Bogotá
Hola South America! We arrived into Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá and once we’d got our bearings, we soon found the local buses in to town. We had to buy a Tullave card, which is a travel card used on the Transmilenio buses in the city (more than one person can use one card), and off we went to La Candelaria, the part of town we were staying in – cheap enough, but a bit sketchy at night, near the historical centre.
FYI, to get to La Candelaria, after buying a Tullave card and topping it up with sufficient money, (you can get it from the seller at the bus stop) take bus K86 from the airport, then change at Portal El Dorado for bus number 1, all the way to Universidades where the bus terminates.
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| Love & Friendship Day |
Every bar, shop
and restaurant was full of balloons and love hearts, and I found out that it
was coming up to 'Love
and Friendship Day' (El Día de Amor y Amistad) which is celebrated in
Colombia in mid-September. It's a bit like Valentines Day but it's not just for
couples in love; friends buy each other gifts or get together for dinner.
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| Street art |
A few years’ ago, a 16 year old street artist, Diego
Felipe Becerra, was chased by the police and actually shot and killed. Because
the offending police officer was only suspended for a short time, and then
reinstated, the street art community was up in arms. Shortly after, Justin
Bieber was playing in concert in Bogotá and was given a huge police escort – at
the taxpayers’ expense – to paint his own street art mural in the city, of the
Canadian flag depicted as a marijuana leaf. The residents of Bogotá were
furious about this blatant hypocrisy and the investigation into the death of
the young street artist was reopened, with the police officer being charged and
imprisoned.
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| Street art |
Much of the street art, as with graffiti all over the globe,
has a political message; for example, about the displacement of people living
in rural communities who lose their homes to make way for fruit or palm
plantations and end up desperate and homeless. Other examples display
capitalism and the greed of the wealthy.
After the graffiti tour we strolled down to the Museo
del Oro (Gold Museum). We paid extra for an audio guide – it’s not worth
it; everything is in English in the museum. There were 4 floors of intricate
gold jewellery and ornaments dating from the 1500s, which was the time of the Muisca
people (Colombia’s indigenous people). To be completely honest, I was bored
after the first floor. There’s only so much gold you can look at, although Baby
D and others we’ve met enjoyed it.
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| Botero art |
About an hour later we left (even though the audio guide was
3 hours long) and just outside we came across a free walking tour of the city. This
excellent tour was through Beyond
Colombia and was 3 hours in length. A guide with a huge red umbrella is
outside the museum every day except on weekends/holidays, at 10am (English and
Spanish speaking) and at 2pm (only English). There is also a food tour with the
same deal. I think tours only go ahead if there are enough people but I don’t
know what the minimum number of people is required for the tour to go ahead.
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| San Francis Church |
I can highly recommend the tour. We learned so much about
the history, art, culture, politics and violence of Bogotá and Colombia. Among
other places, we visited the Botero gallery. Fernando
Botero is a famous Colombian artist, renowned for his paintings of obese
people and their sins.
We soon found ourselves in Bolivar
Square where the Supreme Court is, which is where there was a notorious siege
in 1985 involving Colombia's notorious leftist guerilla group, M19. After the court had been seized
by the guerillas, the army ordered to take it back and shoot to kill –
guerrillas and citizens alike. Citizens
ended up being marched out and shot if they couldn’t prove what they were doing
there. 11 people escaped but no one knows who they were. After the siege they
found that many important documents had been burnt – some which would have
implicated Colombia's bad guys (there were alleged links with narco-trafficking), but some may have implicated Court staff, and the
suggestion is that some of the staff were in on it. One strange part of it was
that the President of the Court was seen coming out safely during the siege but
3 days later his naked body was found inside the building. Very odd.
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| Bolivar Square |
Colombia
is still trying to shift this violent, drug cartel image and a steady increase
in tourism is helping spread the word. We’ve generally found people to be
friendly and helpful but like with any new place, we are cautious. But seriously, if one more person tells me to be careful...
Another one of the stops on the tour was at a small café in
La Candelaria to try the local drink, chicha.
This is a fermented grain drink favoured by students because of its cheapness.
It tasted a bit like apple sauce.
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| Huge bowl of chicha |
We also tried chucula,
a cheap version of hot chocolate made with various grains, like chickpea and
quinoa, then mixed with chocolate, cinnamon and cloves. It was like a cross
between hot chocolate and chai. Delicious.
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| Canelazo |
Later on, after a quick wash, we went back out for dinner
and to try some more chicha. It is usually served in large bowls and we stupidly
ordered one bowl each. The bowls were huge, and we only managed to drink about
half before giving up. It was too filling and with an alcohol content of only
1-3%, it wasn’t worth feeling sick over. We also tried the canelazo
which is a hot drink similar to a hot toddy, made with honey, cinnamon, lemon
and aguardiente
(potent Colombian spirit) , and is sold by street vendors all over the place.
Catedral de Sal – Zipaquirá
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| Main part of Catedral de Sal |
We had heard about the Catedral
de Sal (Cathedral of Salt) and it sounded great, but we didn’t fancy paying
the $150 USD for an organised trip so we set off on our own to get there by
public transport. Not the best idea with our rudimentary grasp of Spanish as
there was major confusion over which bus we had to take to Portal Norte, which
is where we had to get a connecting bus to Zipaquirá. We ended up getting so
muddled that we got an Uber to Portal Norte instead for £4, and our driver
pointed out the connecting bus to us. The confusion was probably more to do
with the fact that there are so many buses that go to Portal Norte so
perseverance is key! The bus to Zipaquirá was 5,000 pesos each (£1.25), and
the same back.
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| Creation of Adam, almost |
The cathedral was amazing. I am really glad we made the
effort even if it was a bit far out of town. We paid 59,000 pesos entry which
included an English guide, a light show and a 3D film. It was an extra 8,000
for the miners’ tour and the museum but they weren’t in English so we skipped
them. We were able to go 180m deep underground which is where the main part of
the cathedral is. Although there has been a cathedral there since the 1950s,
the construction of the current one started in 1991. Each station of the cross was
represented usually by a large cross carved into or out of the salt rock. At
the end of the tour we emerged into 3 huge chambers with a chapel, a depiction
carved in stone of the nativity, a carving based on ‘the
creation of Adam’ in the Sistine
chapel, and a massive cross. A mass is held there every Sunday at 12pm.
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| Catedral de Sal |
Millions of years ago this part of the world was covered by
a huge ocean which evaporated leaving massive salt deposits in the hills and
mountains which turned into salt rock. This salt has been mined in Zipaquirá
for many years and now they use water to dissolve the salt rock first, with the
resulting brine is pumped out.
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| Stone carving in the cathedral |
We were leaving Bogotá the next day but we hadn’t managed to
fit in Montserrate
which is a famous church at the top of a mountain overlooking the city,
accessible by hiking or funicular. We were to leave Colombia via Bogotá so we
planned to do it on our return.
#bogota #catedraldesal #colombia #zipaquira #southamerica #beyondcolombia #chicha #museodeloro #chucula #canelazo #botero #freegrafittitourbogota
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