and check out the museo de oro down the street, which is supposedly the largest collection of pre-spanish gold artifacts in Colombia with 50,000+ pieces. I have no idea how this stacks up against other world museums, but I know I was impressed. Of the pieces there, almost all were completely gold. There was of course the occasional ornamental pot, stone stature, or preserved dead guy, but I don't think I have ever seen that much gold in one place before (excluding the solid gold budda in thailand). To be fair though, I haven't visited that many exclusively gold museums before.

The best part for me though was on the top floor of the museum, where there was a massive map of Columbia! I mean sure, the intent was the large pictures of the various native people sticking out of the map (actually kind of a cool piece), but the map had every tiny little road through the countryside listed! You have no idea how hard I have looked for a decent map of this country. Even google is worthless. I guess it must be the fact that the country has only recently become (somewhat) safe to travel around, but there is a complete absence of decent road maps (and I have made the rounds through the book stores). I ended up taking upwards of 40 pictures of various parts of the map, until I killed what little was left of my camera battery (I am writing this while waiting for it to recharge).

On the whole I have thoroughly enjoyed Bogota. The city is situated between several mountain ranges, and has been built up onto the various ridges in parts. I have also been impressed by the quantity of trees, parks, and other greenery present in the various streets. Compared with other large cities I have visited (Lima, Bangkok, pretty much every city in china...), the air is largely free of pollution, and just the ability to see more than a few blocks makes the place seem a lot cleaner! There is a decent amount of trash on the streets (and dog crap, as my right shoe is keenly aware..), but on the whole it isn't bad for a large city.

The city administration has recently been trying to improve the city atmosphere. Every friday, a large portion of one of the central streets is shut down to traffic, and turns into a large walking district, complete with food, hawkers, street musicians and performers, random (somewhat creepy) clowns, "dudes who stand perfectly still until you put a coin in a slot and then the move a lot" (anyone know what to call these guys?), etc. It was actually rather entertaining. Also, every sunday afternoon, a large network of streets shut down to cars, and become biking only.

In the center of a lot of the large streets, there is significant construction happening, as the city puts in what is known as the "TransMilenio" which will be a large network of buses with dedicated traffic lanes, sort of similar to a subway system (but slower). There are already a lot of these going, but only in the central part of the city. From what I have seen though, the demand is there. The busses are almost always packed to the gills. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.

I met one local guy who had decided that Bogata was the absolute greatest city in the world because of these several features, and kept pointing out that whenever a similar feature exists in another country, they are simply copying Bogata. I'm not sure about that... but I have been impressed over all. The city of Bogota (and I guess the whole country) has been trying to reform itself as a more stable and travel friendly place, as Colombia is finally exiting the violence and destruction that defined it as a country for much of the last few decades. Though it was at one time one of the most dangerous countries in the world, at least the central parts have supposedly become a lot more stable. And you will not find a nicer group of people.

Another thing that is apparently growing in the city is the art scene. Though I haven't actually seen much of it, there are supposedly a lot of aspiring artists, musicians, etc in the area. One this that has been quite noticeable however is the rather extraordinary amount of in tact graffiti around the city. Some would argue the legitimacy of the art form, but I have been quite impressed by some of the creativity and obvious time spent on some of the pieces.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is trying the various foods available in different regions, and Bogota is no different. On the first morning I was here (Saturday), I went out and had what I was informed was a typical (though only for special occasions) breakfast of bread, cheese, hot chocolate, and a very large (but delicious) tamale. The interesting thing about this breakfast, I leaned after being informed rather sternly that I was eating it completely wrong, is that the cheese is supposed to be cut up and put in the hot chocolate. Slightly odd, but actually not bad! The cheese gets slightly melted in the chocolate, and the chocolate has some kind of spice in it that makes the whole thing rather excellent. I've heard of cheese and wine before, but cheese and hot chocolate is something completely new.

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