Bogota

Despite never really having heard a positive thing about Bogota, I left myself a full day there at the very end of my time in Colombia. My flight home was from there and, well, why not?

I'm SO GLAD that I had that time. I was so pleasantly surprised by the city. Yes, the weather was its typical (for Bogota) chilly raininess. But honestly, after how hot it was on the north coast, this was kind of a relief. And my time in La Candeleria, admittedly one of the nicest parts of Bogota, was great. The city was way more visually pleasing than I expected.

And the walking tour I took with a local university student made the exploring even better. She took us for chicha in a local place, told us what streets NOT to walk down, and walked with us down the others.

After the walking tour, there was a break in the clouds just long enough to take the cable car up Montserrate and get the view looking down over the vast city.

And when the rain set in again, an amazing lunch of the local specialty (ajiaco) put me into a food coma.

Then I had just enough time to stop at the Gold Museum to round out the day. I'm really not a museum person, but this was an interesting one.

I also got teased with some pieces that reference places in Colombia I didn't make it to on this trip, like the pre-Colombian site of San Agustin.

Really, I could EASILY fill another month here with all the things I would love to have seen and didn't make it to. I would come back here in a second and whole-heartedly recommend it as a travel destination to pretty much anyone (though some rudimentary Spanish is pretty necessary at this point, and I'm sure my trip would have been even richer if I spoke Spanish well enough to really engage with the incredibly friendly people I met on this trip). If you ever have the chance, go!

I'm signing off for now to spend the summer Stateside. In October I'll be headed back down to South America, so I'll see you then with news from Ecuador and Peru. In the meantime, take care!