Advertisement
Published: August 26th 2006
Edit Blog Post
8th August- 15th august
i was meant to be on my home by now. Had a flight booked from BA in Argentina for 7th August!!! Though not yet ready to get back home! and am still so far from BA- a place that i dearly love, but will one day soon also hold the place that i return back home from!! so if anyone wants to come out and join me and make me stay longer, i would be forever inviting!
Bogota, the capital of Colombia, was a definite surprise. My 2nd favourite city in South America thus far, it was cosmopolitan. trendy people. trendy bars and clubs. Awesome nightlife. Great museums! And yet so little tourism! That is one great thing about Colombia- a country that is unfortunately burdened with the memory of danger. Yet, when you travel through the country, you realise that it is a distant past! And to my fortune, little tourism means that i experience the culture much more deeply. No doubt in upcoming years things will be vastly different here...am not keen to see how tourism will one day affect this wonderous country!
Bogata was a meeting place of many sorts! staying
at hostel Platypus in The candelaria region (the old and historic centre of town), Claudio and I met up with our old mate Alex (the big black guy from the UK that i had travelled with from Buenos Aires to Cuzco in Peru). Also turned out that one of my best mates, Andrew Dimitri, from Australia was also there for the same weekend! had some awesome nights partying and catching up! The nightlife has been only second to BA so far!
Bogata is surrounded by greenish hills. Mounting the Cerro De Monserate, you could appreciate the old colonial candelaria region with its colonial buildings, centering around the large and impressive Plaza de Bolivar. (additional- Simon Bolivar was the man responsible for freeing the vast majority of latinos in south america from the control by the domineering and destructive Spaniards. Bolivia was named in his honour!)
Museums- The Museo Del Oro (the gold museum) is the single most largest collection of gold in the world!!!!!!!!!!!! It showcased artefacts found from Indigenous times, pottery from graves, tools and hundreds of jewelery pieces!
The Botero museum, containing a large collection of paintings donated by Fernando Botero- his art is characterised by
what we affectionately named the paintings of the ¨fat people¨. apparently modelled on what an inflated balloon would look like...i loved his work! his work also consisted of large collections of sculptures which you will find in my entry about Medellin.
PARTY! PARTY! PARTY!! i partied my ass off in Colombia....so much that i am now medicating myself for a self dignosed, no doubt self-inflicted peptic ulcer!!! no alcohol for 3 days! i promise! from kento Canta, to clubbing in Zona rosa region and the wicked 3 level Gothica club! i danced my ass off! the colombian women are stunning and were teaching me to salsa in the clubs! ooh la la!!! i do not find at all strange that this countries´women so often win Miss Universe pageants! i´m in love!!!! everyone dances with everyone. no need to be shy in these clubs! back are the days of partyin tilll daylight!!! woohoo!!!
Ended my Bogata expeience in watching a bullfight. part of the festival activities that came to pass on that weekend, we watched it all from the free stadium seats built especially for the sport! Matadors were brought especially from Spain for it. We watched 3 of
the 4 brutal killings! my first time watching it...i definitely was not a fan. quite a brutal and horrible sport. After being teased and chased for 20minutes, they would then penetrate these long rods into its back with spikes contaning some kind of drugging poison that would send the bull into a state of confusion. Then when least expected, the Matador would jump and penetrate a long sword into the neck of the Bull, and when the bull is finally down, they would give it numerous sharp blows with a knife just above the neck to finally kill it....alll in the presence of little innocent kids, who then watch the bull being unpassionately pulled by horse-driven rails!
I was meant to then hit to the relaxing hills of Salento for rehabilitation, but my very persuasive friends convinced me to keep the vibe and join them in the continued partying of Medellin! when will it ever stop! i hope not anytime soon!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.04s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0195s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Freddie
non-member comment
C'mon man you should know better
The question posed is are they real and the answer i shouldn't even need to help you with...