The Sites
Bogota has a lot of wonderful tourist attractions. These are some of our favorites:
Museo del Oro: This is a wonderful museum containing an extraordinary collection of pre-Columbian gold work created by Colombia’s various indigenous communities. The museum offers excellent free guided tours in English and Spanish. Minh and I participated in a guided tour of the Cosmology and Symbolism wing. Our guide was friendly, funny and extremely knowledgeable. He told us about the significance of the jaguar to Colombia’s indigenous communities. He also showed us examples of gold costumes and jewelry worn by shamans (including some ginormous earlobe enlargers).
We also learned about the legend of El Dorado: the story came from Shamans dropping gold into lagoons in their religious ceremonies, and then the Europeans diving in to steal it.
La Candelaria: This is a historic neighborhood in Bogota and is one of the oldest parts of the city. Many of the buildings have a Spanish colonial architectural style and are painted in bright colors. We enjoyed strolling around the narrow streets, taking pictures of the colorful buildings, and stopping for some empanadas.
Museo Botero: Botero is a Colombian painter and sculptor famous for depicting chubby people and animals in his work (maybe he just knew that people would get bigger?). The Botero museum in Bogota contains many of Botero’s paintings and sculptures, but also includes pieces by other artists from Botero’s private collection, including works by Dali, Picasso, Monet, Degas, Matisse and many others. The museum is located in the Candelaria in a beautiful, colonial home with a lovely courtyard.Monserrate: Monserrate is one of the mountains in Bogota. You can ride either a cable car or a funicular train to the top where there is a church, beautiful gardens, a couple of restaurants and a market where vendors sell food and souvenirs. But the reason to go is for the spectacular views of Bogota and the surrounding mountains. If you are ever in Bogota and have time to do only one thing, you must visit the top of Monserrate!
Usaquen Sunday Market: Usaquen is a lovely neighborhood in the northern part of Bogota with colonial buildings, a pretty plaza, and lots of upscale restaurants. Every Sunday there is a famous market with vendors selling fine handicrafts such as paintings, jewelry and jewelery boxes, picture frames, toys, and decorative items for the home. There are food vendors where Minh and I got some good patacones con todo (twice fried green plaintain with chicken, beef, rice, beans and cheese). There were also a few street performers on the surrounding streets.
Spanish World Institute
Minh is taking Spanish Classes at the Spanish World Institute in the Chapinero Alto neighborhood. The school is very well organized and the teachers are very knowledgeable, friendly and patient. The school’s director plans outings for the students (and guests get to tag along) every Wednesday night to restaurants and bars in different neighborhoods throughout Bogota, and also arranges half-day trips on Friday afternoons to towns just outside of Bogota. One Friday afternoon we went to a lovely little town called Tabio that has a pretty plaza, and a stone church at the top of a hill.
Another afternoon we visited the Salt Mine in Nemocon. The Mine has amazing salt water “mirrors” that create the illusion that the upper chambers of the Mine extend below our feet as well.
I am extremely impressed with how much Spanish Minh has learned in just a few weeks. I’ve been helping Minh to practice by speaking to him only in Spanish sometimes, though every once in a while he gets a bit overwhelmed and exclaims “Estoy muy cansado!” (“I am very tired!”). I can also tell that he is getting a bit tired when he is studying new vocabulary words and decides that he simply will never use some of the words, so there is no need for him to learn them. This occurred when I was helping Minh review vocabulary for different parts of the body. When he did not know the word chin, he decided that to him no one in South America has a chin.
Eating in Bogota
The following foods are consistently delicious: steak with pepper sauce, rotisserie chicken, hamburgers (particulary the Criolla burger at El Corral) and chorizo. Almojabanas, a delicious cheesy bread, is available as a snack at most bakeries in Bogota. The hot chocolate here is amazing, made by melting a chocolate bar in warm milk. Arequipe is a local dessert, similar to caramel. It’s basically just sweet goodness, usually served on big flat wafers, and tastes great as flavors for ice cream and gelato. We also love the fresh juices made with local Colombian fruits (maracuya, guanabana, lulo).
Bogota has a lot of great restaurants in every price range. Our neighborhood of Chapinero has a lot of small mom and pop type restaurants where Minh and I can get a great Colombian dinner for under USD $5 total (yes, $2.50 per person!) The meals at these places are not necessarily the healthiest, but they are delicious.
In La Candelaria and Macarena neighborhoods, it’s possible to have a nice dinner for two for under USD $40 total (including a glass of wine and dessert). Neighborhoods in the north of Bogota, (Zona G, Zona Rosa, Parque 93 and Usuaquen) tend to be a bit pricier, but also have lots of nice restaurant options that are inexpensive by US standards. Here are some of the restaurants we have tried:
Moros y Cristianos - Cuban restaurant in La Candelaria with a nice outdoor patio. We ate grilled pork, arroz moro (white rice with black beans), plaintains, yuca, and cuban tamales. Delicious!
Urbano - Restaurant in La Macarena that serves meat dishes in interesting sauces. Their steaks are fantastic!!! After taking the first bite of his steak, Minh exclaimed - “Wow! Will the steaks be this good in Argentina?”
El Patio - Cozy, romantic Italian restaurant located in La Macarena. The service was very slow, but we enjoyed relaxing at our candlelit table and sipping the house wine, which was quite good. Our pastas dishes were worth the wait.
La Jugueteria - Restaurant in La Macarena decorated with dolls, puppets and other toys. The decorations made me think of a carnival, but the mood of the restaurant is fun and festive. And most importantly, our food was delicious. We started off with patacones (green plaintains that are pounded flat and fried twice) served with guacamole, queso fresco and salsa. For the entree we had Bife de Chorizo (Sirloin Steak) in a pepper sauce with a side of mixed vegetables served in a delicious buttery sauce. For dessert we had a piece of cake containing arequipe (similar to caramel), tres leches and chocolate. It was very yummy! La Jugueteria also brews its own beer, which we found to be pretty good.
Salto del Angel - Enormous restaurant located by Parque 93 that also becomes a club on the weekends. The menu includes Colombian, Peruvian and Mexican dishes. Reviews I read prior to us going to this place had negative comments about the Peruvian dishes, but indicated that the Mexican dishes were great. And they were right - we ate some very delicious chilaquiles. This restaurant also has great cocktails.
Abasto - The word abasto means pantry, and many of the decorations at this restaurant in Usaquen consist of some of the ingredients used by the chefs to prepare the dishes on the menu, and the various wines offered. We ate our dinner in a room containing bags of potatoes, bottles of herbs and spices, and racks of wine bottles. The food and wine were excellent, and the restaurant had a warm and cozy feel to it.
Bogota has lots of great places to go out for dancing and/or drinks. The Spanish World Institute Director took us to a great Salsa place called Galeria Cafe Libre near Parque 93. They had a fantastic eight-piece band that played some great Colombian salsa classics. We enjoyed dancing and drinking some aguardiente with Minh's classmates. At the recommendation of one of Minh's Spanish teachers, we spent a Friday night at a place called Discoteca Jaguar. The DJ played a great mix of Latin, US and European dance music. We've also enjoyed having beers at Bogota Beer Company, and a place called The Pub, which is basically an Irish Pub full of young Colombians.
Very cheap transportation
Taxis are ridiculously cheap. You can go crosstown for about USD $3 - $4, and they’re a great way to get around (unless it’s rush hour). The transmilenio, Bogota’s public transportation system, is also very cheap, costing about USD 85 cents per trip.
Taxis are ridiculously cheap. You can go crosstown for about USD $3 - $4, and they’re a great way to get around (unless it’s rush hour). The transmilenio, Bogota’s public transportation system, is also very cheap, costing about USD 85 cents per trip.
