Colombia 1 : Bogota

This two month trip in South and Central America has been a long time in the making. Our dislike of anything packaged or groupy or too touristy means a lot more planning on my part but I think we nailed it this time. We did do a few too many flights for my liking - 15 legs in all - but largely driven by the fact that it's not that simple to get from Colombia to the Caribbean, as I found out. South Africans do need a visa to visit Colombia and in the big cities some neighbourhoods are no-go areas, especially at night.

On January 30, we flew from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, overnighting near the airport and continuing on to Bogotá, Colombia the next day.
January 31 We stayed at Hotel Estrelar in Parque 93. This is an upmarket, residential neighborhood of mostly apartments and popular with ex-pats and Embassy staff. There's a fairly lively restaurant and bar scene around the park and it's safe to walk at night in the area. Just nearby is Zona Rosa with malls, office blocks and more nightlife. We ended up at a Cuban bar and bistro called Havana 93, happy to have found live music on our first night.

February 1  Uber works wonderfully in Bogota and rides are really cheap, so it's the only way to get around. We made our way to the old city. Our first stop was the very worthwhile Gold Museum and nearby tourist shopping street.

We had heard it can be pretty unsafe in Bogota but in the tourist areas there is a heavy police and security presence, all armed and many with dogs. Around the Plaza de Bolivar are quite impressive government buildings but we loved walking the streets of La Candelaria, the old neighbourhood with the crumbling facades, beautiful churches and street art.

We were on a coffee quest as well, so our wanderings involved a few coffee shop stops a day. Jaun Valdez is a chain, with good coffee but the independent places like the hipster Contraste Coffee Lab in the basement of the Continental Hotel have better coffee and more street cred.

The surprise of the day had to be the Botero Museum. He's the guy who paints or sculpts round, fat people and he's Colombian. He donated many of his own works to the museum but he was also an art collector, so there's  some great modern art by everyone from Picasso to Dali. It's housed in a restored colonial palace, it's free and it has decent loos.

Back in Zona Rosa, we ate dinner at the trendy and super popular Italian restaurant, Casio and Pepe. We were quite surprised to find quite a lot of Italian influence in Colombia. Of course, Spanish is the Lingua Franca and we were really surprised at how little English is spoken or understood. Apart from hotel staff very few people understand any English at all. I procured a sim card using Google translate in the Claro store. We tried our best "por favors" and "gratias" wherever we went. "Dos coppa vino blanco. Dos cafe con leche. Uno agua con gas." What else do you need? I carry a card in my wallet explaining my seafood allergy in a couple of languages. Uber gets you where you want to go without having to talk to the driver at all! It's more fun than frustrating.

February 2 We started out at the Mercado Municipal Paloquemao.

 It's a huge fresh produce and meat market but there's also a plant section filled with nursery and florist stalls. You can also eat at local stalls where 2 small beers cost a dollar. Our Uber driver back to Centro was a crazy woman who had no petrol in her car and needed a cash rider. It's not possible to change your mode of payment after your journey begins so she prattled on and begged in Spanish the whole way while we just hoped the car didn't run out before she dropped us off. I gave her a hefty tip in cash but I'm sure it wasn't enough for even a litre of fuel.

We walked for hours and dodged the rain in coffee shops. For dinner we were back in Zona Rosa at the famous Andres DC. It's a massive five storey BBQ palace with crazy, bright decor, cocktails by the jug, live entertainment and lots of drunken dancing parties on a Saturday night. We had fun.

February 3 On Sundays in Bogota from 7am to 2pm, 90kms of city roads are closed to traffic for Ciclovia. Everybody takes to the streets on bicycles, whole families are out riding. It's healthy and fun. In Parque 93 all the restaurants are open for brunch, there's live music and plenty of food and fresh juice carts.