Exploring Bogota

Getting started

I woke around 0630.  With the time difference with Europe, I should have been raring to go.  I was good but a little sluggish.  I was wary of the fact that Kim had come from the opposite time zone from me and would be slow in the morning.

I worked away on my computer planning for today and tomorrow, around the city and beyond and the cash projection for the entire stay in Colombia with some hotels not accepting cards. It dawned on me that if I knock off three trailing zeros of the Colombian Peso, it is equivalent to the Malaysian Ringgit.  That makes it really easy for conversions.

I made Kim tea around 0800 and we wandered out around 0900 for a simple breakfast and started our sightseeing around Bogota.  There were military with machine guns all around our area, plus private security some of whom had guard dogs too.

We had planned on going to the telco shop to buy a local SIM and have it properly registered (having read that they may be disconnected otherwise).  But we were approached by a lady selling Claro (the largest telco) SIMs for COP20000 with 20 days validity, unlimited national calls and 11GB data.  It was just too simple and she activated the card straight away.

Exploring Bogota

We walked through Plaza de Bolivar and took a quick look into the Catedral Primada which was quite spartan inside.  Our first real stop was the Iglesia de San Francisco with its stunning gold altarpiece.  As it was actively in use as a place of worship, photos weren’t permitted.

Nearby was the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum).  Kim, aged over 60, managed to get in for free.  It was a good museum with many gold ornaments that have been a large part of the country’s pre-colonial culture.

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We shared a delicious Subway lunch before heading back to near Plaza de Bolivar for the Santa Clara Museum, formerly a church.  The museum was near the presidential palace and we had to go through barriers with guards to get there.  Like the Iglesia San Francisco, Santa Clara had a gorgeous gold altar piece.  I loved the blue and gold ceiling as well.

The Police History Museum was also nearby so we paid a brief visit.  It was interesting enough but didn’t linger too long as we couldn’t read the captions to the displays.  The area was home to lots of shops selling military uniform, accessories, guns and bullets.

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It rained on-and-off through our exploration by foot.  We thought we’d finish our exploration by going to Montserrate, the hill overlooking the city which may be accessed by foot, cable car or funicular railway.

We took an Uber to the station for the cable car and funicular, of which only one is operational at a time.  With a one hour wait in the queue to go up (and perhaps returning down as well), we decided to order another vehicle to get back.

It was about 1330 when we returned to our hotel.  It’s a challenge getting in or out with a gate, main property door and the room door.  The first two had to be unlocked and locked by key.  Because the gate and the main door are very close together it required four key insertions each time we headed in or out.  For going in we needed to unlock the gate, unlock the main door, lock the gate and then lock the main door.

Courtyard in our accommodation.

After an hour, we thought we’d pay a brief visit to the Military Museum very close by.  It was free like the police one but again, we didn’t linger long due to not be able to read anything.

The rain got heavy as we returned to our room.  We waited till around 1730 before heading out for a cheap set dinner nearby and calling it a day.  Kim had to rush back to the room as he had been feeling off-colour and had tummy issues since Auckland and in Los Angeles as well.  We don’t think it’s from anything we ate in Colombia as we have shared our meals so far.

This may have been the only donkey in the old city.