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Published: March 6th 2016
Siesta Time
When it comes to siesta, anywhere will do...Bogota had been at the top of my travel list for the past few years. As peace started to take hold in the country over the past 10-15 years (check out this
Economist articlefor more details), I continued to hear more and more wonderful stories from travellers about their experience to this once “no go” zone.
I wouldn’t be disappointed for three main reasons. One, the city has an extensive and diverse culinary scene. I was finally introduced to the Peruvian cuisine here! After such a wonderful introduction, I now have Lima at the top of my travel list. Two, while the weather forecasts called for considerable precipitation, we saw literally none. When I combined that with daytime highs around 20c, the weather was perfect. I am always astonished at how much of a difference altitude makes to temperature. Remember Bogota is close to the equator, but it rarely gets above the low 20s for daytime highs because of its 2,650 m altitude. Three, I never realized how much the Colombian economy was dependent on commodities. With the collapse in commodity prices over the past few years, the Colombian Peso has been hit hard, which has made this country a bargain
Old Lady in Despair
Latin America, like no other region of the world, has such disparity in wealth. for travellers.
I have been travelling internationally since 1989 and I have seen a lot of changes with how I travel during that time, but probably no bigger than this trip. For the first time on an international trip, I used Airbnb, Uber, and an unlocked phone. All I can I say is what a game changer. While I had my accommodations all booked a month prior with Airbnb, the ability to keep all my communications centralized with the proprietors and some of the nice additions like adding one’s reservation to Apple Wallet made everything easier. While I have used Uber in my home city of Edmonton, it sure can make a difference in a country with language and safety issues. I used Uber 13 times on this trip and the experience was fabulous. Gone are the days when you are never sure who will be your taxi driver or whether you will reach your destination in the most efficient way. Finally, I bought a SIM card for $7 CAD which gave me 2,000 minutes and 1GB of data for 15 days! I can’t emphasis enough how big of a difference that can make when navigating around town or
Trouble Brewing...
Here is little boy with some attitude... The haircut tells it all... looking for a good restaurant nearby.
Bogota has a proud tradition every Sunday when it closes off 121 KM of roads around town to allow everyone to use them for cycling, blading, running and walking. On a nice Sunday from 7:00 to 14:00, one can see close to 2M people taking advantage of this accessibility. This has also give Bogota a vision to set up a very extensive bike path network, which would be second to none from my experience in the developing world. I took advantage of the opportunity and rented a bike for a couple of hours. I wasn’t as easy as one would think to find a bike to rent, but once I did it was a great experience. I did have some ill affects afterwards from the altitude sickness, which affected me until the next day. I thought that wouldn’t be an issue after a couple of days to acclimatize.
Not to be out done with public transportation, Bogota is also the first city to setup what some call as an above ground subway system called
Transmilenio. What I mean by this is that they have set up a number of major lines for
Graffiti Capital of the World
If you think your city has graffiti problems, you should see what is going on in Bogota. While much of it is similar to what you see around the world, the creativity has also spawn beautiful commissioned murals like this. the longest buses I have seen in the world. These buses, which are made by Volvo can be as long as three normal buses. The stations look very similar to the subway stations, but they are all above ground. Buses travel up and down these routes in dedicated lanes to allow them the speed far greater than regular traffic. It isn’t perfect, but it has to cost a fraction of what a subway system would cost.
With the aid of TripAdvisor, we were able to have a phenomenal culinary experience. They take their food seriously here and when you combine it with the great value the peso offers right now it is a foodie’s paradise. One restaurant really caught our attention.
Matiz is ranked number two on TripAdvisor and for good reason. This fusion restaurant headed up by a young Catalan chef made for an experience not to be easily out done in New York or London. I would put it down to one of my top five meal of all times. During our second visit, we had their truffle tasting menu with wine paring. Never have I had truffles shaved at my table by the chef... Quite an
Mural
Another beautiful mural in the historical neighbourhood of La Candelaria. experience. If you are ever in Bogota, you definitely need to check this restaurant out.
After spending five nights in the northern part of town near Parque de la 93, we took the opportunity to use our last four nights to see more the historical part of town called La Candelaria. There certainly hasn’t been the preservation and planning gone into this historical centre like I have seen in other parts of Latin America, as new and old are not always combined well together. Long gone are the cobblestone streets and now many of the buildings are covered in graffiti. University students and backpackers now claim much of this area as their home. Six universities can be found in or nearby the area.
One thing that is notable about Bogota, when one first arrives, is all of the graffiti. Most of it looks like any other in the world, but there are some murals that are works of art. We went on a graffiti tour to get a better perspective on all of this. With all of the problems that Colombia has had, graffiti is one they haven’t fully got a handle on. Technically, one can’t get arrested
Paloquemao Market
I am always a fan of markets. Bogota would be no different. for this right now. To counter this, many public and private walls have been commissioned for murals and this is where you will see the beautiful murals so prevalent around town. As Colombia continues to develop, I expect to see this issue come more inline with what we see in the rest of the world. In the meantime, love it or hate it it is part of the culture here.
With the official end of the civil war nearly here, I expect this country to garner a bigger chunk of the tourist traffic in the years to come.
For a video of the trip, click
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