Arriving back in Aruba, we quickly realized that the boat was not ready to go on the water just yet. We decided to jump on a plane, and explore some of the inner parts of Colombia, not easily reached by boat.
Lying on 2700 meters, we knew it would be a tad cold in Bogotá. However, we were not well prepared for five days and evenings with a need to dress in several layers. Most of our warm clothes were left on the boat in Aruba. Even after spending one month in the cold, Norwegian, it seems we are out of touch with preparing to dress in colder weather. 😅
We spent a total of five days in Bogotá, which is two days longer than what most people advice. In fact, the city does not really have a great reputation, not even among the locals. We were advised to rather split our time between Bogotá and Medellin, which supposedly is a much nicer city than Bogotá.
As we have traveled so much lately, we rather decided to spend all five days in the city, and relax. We got to really take in the city, and had a good combination of touristy stuff as well as just hanging around the locals, and try to take in the city vibes.
One of the key attractions is Monserrate, which gives you a nice view of the city from up above.
As we visited Monserrate late in the day, the line to take the gondola down was really long. We decided to hike down, a trail which consists mostly of stairs, and takes approximately 45 minutes going down (probably about the double to go up).
Little did we know that as it was after 16:00hrs, the path was closed by a gate quite a few height meters below. We were definitely not going to hike back up, so we climbed the rather tall gate. The captain got a little unlucky with one of the barb wires, and ended up almost hanging from his hand on one of them… Ouch!
We arrived safely from the trail, and were happy to get some exercise done, as we are planning a four day jungle hike in a short time.
The Candelaria district is the main tourist area downtown in Bogotá. It is a nice area to walk the streets, just watching the architecture as well as doing some people watching. We took a guided tour with Beyond Colombia.
They are in theory free, but a tip of $10 per person to the guide is expected. They can offer all sorts of guided tours, not only historic ones, but also street art tours. Bogotá is a great city to explore very cool street art.
Downtown also has the most well known museums in the city. We visited the Gold museum, the Botero museum and the Military museum.
The Colombian artist and sculptor Fernando Botero happened to pass away the same day we toured the Candelaria district, and we visited the museum two days later. The museum has a combination of Botero’s own work, as well as his private collection, which consists of several paintings by artists like Picasso, Gaugin, el Greco, Matisse, Degas, De Kooning, Bacon, etc.
All of the collection has been donated to the Colombian authorities for the public to enjoy for free. It was a truly amazing collection and experience, as you can walk up very close to most of the pieces.
When in Colombia, drinking coffee and eating good food and just enjoying yourself with your fellow Colombians is important. And, so we did! We were lucky enough that there was a Love festival close to where we stayed, so we spent an afternoon just hanging around in our neighborhood.
We leave Bogotá feeling we got to know the city a little bit, by taking it fairly slow. Although the city is noisy and a bit dirty from pollution and trash, we definitely liked it, and can’t wait to explore more of Colombia! 🇨🇴