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Published: March 27th 2006
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Bogota
In the beginning Bogota was called Santa fe de Bogota but the name was (obviously) changed later I guess most of you like me haven’t heard much good news from Colombia in a long time. If you ever hear anything on TV then its mostly related to Cocaine, the Medellin or Cali cartel, Colombia being the kidnapping capital of the world or the US trying to fxxk up another country. Well all good enough reasons to check it out (just kidding). The reason why I’m here is that Matt (Hi) a friend of mine brought Colombia up when I asked him where to go in South America. He seemed to be quite taken by this country. Other people that I´ve met had never anything bad to say about Colombia and I hope I won’t be the first one. If you read the Rio entry then you know that I’m capable of badmouthing a place 😉
So after a quick flight from Rio to Santiago de Chile, a 10 hour stopover in the lovely airport there and another 5 hour flight I arrived in
Bogotá. I didn’t really know what to expect. The first thing I realized is that this place is freaking cold. Not really a surprise as Bogotá is 2600m above sea level and the temperature
here does not touch 20 degrees too often. Due to the proximity to the equator the temperature is in fact constant all year around.
Was actually quite nice to get the pullover out and not sweat all day long. I stayed in the old part of the city and never ventured into any other part but I heard that it’s the usual “big South American city” mix of high risers, slums and lots of traffic. What do you expect from a city of 7 million people? Saying that the old part is like you expect it to be cobblestone streets, old colonial houses, narrow streets, lots of churches and the lot. Not too bad for a start and definitely better than what I expected.
As I only stayed 1 1/2 days I couldn’t do to much sightseeing but I managed to see the
Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold) which is apparently the most important Gold Museum in the world (how many are there anyway?). It displays mainly (90%!)(MISSING) pre-colonization gold artefacts found in Colombia and some other related stuff like stone figures. It seems that the olden day Colombian liked their gold jewellery as much as modern day girls and created quite elaborate
This is what the old town looks like most of the time
The weather wasn’t great that’s why everything looks so grey. pieces of jewellery. The Museum features also a special room called “the vault” which has gold artefacts from wall to wall. You can view a video of the vault of the Museum of Gold here:
How to play the videos. Also note the dramatic music.
As I said I didn’t stay too long in Bogotá but it had a nice feel to it and it felt safer than most of the big South American cities I have been to so far.
This is where Colombia is
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andreita
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BEAUTIFUL PLACE
WOW! BOGOTÁ IS THE MOST WONDERFUL PLACE THAT I KNOW, IT HAS ALL THINGS FOR BE THE BEST PLACE OF THE WORLD, AND I THINK IT IS SURE AND DOESN´T HAS GUERRILLAS IN ALL PLACES OF IT. AND BOGOTÁ DOESN´T HAS COCAINE AND KIDNAPPING, IT IS FALSE. BYE BYE.