Bogotá Baby!!!

What do you do in the capital city of a country?

Right, you take in all the sights, enjoy the attractions in the nearer surrounding and eventually will spot something spezial that makes this ciy unique.

Well, after a 17 hours ride we were simply happy to have a hostel that actually has enough beds fort he four of us. The FOUR of us? Right you are, wem et another traveller on the way who actually wanted to get of in St. Gil but overslept his stop and thus ended up in the Capital. His name was Michael and he was from Israel. A nice guy, who had spend his previous years in the Israeli armee protecting Israeli property along the boarder from palestinian people. A bit odd but generally speaking a nice fella, he joined us three and accompanied us on the exploration of the big city.

First thing to do, a stroll through the neighbourhood and a visit to the Museo de Oro. The city istself seemed really grey and unwelcoming and the additional rain tha pounded down every day didn´t make it better. On the contrary, the Museo de Oro was really nice and besides the actual golden echibition from a former colombian time, the Maya exhibition in the basement kicke dass!!!!

The next day (Saturday) we wanted to be part of the beer-party-wagon and drive to an area about 40 mins outside of Bogotá to get absolutely smashed in one of the biggest parties ever. And the offer from out hostel to pay 50.000 Pesos (about 20€) for transport back and forth, as well as free drinks during transport, did not take place due to too few participants. To do the trip by ourselves would have costed about 150.000 Pesos which is why we decided to go to the Zona Rosa instead (Party Area). Chris’ and I hit it untill 5 in the morning and we barely able to stand anymore when we got our cab back to the hostel and smashed but happy fell into bed.

The days after we always something going on, for example a walk thorugh the histoirc part of the city and watching the parliament and some old chruches, climbing the cities Mirador and enjoying the view over the cloudy city, or going to the Church mines just an hour outside Bogotá.

To be honest, the historic part of the city just had old buildings that looked like they had become a victim of an intra-city painball tournament and looked less attractive to us, as they could have.

The way up to the Mirador itsself was actually quite a challenge and took us about an hour and a bit to climb the 800 meters of altitude difference, but finally rewarded us with a beautiful view on the city and hence made up for all the physical expenses on the way up.

The part with the underground church was optically the most beautiful one, but also the most touristy and hence tiring. Don’t get me wrong, the under-earth-christian-artwork-chruch just looked stunning itsself, and must have been a pain in the ass to construct, but i fit hasn´t been for an electricians fit work and lightning job, it would have looked all the same.
Also, our tourguide wasn´t really capable of using other vocabulary than „amazing artwork“, „now this is impressive“  and „for the love to Jesus“ and basically he every cross in all 14 chapels differently also they all looked the same.

On the way back to Bogotá i lost my compliances due to the fact that people who are waiting for other buses, simply don´t let other people pass them… even if they want to enter another bus, a bus that these people actually are not waiting for. Basically, I got in a bus, everyone else got blocked and so I had to figure out how to get back. In the end it all worked out well, but the weird feeling you have, when driving to a very dodgy part of the city and to be the only gringo among natives, isn´t my favourite. .

After a splendid 6 days of capital action we again decided to leave for something new, something different, and maybe more attractive. Shall we?? J