Robert's Travel Blog

This is pretty nice, an ultra-modern building with galleries spread over three floors.  It's devoted almost exclusively to pre-hispanic gold artefacts, so if that's not your thing, give it a miss.  There's lots of information, in both Spanish and English, about how gold (and other metals) were produced and worked, and the role of precious metals in society and religion.  I had no idea there were so many pre-hispanic civilizations in Colombia alone and after a while they all became a blur, but I had my fall-back - - just look at the pretty objects!  

 If there's one constant in Bogotá, it's the small food stalls that are pretty much everywhere, both built into buildings and standalone, in the large avenidas as well as the smallest street.  They can be anything from a full-fledged restaurant to smaller holes-in-the-wall that sell e.g. empanadas, ice cream or pastries.  You'll never go hungry in Bogotá!    One food discovery is the buñuelo.  Only in my imagination named after the film director.  It's a deep-fried perfect sphere, with dough made with cream cheese.  It's a bit salty, a bit sweet, and a bit cheesy, yum! 

I haven't posted much, mostly due to a nasty respiratory virus (I'm thinking covid) that knocked me out for a couple of weeks.  The first week was miserable -- I couldn't catch my breath, ached all over, had brain freeze.  My days consisted of: go downstairs for the hiotel breakfast, go back to bed, stay there. Then it took another week of gradual recovery until I'm finally back to 90%.  Yay!  Tomorrow I'm back to adventures, i.e. touristy things, so should soon have some good pics (and more interesting posts!)

 #1, Sauna Man: Sitting in the park smoking a ciggie (highly illegal!) and approached by a grizzled wizened be-bebearded old man. Turns out he's Afghani, doesn't like the Taliban, life is better in Colombia etc., etc.  And I can stay in a "free hotel" (?!?) . . . he struggles for the word, "sauna."  Now, back in the day, I occasionally visited the "baths," but that was probably different.  I'll never know.  #2, Secret Police Man:  Waiting at the corner for the light to change, guy in a business suit asks me and another guy where we're from.  "Oh, you must register with the police, half a block." Then he pulls out his wallet and shows us what looks like a driving license and points to the word " official. " The light changed, I walked on, and didn't look back.  It almost would have been worth it to find out what his scam was . . .

Today I did walking, lots of walking, just to familiarize myself with the neighborhood, and so I didn't have to resort to Google Maps every block or two.  It's actually really easy to get around -- the streets are in a grid, and "calles" run east to west (ish) and go up in number as you go north.  "Calleras" 90 degrees the opposite. I hope it comes through in the pics, but many of the streets are narrow, with narrow sidewalks.  And at least in some parts, the sidewalks look like they have been partially torn up and partially repaired every few feet.  It's a bumpy challenge, and my feet hurt! The only "organized" thing I did today was a tour from my guidebook of La Candelaria, the historic center, very pretty in parts with the colonial architecture, overhanging balconys, etc.  The rest was just random walks, down to the plaza San Bolívar, parks etc., then if I got tired back to the hotel for a rest.  Then another walk. The smaller streets are a ...

Parts of Bogotá are a bit hilly, but even so, I seemed to be getting out of breath more than normal.  Even on the flat parts I'd sometime find myself huffing and puffing. Am I really *that* much out of shape? No.  It turns out that Bogotá is at an elevation of 2,640 meters, "one of the highest capitals in the world." I hope I get used to it and don't have to keep taking rest breaks like the old man that I am!

 The Hotel Virrey is basic, but the room is bigger than my bedroom, and everything works, so that's great.  It's located between La Candelaria (the historic center) and the city center, so it's very convenient to the tourist destinations. The free breakfast is fantastic, over-scrambled eggs, rice, ham, cheese, all kinds of fresh fruit, cereals, yogurt etc.  plus of course tea/coffee/fruit juices.  Way better than I expected! And I already learned a new fruit, ciruela roja, which is like a small plum.  Travel is broadening! The neighborhood itself?  Down-market is probably an accurate description. In the afternoon I went to el Cerro de Monserrate.  Bogotá is built in a valley on the west side of a tall (500m) ridge, on top of which is a church and restaurants, etc.  There's both a funicular and the Teleférico (cable car), and to get to them is a half-hour uphill walk, an hour (seemingly) in line for the ticket booth, then half an hour wait for the ...

Travel day was surprisingly non-terrible, with only one glitch, parts of it even relaxing, considering I had to walk to the bus to the metro to the train to the shuttle to the airport to,the taxi to the hotel.  They didn't check our tickets on the MARC train, which is a good thing since I didn't have one (ticket office was closed) and it would have been $12 on the train. The flight was late getting into Panama City, but they quickly herded us onto the next flight to Bogotá, so no worries there. Too late to take the bus*, so I ended up getting a "taxi" (i.e. some random guy with a car) and, wait for it . . . getting overcharged.  My guidebook said $20 but I ended up paying $35.  Welcome to Colombia! *Bogotá's main system of transport isn't an underground/metro/subway, rather a bus system that runs in dedicated lanes. It stops running at midnight.