Things That Surprised Us About Bogota

In search of the best empanadas

We tried many empanadas at several bakeries all over Bogota, and we weren’t able to find empanadas that are as good as the ones you can buy in Jackson Heights, Queens. Some were pretty good, but none measured up to the empanadas that my mom buys for us from the Seba Seba bakery whenever we visit New York. The best we have found so far were in Zipaquira (a town located about an hour north of Bogota) at a place called Empanadas del Valle right off the Plaza del Independencia. We plan to continue our search for the best empanadas as we explore other cities in Colombia, and we’ll report back.

Where are the beans?

Almost none of the Colombian restaurants we went to in Bogota serve beans. Any Colombian restaurant in New York serves rice and beans as a side dish with most entrees. But here we are given rice and french fries (which are not particularly good) or oven-cooked, salted potatoes (which I do enjoy). Our Colombian friend Yolanda informed us that we should order a Bandeja Paisa if we want some beans. While this dish is delicious, it includes a lot of other items that we should not eat everyday, like chicharron (fried pork skins), fried sweet plantains, and a fried egg.

It was also a bit difficult to eat enough vegetables. Minh, not normally a big fan of vegetables, exclaimed after our first few days in Bogota that he had never wanted a salad so much in his entire life. We decided to eat at vegetarian restaurants a couple of times a week because we got tired of eating chicken or beef all the time.

Minh blends in with the Rolos, sometimes

Although Minh is taller than virtually everyone, for the most part Minh was able to blend in with the Rolos (people from Bogota). People would sometimes ask him for directions, and he just looked confused and told them that he doesn’t speak Spanish. The only time people really knew that he is not Colombian was when he was taking pictures.

However, Minh did get accosted by strangers when I wasn’t around. Apparently he’s an easy mark when he’s got his camera out and no Colombian bodyguard (a.k.a. me). In my absence, beggars always asked him for money, Jehova’s witnesses started to tell Minh their schpiel, and once in Villa de Leyva he got stung by a huge bee on his neck. I’ve decided he should always have constant adult supervision.

Being accosted by overly helpful employees at stores

Our first weekend in Bogota we went grocery shopping at an Exito, a large supermarket chain in Colombia. Nearly every aisle in the store had at least one employee who wanted to help us, pointed out any special items on sale, and offered to answer any questions we might have. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but one Exito employee did help us figure out the best deal available on yogurt, and gave us some free samples, so thank you Exito!

Want to buy a puppy? Head to one of the 30 pet stores on Avenida Caracas. Pajamas? Try one of the 25 pajama shops on Carerra 15.

There are entire blocks of streets where all the stores on those streets sell only one category of items. During our time in Bogota we came across the streets for buying pets, suitcases, eye glasses, flowers, shoes, and pajamas.

La ñina put a damper on our travel plans

It rained every single day that we were in Bogota. This is not normal weather for Bogota, but rather is due to the phenomenon of La ñina. Sometimes it was only a drizzle. But generally there was at least one big down pour a day, and sometimes there were three or four huge down pours in one day. We had to use the waterproof/fast drying clothes we bought for the Amazon all the time, and we were really glad that we bought waterproof hiking boots at REI.

On a serious note, the harsh rainy season has had some devastating impacts in Colombia. Over 200 people have been killed by floods and landslides and approximately 1.5 million people have been affected due to damage to their homes and/or livelihood caused by the heavy rains. If you are interested in making a donation to help the flood victims, you can do so through an organization called Conexion Colombia.