Loving Colombia so far! We arrived in Bogotá after a 16 hour journey, flying from Buenos Aires through Lima (and staying overnight in the airport). We landed fairly early in the day and were settled into Hostel Sue Candeleria in the La Candelaria district (the more touristy and unfortunately more sketchy area). It was federal election day and the day after Colombia's first World Cup win (and subsequent celebratory rioting) so Bogotá was a bit rowdy. We asked a couple of military guys at the airport if it was safe to hang out in Bogotá during the election and how things were going, and they just said “todo tranquilo, hay muchas policías en las calles, esta muy seguro” (everything is good, there are many police in the streets, it is very safe) – that sounded pretty good so we decided to go for a little walk around.
La Candeleria's streets are nice and colourful
Bogotá police in their skateboarding gear We intended to try and get to Plaza Bolívar (the main square) but never made it that far because the police had put up barricades, likely to stop people from gathering in crowds. We just wandered around La Museo de Oro (the Gold Museum) listening to the street music, watching the vendors selling all kinds of delicious fried or sugar-coated snacks and, of course, giving trying some of them a try. I had a version of the delicious Alfajor from Argentina (Argentina's version is a bazillion times better) – this one was just some plain crispy wafers with a bunch of dulce de leche (thick caramel sauce) in between, mmmmm. I had eaten most of it but had maybe three or four bites left when a happy looking (possibly homeless) guy asked me for some money. Instead, I gave him the rest and he happily thanked me and wandered away, dancing and singing. Things seemed OK in the streets; there were several police and military people just hanging around and patrolling everywhere, with their massive guns at their sides. While some people may find that comforting, I found it unnerving.
view of Bogotá from atop the hill On our wanderings we stuck to the places people at the hostel said were safe (everyone you ask is either certain that it is completely safe everywhere, or the COMPLETE opposite, so we assumed somewhere in between). After lunch at a pretty good vegetarian restaurant that serves veggie versions of typical Colombian dishes, we decided to take a ride up the fun-filled funicular which was very close by. When we got there we found out that the funicular was not working that day but the cable car was. We could have walked up as well, but we decided to ride the car as it sounded more fun (and we might have been a bit lazy). It was OK but very crowded. The view at the top was pretty nice and made Bogotá (8.5 million people) look deceptively small in comparison to other cities like Quito Ecuador (2.7M people), Lima Peru (9.5M people), Santiago Chile (7M people), Buenos Aires Argentina (14.5M people), and even Cusco Peru (400k people). Despite the small appearance, Bogotá is way more dense, but with its the lushly forested surrounding hills is actually quite pretty.
Walking around we couldn't help but notice that the streets looked nice and clean, buildings were architecturally interesting, roadways were decorated and often done in brick or cobblestone, and the plentiful graffiti on the buildings was very well done and elaborate (in fact we think we found the work of someone who did a mural in Valparaiso, Chile, what do you think? Images below). Still, we couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad could happen at any time - quite a few sketchy characters hanging around, way too may armed police and military... We didn't wander too far from the area atop the hill (apparently a popular spot for muggings) and were happy to get back to our Hostel after the ride back down.
Walking around we couldn't help but notice that the streets looked nice and clean, buildings were architecturally interesting, roadways were decorated and often done in brick or cobblestone, and the plentiful graffiti on the buildings was very well done and elaborate (in fact we think we found the work of someone who did a mural in Valparaiso, Chile, what do you think? Images below). Still, we couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad could happen at any time - quite a few sketchy characters hanging around, way too may armed police and military... We didn't wander too far from the area atop the hill (apparently a popular spot for muggings) and were happy to get back to our Hostel after the ride back down.
 Graffiti in Bogota |  Graffiti in Valparaiso |
That evening we went out to find a restaurant for dinner. We'd planned on going to one very close by but it was closed, so we went to another we thought was close, but it was closed too. So we wandered down the main street near where we had lunch by El Museo de Oro (which was closed for the day). It was dark but still fairly early, around 6:30pm. A man was sitting on a ledge by a building and as we walked by he asked us if he could help us with anything (by which we assumed he could sell us drugs), in Spanish – we said “no gracias, todo bien” and kept on walking by. We didn’t see anything up ahead and decided that we had better go back to the only place that was open just a bit further back, even though it didn't look that good. We walked by the same guy sitting on the ledge, but this time he stood up and said he could recommend a very good restaurant, but we kind of blew him off like, dude, no thank you. We were both walking pretty quickly, and I could see a couple walking in our direction up ahead. The restaurant wasn’t very far so we were speeding up as the guy kept on talking to us and started following us. The couple walked between us and the guy, but as soon as they passed we heard a click which we were pretty sure was a switchblade - we both instinctively sped up to a very brisk walk, ready to book it if we had to, but luckily the guy gave up. Maybe he saw a cop nearby or decided that we were too close to the open restaurant by then. We vaulted through into the door and took a few seconds to reflect a little before ordering some food. We both decided that we were probably just about to get mugged. We tried to think of other things that could sound and look like a switch blade (I glanced back but didn’t get a clear look), but came up short. Also, we decided that the idea of a random sketchy dude in the streets at night in Bogotá interested in helping tourists out just didn't make sense... close call! I don’t believe that muggers are generally out to hurt anyone, but they can get desperate enough if things go wrong. Later, another traveler who had been in Bogotá for a while told us that if a person is caught by the police robbing a tourist, their penalty is death. I don’t know if it is an official law, like a death sentence for robbing tourists, but this is apparently what it costs to make Colombia safe for tourists. Scary to think that so many people are desperate enough to do it, knowing the risk.
While we ate dinner we watched the action going on outside. It was pretty quiet, but there was definitely a different group of people coming out. There were even more police and military guys wandering around, walking or on segway scooters, some of them with massive Rottweilers wearing muzzles. There were also a lot of scary looking people out and about, some alone and some in groups. There were still a few other tourists around, though usually in groups of two or more. We were getting a very sketchy vibe, probably having something to do with the guy we had just encountered. But we finished our food and walked back to the hostel. The walk back was fine, but mostly because there were police guys on every corner. It was nice to get back and hide away for the rest of the evening.
While we ate dinner we watched the action going on outside. It was pretty quiet, but there was definitely a different group of people coming out. There were even more police and military guys wandering around, walking or on segway scooters, some of them with massive Rottweilers wearing muzzles. There were also a lot of scary looking people out and about, some alone and some in groups. There were still a few other tourists around, though usually in groups of two or more. We were getting a very sketchy vibe, probably having something to do with the guy we had just encountered. But we finished our food and walked back to the hostel. The walk back was fine, but mostly because there were police guys on every corner. It was nice to get back and hide away for the rest of the evening.
In the morning we got up, had some breakfast and left to the bus stop down the street – we were heading to the Catedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral) in Zipaquirá, a town 50km north of Bogotá. I was a little bit nervous about taking the bus after the previous evening, but in the day everything felt much better. When we arrived at the bus station, we were trying to figure out how to pay our fares and enter when a couple girls came over to greet us - to our surprise, it was Lilly and Kim who we'd met almost ten months earlier while volunteering at Villas Mastatal in Costa Rica. It was so funny to bump into them here! Since we were heading in the same direction we chatted for a while and caught up, making plans to meet up later on back in the city (though things didn't pan out). Once we'd reached our stop, we said goodbye and caught a colectivo (van that they stuff with people) for the 40 minute ride to Zipaquirá.
 |  inside the Salt Cathedral |
Once we'd arrived another gringo couple (Steve and Helen) got off the bus and overheard us asking for directions. We ended up hitting it off and spent the rest of the day hanging out with them, starting off with a tour of the Salt Cathedral. Essentially a section of an active salt mine that was turned into a Catholic Church, tours are available for most of the the year, though for special occasions it is actually used as a church by people from the nearby towns. Geologically it was pretty cool! The drifts (tunnels) are very wide and tall in some places, and the end of some large crosses and decorations had been carved into the walls. In one spot I licked the wall and it tasted like salt (hopefully not from the spit of other curious tourists). The tour included a Spanish-speaking guide who took us through and explained the carvings and what they represent - along the tunnel descending into the main cathedral were areas representing the fourteen stations of the cross, whatever that means =P.
meat on a stick, yum! After the tour, we spent another hour or so wandering around with Helen and Steve, our new friends from England, and then decided to go grab some lunch before heading back to Bogotá. We ate at a little restaurant that even had lentils and beans for me (meat for the others) and chatted – Steve is an artist (who actually makes some money from it which is great) and gallery curator, and Helen was working at a bar and restaurant as a manager in London. They were married and had decided to spend a year or so working abroad. Before their trip they got trained to be English teachers, and are now in Colombia looking for work. They were very funny and seemed like good people.
We rode the colectivo and bus back together and then walked all the way back to our hostels, which happened to be directly across the street from each other. We decided to do a team dinner and picked up some groceries on the way. We all went and chilled out for a bit and then met up at their hostel to make some two bean chili, then came over to our hostel to sit down in the bar area and eat. We had a blast! Helen and I drank two bottles of red wine and Andrew and Steve had a few beers each. By the end of the second bottle of wine I figured out that I was pretty drunk, which I blamed on the elevation (Bogotá sits at 2600 m above sea level), and went to bed.
We rode the colectivo and bus back together and then walked all the way back to our hostels, which happened to be directly across the street from each other. We decided to do a team dinner and picked up some groceries on the way. We all went and chilled out for a bit and then met up at their hostel to make some two bean chili, then came over to our hostel to sit down in the bar area and eat. We had a blast! Helen and I drank two bottles of red wine and Andrew and Steve had a few beers each. By the end of the second bottle of wine I figured out that I was pretty drunk, which I blamed on the elevation (Bogotá sits at 2600 m above sea level), and went to bed.
This guy was badass The next day, all we could do was get up, shower, and walk zombielike to El Museo de Oro, which was finally open. It was very interesting! We spent a lot of time reading almost every plaque in the first floor, learning a lot about the gold artifacts that have been found in Colombia over the years (and are still being found all the time), and about the processes they used back in the day (like 200ad, and which are still used today) to smelt the gold after it was mined, mostly out of the river by hand. Gold wasn’t exactly considered that valuable back then compared to copper or silver; it was just another material used to make decorations, jewellery and symbols. I liked that the museum was very centered around the indigenous groups and how gold fit in their lives. The artifacts were intricate and super cool. You could really see changes in the culture from the early days when gold was pounded into form and decades later when smelting became popular, and then later again when gold, silver, and copper were mixed in different ratios to get different colours, and finally when polishing or tarnishing the metals was used to etch designs and drawings. After a long while it became a bit hard to continue reading every single plaque so we started skipping some on the second floor or it would have taken us a week to get through the place, but we did read about all of the interesting looking things including pieces of body armour made of gold, etc. We found out that gold trinkets and statues shaped as jaguars and other animals chosen by the shaman were used ceremoniously and buried with a man when he died.
Alejandro, a Kogi Mama, with his poporo One thing I found really interesting was that the Shaman and Mama (another important cultural priest) in indigenous groups chewed coca leaves with a bit of crushed up seashells (essentially lime, for the calcium which would draw out the drug in the leaves) in order to think or focus more clearly. Men carried (and still do in tribes today, see photo, left) carry around a gourd (hollowed out plant) containing powdered crushed seashells with a stick in the top. The men would put a bunch of leaves in their mouths, dip the stick in the container, and bite or kind of lick off the white powder to chew with the leaves. At the gold museum they had several of these sticks that were made of gold, used by the Shamans and important people. More on this topic in a later post, the Kogi people are VERY interesting!
Golden poporo from back in the day After the museum we were ready to go. We had a late lunch and went back to the hostel and hung out until our bus for San Gil left at 6:30pm. San Gil is where we really started to experience true Colombia.
Be chili where you want,
~Chelsea
Be chili where you want,
~Chelsea
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