Bogota is a big city in Colombia and it was my first stop on the South American continent on this trip. The city has lots of attractions and cool, artsy neighborhoods. I spent a week or two here and had a great time.
In my post about San Pedro, I mentioned going to San Antonio Texas. I planned on writing about that stop, but I only have a handful of photos and most of them are of me and my friend. So I'm going to skip posting about it.
When I left Guatemala it was cheaper to fly to Texas -> Colombia than it was to fly straight to Colombia. So I flew to Texas and had a fun time visiting a friend, then I flew down to Colombia.
My first stop in Colombia was Bogota. An old friend from Venezuela was also here so I met up with him and his family. I had met him almost 20 years ago in a game called Ultima Online. I had visited him in Venezuela a long time ago and he had visited me when I lived in Germany.
Our first stop was to a grocery store. The produce section of the store was very impressive.
I don't remember what kind of fruit this was, but it was good.
My friend was in Bogota visiting one of his friends who used to live in Venezuela but now lives in this city. We all went to his girlfriend's apartment for dinner.
In Bogota they still have a bull-fighting ring. I've never seen a bull fight and it seems pretty messed up. I don't think it's something I'd want to see.
Bogota is a pretty place and during the day it seems safe. But at night when I got ready to go back to my hotel, my friends insisted that I take a taxi or Uber. My hotel was only 10 minutes away by foot, but they said it wasn't safe at night. I thought they were being over cautious, but when a Venezuelan and a Colombian tell you that a neighborhood isn't safe, it's probably a good idea to listen.
I was in town at Christmas time.
The city has some very cool architecture and a funky vibe that reminded me of Spain a little bit.
This was a wall in front of a construction area. Even though it's an advertisement, I thought it was kind of cool.
I really liked the bird that was painted on this wall.
The barbed wire on the walls give some hints that this area might not be safe at night.
We took a cable car to the top of a mountain and it gave an amazing view of the city.
There is a cool park area at the top of the mountain. There's also a church and a restaurant. We spent a few hour up there.
My friend was traveling with his girlfriend and daughter. The kid really enjoyed the Christmas lights.
We had dinner at the restaurant at the top of the mountain. The view was awesome.
The next day we went to some museums. I won't bore you with museum photos.
OK, just one museum photo. This one seemed kind of unique.
The streets seemed to have more artwork than the museums.
On one street that does a night market, lots of people were doing chalk drawings in the street.
This guy was racing Guinea pigs.
Somehow people would bet on which house the guinea pigs would go to. I didn't understand the rules of the game.
We wandered all over the city. My friend was much more interested in doing activities than I am. We went all over the place.
We found some awesome murals.
We also went to a salt mine that had a church built into it. I guess churches in salt mines is a popular thing because the salt mine in Poland also had a church in it.
Outside of the mine was a little park.
Our last meal together was at a restaurant that specializes in meat.
The picture isn't great, but the entire place was decorated from floor to ceiling with crazy decorations. The food was great and it was awesome to hang out with my friend again.
After that, my friend flew back to Venezuela for Christmas. We made plans for me to fly out to Venezuela and stay with him for New Years. I bought a ticket and went to the airport at 2am to catch my flight. At the check-in counter I found out that Maduro had changed the visa requirements and I needed a visa to go to Venezuela. I didn't have a visa so I wasn't able to go. Luckily I was able to refund the flight and get my money back.
Bogota was a cool city to visit. I wouldn't have liked it as much as I did if I was alone, but it was still cool. There was lots to see and do. And the vibe there is really cool.
One thing you should definitely not miss is having a hot dog in Colombia. If you've only had hot dogs in the USA, you will lose your mind when you see all of the toppings that they put on the hot dogs down here. In Venezuela the do the hot dogs this way too, but you'll be too busy eating arapas to have any hot dogs there.
Next up is Medellin! I'm really having a hard time staying motivated to make these posts after work, but I should have it posted soon. I hope to see you there!