Best of Bogota

Bolivar Square - named after Simon Bolivar

We were picked up at 0800 sharp to explore Bogota. First stop was the iconic Monserrate Hill. There were 3 ways to get to the top, by cable car, funicular or on foot! And the locals do the latter when doing pilgrimages hiking up a crazily steep path...we chose the funicular. The plan was to enjoy an incredible panoramic view of the city on one side and a stunning view of the Andes mountains on the other. Alas fate had other plans. Altitude sickness claimed its first victim. Once we reached the top at 3100m, Jonah had acute mountain sickness. He began to feel nauseated, developing a headache, blurred vision, tinnitus and joint pain. He looked pale and his lips turned blue. Mal desperately wished he had a sats probe and magically a group of wonderful Colombian paramedics turned up with one! They had obviously seen this often, they were friendly, warm and helpful. We forgo the views and began our descent back to the city. It gave us the opportunity to sit down and drink freshly squeezed orange juice at a typical Piqueteadero, where locals would get their breakfasts or sweets before going up to Monserrate. Fortunately Jonah's symptoms eased reasonably quickly. We continued on foot to a local pharmacy where we were again fortunate to be able to get acetazolamide without a script. 

Some more photos of our hotel

Love the sitting nooks

Yay Elliot made it! Breakfast time

Finally good coffee

I really Mexican passionfruit!

La Candelaria, the historic centre with colonial architecture

The funicular station was colonial too

Climbing up Monserrate to 3100m

The best view of the city we would get...

Poor Jonah :(

Yeah we need one of those to get down

Hard to appreciate just how high and steep it was

Time to sit down and hydrate

Made fresh

Despite the early hiccup, we had an educational morning as Julio took us on foot around Bogota's historic centre and museums, learning about its people, history and geography. First stop, the emblematic Gold Museum, a place with an extraordinary collection displaying the goldsmith culture of the Colombian indigenous ancestors. Julio did a great job putting the key pieces in context, and educating us on their significance rather than meandering around for hours. 

A theatre

That lump is not a tongue or error, it depicts chewing of coca leaves

A Poporo is a device used by indigenous cultures for storage of lime produced  by crushed sea-shells. This one was a national treasure. There were people after people taking selfies with it!

Batman - so called because the shaman would be symbolically flying and be blind when under the influence of hallucinogenic agents

The offering raft, depicting the ritual of El Dorado where the people would sacrifice jewels and gold into the lake. Likely the source of the myth of El Dorado, then abused by the Spanish

The square where emerald brokers would normally be selling but today was a public holiday

Lunch was at a restaurant in La Candelaria (historic district) to sample typical Colombian dishes. The four that we tried were patacones (plantains), arepa de choclo (cheese and corn fat pancakes), ajiaco santafereno (a chicken and potato based soup of the region) and bandeja paisa (a typical dish from medellin). We didn't enjoy the plantains but the arepas was a clear winner! The corn was sweet and tasty, and cheese makes everything taste twice as good!

A most enjoyable meal

Arepa - corn fritters on steroids!

Bandeja paisa - beans, rice, egg, arepa, chorizo, plantain, chicharrón, avocado and beef

Ajiaco - a chicken soup made with no less than 3 types of potatoes and served with capers, avocado and rice

Plantains - not our favourite

Passionfruit juice with milk

Lulo juice, a south american citrus

The next museum which I enjoyed more than I expected was the Botero Museum, part of the Museo de Arte del Banco de la Republica. I love Fernando Botero's Colombian artistic expressions, especially his take on other famous artworks! If you are an art lover, he has also donated his private collection which include works by Picasso, Leger, Renoir, Monet, and Dali just to name a few. And thanks to google arts and culture you can view the artwork online!

https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/museo-botero-bogota

We also saw La Lechuga in the musuem complex, a monstrance made between 1700 and 1707 by José de Galaz for the San Ignacio Church of Bogotá, then part of the New Kingdom of Granada. Yes we had to google what a monstrance was...La Lechuga was pretty impressive on account of all the emeralds encrusted upon it. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of La Lechuga

The museum is set in 2 typical Spanish "houses" with a central square, archways, wooden balcony and red roof tiles

I love this Mona

The exterior of our hotel, so called because it is right next to the former Opera House

Some interesting facts I learnt today:

-When Colombia first declared independence from Spain, the area included what is now Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and the northern part of Peru!

-Colombia was the first emerald mining country and produces the most emeralds for the global market and those of the highest quality

By now, we had hit mid-afternoon and Jonah was feeing fatigued. The rest of the family were also feeling tired. We were all most likely affected by the altitude although to a much lesser degree. We called it a day and rested at our hotel. Tomorrow we would be on the move!