Today is our last day in Bogota, on the one hand we can’t believe we’ve stayed here almost a week and on the other we wish we could spend a few more days. We’ve really enjoyed Bogota, it is a modern city with public transportation, parks, cafes and plenty to do.
Perhaps we’re enamored because its so different than Central America, or because we have great CS hosts, but either way its been a great start to South America. I can honestly say that its the first city we’ve been to since March where I could see myself living.
There’s been a lot to do here, we’ve hit a lot of museums but the one worth highlighting is the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum). An incredible collection of Pre-Columbian gold objects, the museum is really a masterpiece. Collections of religious and ritual items, corporal decorations, and an incredible statue depicting a religious procession thought to have inspired the story of El Dorado, the legend of the golden king whom the conquistadors sought for but never found. Even more amazing than the shear number of objects were the intricate designs made in gold. The miniature offerings for the Gods, often depictions of daily life from objects in the home to humans, were breathtaking. We even found a mini hammock, which unfortunately we could not add to our ever growing hammock collection.
Bogota doesn’t lack for the strange and bizarre either. Outside of Bogota we stumbled upon another of the supposed “seven” wonders of the world, the Salt Cathedral. Now you may ask yourself- what is a salt cathedral. Well… it’s actually a cathedral carved into a huge salt deposit 200m underground. What else would you do with a big hole in the ground, right? While it was neat to be in an entire complex created of salt, it was a bit strange. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story, but it is worth noting that the tour guide admitted to us that it had fallen to the “eighth” wonder of the world. No surprise really.
Living here in Bogota for a week has been wonderful. The air is generally crisp like a perfect fall or spring day, chicken buses of Central America have been replaced by a modern bus system, and the terrain and vibrant city life remind us of San Fransisco without the ocean, complete with a traveling Andy Warhol exhibit. What a great start to South America!
Liz (and Adrian) says
hello fellow travellers, just discovered your blog (thanks to a shoutout from David Lee).
So bizarre, we’ve probably been in the same places at the same time considering our routes are almost exactly the same. Just thought I’d say hello and perhaps we’ll meet up along the way. My husband and I are currently in Cartagena after the spontaneous addition of Colombia.
I’m incredibly jealous of how up to date your blog is, i can’t seem to make up the month I got behind throughout Central America.
Ciao,
liz
Julie says
Hey Jillian & Danny,
Have a great time in Colombia & a happy B-day Jillian! Glad you guys went to Colombia and myth busted it’s bad rap. Your photos brought back lots of memories from when Dan & I were there, we also went to the Botero museum, it was interesting, because the museum was pretty boring, his stuff was all really banal, but then we looked him up online and he’s done all this stuff that’s really critical of the violence there, and the military’s role, and there was none of that in the official museum.
Hope you find some kind of yummy cheese-cinnamon chocolate birthday cake!
–Julie
Jillian says
@Julie-
Thanks! We’re having such a good time here. Knowing the background of Botero definitely made the museum more interesting. I was disappointed that they didn’t have any signage/information on him or even the significance of his art.
Unfortunately there was not cheese-cinnamon-chocolate birthday cake, but we did find a strawberry torte that worked out pretty well!
miss you guys!