La Candelaria, Bogota

Colombia
5/12/2009

Well I've gotta say, that I love the city of Bogota, it is most likely my favorite city we've come across on this trip! Our last stop in South America, Bogota, is a high mountain city, at 2600 meters(8500 feet) filled with color, cobblestone streets, and a very warm vibe. The air here is crisp and cool, and looking at the mountains surrounding the city they are covered in tall trees, and mist. The city has a young and hip feel, with many cafes, and old buildings that have been renovated for new restaurants. If you thought that Bogota would be hot and dry (from the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith) you are wrong. Everytime we go out, Bogota has a Portland, Oregon/ Seattle, Washington feel, a nice reminder of home, so far away. There are lots of museums, plazas and colorful, colonial buildings lining the streets.

Our first day in the city we strolled around "La Candelaria" the old-town part of Bogota with many cafes, flags and street food stands. We headed into the Gabriel Garcia Marquez exhibit,with many weird, almost scary paintings. Like I said earlier, since all the streets are cobblestone, and the buildings old colonial, the streets are very warm and friendly. We stopped into a restaurant that was just screaming our names. La Quinoa y Armaranto, an old fashioned style kitchen, and as we entered, there were two table in the entrance just overflowing with green lettuce, spinach, arugala, as well as spices like rosemary, basil, bay leaves and more. The restaurant had two floors and distinctly smelled like pesto and olive oil, a very nice combination. We were ushered to the warm upstairs and all ordered the pesto pasta with italian salad. Looking into the kitchen downstairs, all the cooks were women who looked Colombian/Italian, and definitely knew how to cook some delicious smelling food. The salad was great, arugala, lettuce, spinach and basil, with balsamic, the best salad of the trip, and followed by a delicious pesto covered spaghetti! Leaving the warm, delicous and homely smelling restaurant, we headed to the Museo del Oro, the Museum of Gold. This three floor museum was filled with gold from pre-colombian times(before 1492) and was just jaw dropping. There was so much gold, and some of the pieces were so intricately worked, I was very impressed with the skill of the Native Colombians and their gold working skills. It made me think of how much gold artifacts were destroyed within the first 20 years of spanish colonization. I've heard that the spanish often melted all the pieces into bars to be shipped home.

Leaving the gold, we walked around the markets and vendor stands, and headed home for dinner, before our big salsa dancing night, to celebrate my birthday. Back at Alegria's hostel, we gathered up two Argentines(it was cool to hear their accent, after all this time without it) and headed to a Cuban bar, a Club Havana type deal, for a fun night of good music, and fun dancing. The night life in Colombia ends significantly earlier then both in Argentina and Brasil. I think we were in the cab home by 3:30 or so, when in the latter, it would have been 5 or 6.

The next day we strolled around town, and went into an interesting art museum, where I saw my first Pablo Picasso original. While he has lots of very impressive pieces, the works at the museum were not that great. However, the museum had a great atrium courtyard, where we sat and smelled the fresh air. After the museum, we headed to a restaurant called Cistrola, where they only had two menu options, I got the Paella, and Laina got the chicken breast. With my meal, I got a glass of sangria, which the house refilled three times. It was so delicious! It reminded me of the days we used to make mulled wine, around christmas time, back in Hawaii. Really loving the restaurant, I found that Bogota has so much to offer, and great food to eat. I would highly recommend Bogota has an awesome starting point to anybody's trip. On our last day in town, our friend Benedicte, from PSF in Pisco, showed up and we spent the day together and went our for a great lunch, and later, for dinner.

It seems we have reached the end of the trip (I am writing this in the hostel, waiting for our taxi to the airport) and we have had such an eye-opening and fantastic time. Thank you everybody, for reading the blog, writing comments to keep us updated, and traveling with us.

I apologize for any grammatical/spelling errors I have done over the last 5 months. Just kidding!