Leaving the wonderful archaeological sites of southern Colombia, we flew to Bogotá in central Colombia, 2640 metres (8660 feet) above sea level in the Andes Mountains. It is the capital of Colombia and known as its historic centre. We were really looking forward to visiting there.
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| Bustling Bogotá, Colombia |
Bogotá was founded in 1538 by the Spanish, who conquered the native Indian settlement called Bacatá. At the time, the Spanish re-named the settlement Santa Fé. However, its Indian name of Bacatá was more popular, and this eventually became Bogotá.
It is now a bustling city with a population of just over 8 million, made up of mixed-European, Indigenous, and Afro-Colombian people.
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| Marg in our room at Hotel Vilar América, Bogotá, Colombia |
As soon as we arrived, we headed to our accommodation at Hotel Vilar América located in the Chapinero neighbourhood of Bogotá. We had a nice spacious room with a separate living and seating area to relax in. This worked well and enabled us to spread out as we'd planned to stay around 5 nights.
We soon headed out to sightsee, and caught a metro bus into Bogotá city centre. Unfortunately, we missed our get-off bus stop and ended up in a rather scruffy area of town. We felt a little nervous as there was a lot of tagging and rubbish, and groups of men standing around staring at us.
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| Mercado de las Pulgas de San Alejo, Bogotá, Colombia |
But nearby, we found Mercado de las Pulgas de San Alejo, a fascinating market full of treasures, trinkets, and trash. We wandered through it but resisted buying anything, then found a restaurant for lunch.
During our meal, the restaurant filled with thick smoke. It seems that government power conservation meant no electricity to keep the ventilation working over the grill. Eventually, the power came on, the smoke cleared, and we had a delicious lunch before heading off for more exploring.
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| Colourful buildings in La Candelaria, the historic centre of Bogotá, Colombia |
We were soon in the historic centre of Bogotá called La Candelaria. It was wonderful, with street after street of interesting and colourful buildings.
La Candelaria is where Bogotá began, so it is full of narrow cobblestone streets, attractive plazas, and many of the city's key museums and churches. We wandered around this area for ages.
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| The Neoclassical style National Capitol, Plaza Bolivar, Bogotá, Colombia |
La Candelaria is also the location of Plaza Bolivar, the main square and heart of Bogotá. The square hosts a statue of Simón Bolívar sculpted in 1846, and surrounding the square are several beautiful and grand buildings, mostly in use by the government sector.
The buildings include the modernist style Palace of Justice which is the Supreme Court, the Neoclassical style Liévano Palace which is the city hall, and the multi-columned Neoclassical style National Capitol which houses both the Columbian Congress and Senate.
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| The Basilica
of Bogotá on Plaza Bolivar, Bogotá, Colombia |
The eastern side of Plaza Bolivar contains the very large Basilica of Bogotá, the main cathedral. It was built between 1807 and 1823, also in the Neoclassical style. Its impressive spires seemed to tower above the other buildings.
While in La Candelaria, we also visited the 17th-century Iglesia de San Francisco, the Teatro Colón (theatre), a couple of Bogotá's 50-plus museums, and more.
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| Mountains seen from all streets in La Candelaria, Bogotá, Colombia |
We noticed that almost every street was backed by the nearby mountains. Bogotá is the 3rd highest capital city in the world after La Paz in Bolivia and Quito in Ecuador, and it is built on the sloping area between Mount Guadalupe and Mount Monserrate.
As Bogotá has spread out over the years, barrios have been built up the sides of the mountains fanning out from the centre. The buildings are governed only by need, and they are accessed by higgledy-piggledy staircases and very narrow streets.
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| The stunning Iglesia del Carmen, La Candelaria, Bogotá |
There are many churches in Bogotá, and one that really caught our interest from an architectural point of view was the red and white striped Florentine-Gothic style Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Iglesia del Carmen). It sits proudly on the edge of La Candelaria, towering over, but complementing the colonial buildings around it.
Next, we headed down to Carrera Séptima, one of the main streets of Bogotá. It is turned into a pedestrian-only street every Friday and Sunday afternoon/evening.
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| Arts on pedestrianized Carrera Séptima, Bogotá, Colombia |
It was being used as this when we were there, and it really buzzed. There were people everywhere, enjoying craft stalls, playing chess, playing or listening to music, and making or enjoying the street art.
Bogotá is proud of its street-art graffiti, and it is promoted by the city. Unfortunately, there is also some dreadful tagging. Overall though, it is a very vibrant city.
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| Marg at Plazoleta del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia |
We walked all over the place, then stopped for a coffee in the university area at Plazoleta del Rosario. After that we wandered further, until we realised that it was starting to get dark, and we needed to find our way back to our hotel by public transport.
It took us quite a while to find out how to actually get on to our particular bus line. Eventually we did, and had to force our way into a bus that was absolutely chock-full of homeward commuters. The crowd eventually thinned out and somehow, in the dark, we found the right stop for our hotel - thank goodness!
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| Leigh's birthday gift from Hotel Vilar América, Bogotá, Colombia |
Leigh celebrated her birthday while we were in Bogotá and our hotel gave her a lovely little bottle of red wine and a hand-written card. It was a very thoughtful gesture.
Our area of Chapinero was an easy area to find good places to eat, and is known as the gastronomic area of Bogotá. We had sampled the gastronomic delights of Chapinero several times, but it was a birthday special we were looking for that night.
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| Restaurant for Leigh's birthday in Chapinero, Bogotá, Colombia |
So we visited a popular Chapinero restaurant that was in a charming old building, to continue the birthday celebration. It was great, with good food and service.
Over the next few days, we walked or bused all around Bogotá seeing several neighbourhoods and sights. But we found we needed some rest-days, so instead of doing some of the day trips outside the city that we'd planned, we just relaxed for a few days.
Too soon, it was time to leave. We'd found Bogotá a fascinating city to explore, and think it's quite sophisticated, with a great restaurant and coffee scene, modern shops, greenspaces, and pedestrian and cycle-friendly paths.
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| Diverse architecture and landscapes, Bogotá, Colombia |
It is also a city of contrasts with a mix of architecture, as well as diverse cultures, socio-economics, and landscapes. This all seemed to come together to provide a charming city with a bohemian heart.
We found the people were very friendly, and we enjoyed our time there. Interestingly, Bogotá is supposed to be a quite dangerous city, but we felt safer here than we did in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
On our last day, we headed to the airport to fly to our next destination which is Salento, in Colombia’s coffee triangle.
This is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.