Bogotá - Days 1-4
The alarm goes off a 6:00am – whether we’re ready or not, its time to start this adventure. I was a bit more nervous than Ben (okay, probably a lot more nervous), but we had already completed “Leg 1” of our journey the day before when we took the Amtrak from Milwaukee to Chicago. We took advantage of our flight leaving out of O'hare to spend the night seeing a few friends in Chicago. After a fun, yet rainy evening of food, drinks, and arcade games, we opted to head up to bed early to make sure we were prepared. So fortunately, our bags were already packed and ready to go. We said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts – thanks Alyssa, Nick, and Toby – and took our Uber to the airport. It’s actually happening!
The flight was… fine. Based on my previous experiences with international flights, I was looking forward to having my own private screen for viewing movies and TV shows of my choice. Turns out Copa Airlines likes the idea of sharing, with only two screens every three rows and playing Tarzan (not the cartoon) on each one. Oh well. We ended up spitting the 5.5 hours between sleeping, reading, and watching shows we had saved on our tablets. The breakfast they served hit the spot, but only because we were starving by the time it was served. Nothing like soggy waffles to fill an empty tummy. After a quick layover in Panama City, we hoped on our final plane to Bogotá.
We were fairly exhausted when we landed (something about flying just wipes us out), but of course we had to wait in lines for customs and immigration. We finally made it out of the airport, stopped to exchange some USD to Colombian pesos, and grabbed a taxi to our hostel. As we rode into town, one thing amazed us both – it was already so dark! It was barely 7pm. We would soon come to realize that because Colombia is so near the equator, the sun always rises around 6am and sets around 6pm year round. An odd thing to adjust to when you’re used to the long summer days back in Wisconsin.
We stayed the first 4 nights at Aurora Hostel in Bogotá. Overall a good choice, it was neat and clean and in a fairly good location in the Chapinero neighborhood (though we would eventually find out that the kitchen was off limits to guests, which is a big bummer for budget travelers). We rested and showered before heading out to grab a quick bite to eat. Just a few blocks away from our hostel was a row of “diner”-like restaurants with servers eager for our business. After some language barriers, we successfully ordered a chorizo y arepa (a Colombian staple), an empanada con pollo, and carne y arroz con huevo – delicious and cheap! After a long travel day, we decided to head back to the hostel for some sleep. Being a Saturday night, some of the guests were having fun in the lounge area with drinks and Jenga. We joined for an intense and active round – prior to each pull, you had to spin around 3 times, do a burpee, and a jumping jack – but ended when I knocked over the tower. Full of shame, we retired upstairs for an early bedtime and lots of sleep.
We had a slow start to Day 2 by sleeping in then taking a leisurely walk down Septima (Calle 7 in Chapinero) to watch all of the bicyclists during ciclovía. In Bogotá, “ciclovía” occurs every Sunday morning when the city blocks off many roads to vehicles and opens them up as bicycle lanes, complete with bicycle traffic conductors. It is an awesome weekly event with thousands of participants, certainly something that we will have to do at some point during one of our Bogotá visits. We made our way to what we thought was a trendy, local coffee shop called Juan Valdez café to plan out our week, but we eventually discovered that it is essentially the equivalent to Colombian Starbucks. Nonetheless, we spent a few hours planning and playing cribbage.
Trying to be budget travelers, we decided to stop by a grocery store on the way back to the hostel to pick up some food to make for lunches and breakfasts. This is when we learned that we were not allowed to use the hostel’s kitchen. So a few of our food items went to waste but we kept our non-refrigeratable items to make in the room. The good news is that Ben suggested that we pack
a tupperware container so we had something in which to mix our tuna salad, the bad news is that we didn’t have any utensils to mix it with. This lead the birth of to my culinary specialty “atu’n de dedos de Meghann”, or “Meghann’s finger tuna”. A fairly gross and squishy experience, but I dare you to find someone who could tell a difference in the end. We eventually cleaned up and made our way back out to Bogotá Beer Company for some local brews and more cribbage. The front desk staff at our hostel, Daniela, recommended trying out an asian fusion restaurant called Wok for dinner. Ben got a stirfry and I got pad thai. While fairly good, it was no EE Sane. But lets be honest, the pad thai at EE Sane would be tough to beat (Andrew can attest). Overall, a nice start to the trip.
End of D2 cribbage score: Ben 5 – Meg 2 (1 skunk)
We started Day 3 with a grueling hike up to Bogotás most famous attraction, Monserrate. Rising approximately 500 meters from the valley of Bogotá, its the highest point in the city at 3,142 meters (just over 10,000 feet), and the “hike” was basically stairs all the way up. There are easier ways to get to the top (cable car or funicular), but we are young and somewhat fit so thought we’d tough it out. And boy, was it tough. At one point, when we had already slowed way down, were out of breath, and starting to feel the burn we saw a sign marking our progress up the mountain… we were only half way. Part of the struggle can be blamed on not being used to the altitude, but its mostly just a tough hike. To make matters worse, it was a Colombian holiday that day so it was absolutely packed with locals as well as all of the tourists. Made us feel better that most of them were struggling as much as we were. A little over an hour later, we made it to the church at the top and the views did not disappoint. On one side was the vast and sprawling city and on the other was a beautiful and green rolling hills. We spent awhile roaming around up top and ate arepa y queso for the first time (think of Colombian grilled cheese). Being stubborn and cheap once again, we decided to walk back down. Definitely not as bad as the hike up, but no walk in the park either. On the bright side, we stopped by one of the many vendors selling freshly squeezed fruit juices and bought a big cup of tangerine juice for less than $1 USD – probably the best fruit juice I’ve ever had!
That was followed by one of the more unique beverages I’ve ever had – chocolate completo – at La Puerta Falsa, again per the recommendation of our hostel staff. Chocolate completo is a very common Colombian snack that includes hot chocolate, breads, and cheese. But the odd part is that you are supposed to put the cheese into the hot chocolate so that it gets all melty and gooey and chocolately. Might sound crazy, but I thought it was brilliant and delicious. After all of the tasty goodies and lots of walking, we went back to the hostel for a nice nap (we are on vacation after all). It was well worth it, but we ended up waking up late and struggled to find good dinner options. Because it was a holiday, many of the restaurants were closed (and again, we couldn’t use the kitchen) so after walking around for awhile, we settled on a restaurant called Patacones. I have no idea what we ordered but we ended up getting meat, cheese, and potatoes all piled on a big, flat piece of fried plantain. Not my favorite meal of the trip so far, but Ben didn’t seem to mind all of the meats.
End of D3 cribbage score: Ben 7 (1 skunk) – Meg 4 (2 skunks)
We decided to be touristy once again on D4 and signed up for a free walking tour of the historical city center in La Candelaria. On our way to the meeting spot, I foolishly realized that I didn’t bring an outer layer in our day pack and wasn’t prepared for the chilly Bogotá morning. Hence, my first additional clothing item was bought – a new sweater! Now all bundled and warm, we met our tour group in front of the Museo de Oro and were introduced to our tour guide, Laura, who was born and raised in Bogotá. The tour met expectations, with a decent mix of history and current facts about the city, and we were able to chat with a few other fellow travelers. A few English gals were just finishing up their 3 month tour of South America and gave us a few great tips for Colombia and Ecuador. We also learned that Laura was going to be taking a few months off starting in July to travel around Colombia (while she knows Bogotá incredibly well, she has traveled very little to other areas of the country). We exchanged emails in the hopes of being able to meet up at some point! Halfway into the tour, we stopped at a little shop and were able to sample chicha – a corn-based South American drink.
It was surprisingly good, tasted a bit like honey. We went back to La Puerta Falsa for lunch and got an amazing soup called ajiaco (chicken and potato soup served with a side of rice,
capers, avocado, and cream) and a tamal. We had originally planned to go to a bar that night for a weekly language exchange night called “Gringo Tuesdays” but decided against it last minute. Ending up going to a swanky little bar called El Mono Bandido for apps and drinks then went to dinner at Alitas Colombianas for chicken wings. We sit down and are chatting per usual when I notice that the guy at the table next to us is wearing plastic gloves while eating his wings. Hmm maybe he just likes clean fingers? Then we scan the restaurant and EVERYONE eating wings is wearing plastic gloves. It was so weird. Inevitably when we received our wings, guess what came with it? So to avoid being viewed as the dirty, sticky-fingered Americans, we follow suit and through on the gloves. It was odd, but certainly didn’t bother me as much as it bothered Ben. We wanted to experience new cultures, right?
End of D4 cribbage score: Ben 8 (1 skunk) – Meg 5 (2 skunks)
Let’s see what oddities Cartagena as to offer, we leave tomorrow!