Bogota sometimes gets a bad rap. Friends and
colleagues told me that they would not want to
waste their time by visiting ‘a city”. It would be
dirty, dangerous and crowded. I’ll admit that
that this advice rang true in some parts of the
city—as it would in any city in the world—but
after an hour of so you can warm up to Bogota
quite nicely and have a great time.
As in many South American cities, the greeting
of Buenos Dias or simply “Buenos” does a lot to
bring you closer to the locals. It simply means
good day but an enthusiastic ‘buenos’ is the
surest way to break the ice. You will inevitably
get a ‘buenos’ back—and sometimes a
conversation, or simply a smile.
Encounter with the three rapping amigos on our bicycle tour
From Bogota’s airport it’s about a 30 minute drive to the city through some very congested areas. But then
we started heading to the north and all of a sudden there were broad avenues, office buildings, shopping
areas, restaurants and the Bogota Hilton. I will say that it was one of the friendliest and most helpful hotels
I have stayed in, anywhere. And while it is a distance from Plaza de Bolivar, the main city square (about a
$6.00 taxi ride each way), the area around the hotel (Bellavista) is walkable day or night.
After checking in we immediately headed downtown to Plaza de Bolivar with the Primary Cathedral of
Bogota as the centre-piece and flanked on either side by the Palace of Justice and the National Capitol
building. This is the historic core of the city. The side streets in the area send you back in time to the call
for Independence in 1810, past churches and flower-festooned house balconies, all against the backdrop
of Monserrate, the city-mountain.
About a 15 minute walk away is the Gold Museum. And this truly is a treasure house, displaying some
6000 awesome pieces of pre-Hispanic gold. (This plus the Zeñu Gold Museum in Cartagena and the
Museo Oro del Peru in Lima, comprise the perfect hat trick for South American niche travellers interested
in gold and gems)