Bogota

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Bogota. What a city! Up in the Andes with fog and rain and chilly weather, but a wonderful European feel in the tourist district known as the Candelaria. A walk around the Candelaria district offers a wonderful mix of colonial architecture combined with a surprising amount modern street art. A particular artist, DJLu, has a lot of prominent stencil art which is thought provoking and fun. Much of our time in Bogota passed by wandering the cobblestone streets, hiding from the rain under the store front awnings, and tucking into some wonderful food at the many fabulous cafes and restaurants that the city has to offer.
The local afternoon snack of "onces" was a favorite of ours. it consists of hot dark chocolate, bread and cheese but the trick is how you eat it; you break your cheese up and drop it into your hot chocolate and let it melt and when it has you scoop it out and spread it on your buttery bread. Amazing! Just what you need on a cold afternoon. Another restaurant highlight was a little place called Yumi Yumi, which serves paninis and "jugo natural". The best part about this place, besides the food, was the manager, German, who gave Chev and I a huge list of places to visit while in Bogota. We ended up hanging out with German one night. We helped close down Yumi Yumi, literally. I even helped make drinks! Then we went out to a local salsa club where we chatted and Chev got to get her dance on. Good times. While in Bogota we went did do some cultural activities. One day we went to the Museo de Oro, the Museum of Gold, which was entertaining but a bit of brain exercise at times when all the signs were in Spanish. Another day we went north of Bogota to the Salt Cathedral, a giant cathedral carved in some salt mines. Picture Vegas meets Christ. There were giant crosses, neon lights, and gospel rock music. Very surreal and a bit cheesy but still cool. The adventure on the bus there and back was interesting as well. We took the public bus which was crowded to the point of my personal space totally disappearing. It was long and sweaty and noisy but ever so cheap. One of the last nights we were in Bogota, Chev, Tom, Elissa and I decided to go out to a club, Andres Carne de Res, on a party bus. We drank the free rum on the bus and arrived at the club ready to dance. And what a club! There was stuff everywhere, saddles, hats, neon lights, heart cut outs, and people all over the place. There were so many people that it was hard to dance. People were even on the tables. It was a trip! All that in 6 days. Chev and I loved Bogota but we were ready to move onto Ecuador.

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