Exploring Bogotá

I definitely have yet to see even the smallest percentage of this huge city, Bogotá... with 12 million people, this city has about 20x as many people as Seattle! It's the capital of Colombia and it's clear by the size and amount of people everywhere. I've had the chance to explore some of the city, walking around in the streets, eating in various restaurants, visiting museums, listening to music here and there, getting my groove on, and more. I wanted to give you a brief tour of what I've seen with a few photos and descriptions.

This photo is of a reservoir outside of a restaurant that we had lunch at. It's actually outside of Bogotá about one hour (North), which we came across on our way to Villa de Levya (a post to come about that beautiful place soon!). The restaurant sat on this reservoir, where they caught the trout, trucha en Español, that we enjoyed for lunch. There was also a farm with animals such as chickens, roosters, and a llama, which surely supplied some of the food that we enjoyed during that meal:

For those of you who read my last post, Salsa at Galería Café Libro, you'll recognize this vaguely. Zayrho and I had a great Salsa night here last week, dancing, drinking mojitos, and taking in the true Colombia Salsa style. It's on Calle 93 in Bogotá, a place that's fun and super nice and clean for Bogotá:

On a day excursion in the city with Carol and Hugo (a wonderful, fun, and sweet couple close to the De San Vicente family), Zayrho and I enjoyed some beer and coca-cola at this intimate little bar, Merlin, where we enjoyed some live music by candle and firelight. It was a beautiful little place with everything made of wood and fun knick-knacks:

On the same day excursion, we toured Bolívar Square that is said to represent the four powers of Colombia, one on each side: The Palace of Justice (Supreme Court), The National Capitol (Colombian Congress), Vase House (Independence Museum), and pictured here, the Primate Cathedral/Holy Chapel. Why Bolívar Square? Simón Bolívar was a huge political independence leader of the early 19th century in South America. Bolívar led Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru to independence and is honored in all of those countries. You go, Simón!

What else to see in Bogotá? The world famous Museo del Oro (Gold Museum). The history at the Gold Museum is incredible! I learned about the many indigenous tribes of Colombia (before Spanish conquest) and the stories of the tribes being invaded by the Spaniards. My favorite story is one that you might be familiar with: The Lost City of Gold. El Dorado, anyone? As the story goes, El Dorado, the chief of the Muisca tribe, covered himself with gold dust and rowed out to the middle of Lake Guatavita (in Colombia) to sacrifice a ton of emeralds and gold to the indian goddess Guatavita, as was typical for each new chief of the tribe. The story evolved as the Spanish and other Europeans became more greedy to find the gold, turning into a whole city made of gold under the deep lake. They even attempted to drain Lake Guatavita to find the treasure. Though many pieces of gold jewelry and more were found at the bottom of the lake, the Lost City of Gold was never found. Here is a nice little piece that the museum held (oh, and D.C. is the equivalent of A.D. or C.E. in English):

After a long day exploring the Gold Museum and walking around, we stopped for Chocolate (which is hot chocolate to you and me) and a few deserts. I found that even though I love most all Colombia food I've tried, I'm a little bit more picky about the desserts. They are almost always super sweet and too much for me to handle:

Remember my night of the Aguardiente that I mentioned in my second blog about Colombia? Well, this is that night. Here is me with Zayrho and Sebastián at a little blue bar in Bogotá, enjoyed a group playing live music (just a little group, playing at the table next to us and singing), lots of dancing, and drinking of that little bottle, the orange one on the table behind Sebastián, that led to my incredible awful hangover the next day. At least that night was really fun!

Here is an outside shot of the Museo del Oro (I think I described enough above):

This is the view from top of the hill in the De San Vicente's neighborhood. It's so beautiful! Situated on a golf course, which you can see down at the bottom with the little houses, this neighborhood in Briceño is surrounded by beautiful hills. Did I mention that the elevation of this city is around 5,000 ft? Well, that made for a heavy-breathing walk to the top of this hill... whew!!

More to come of this beautiful and inspiring city...

...catch me later! :)