First stop we head to the Botero Museum. The Museum which houses Botero's works is a beautiful building with lots of tranquil courtyards and airy exhibition halls. It showcases Botero's works: portraits and sculptures of fat people and animals alongside other well known European artists' works including Picasso, Monet, Miro, Ernst etc. It also houses an impressive collection of very very old (circa 16th Century – post Spanish invasion) catholic gold statutes and paintings...amazing!We went to the Police Museum in the afternoon...quite an odd choice it sounds but then it is free! We had a guided tour by one of the military service lads (all boys have to do a year of service in either the military or police, unless they have enough money to bribe their way out of it!). We had a full 1 ½ hrs of detail on the the police's history, the capture / killing of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug cartels and the current guerrilla conflicts. The Museum houses a number of fairly obscure and grizzly artifacts, including Pablo Escobar's blood stained jacket, a roof tile from the building where he was shot and a hat belonging to a general who was shot (in the head) by one of Escobar's cronies, you could see the bullet hole in the hat where the bullet entered his skull...nice!
Friday evening we hit the clubs and bars of Candeleria with Fleur and Alex, the nightlife was buzzing and we ended up sampling a bottle of Aguardiente and salsa dancing in a random backstreet club!
Friday evening we hit the clubs and bars of Candeleria with Fleur and Alex, the nightlife was buzzing and we ended up sampling a bottle of Aguardiente and salsa dancing in a random backstreet club!Saturday: After a much needed lie-in we went to the Museo d'Oro (Gold Museum). This is a fascinating collection of ancient gold, silver and copper artifacts from the indigenous people and some of it dates back to 500 AD!
In the evening we went to Andres Carne de Res, a restaurant/club on the outskirts of Chia (about 60 mins away). This was a wedding gift from Spikey, Gaz, Nathan and Welsh. It was an awesome evening, the steaks were huge, the cocktails were EXTREMELEY potent and the dance floor was heaving from about 10pm onwards. Its a really cool place to head on a Saturday night and popular with the locals, we arrived about 7.30pm and it wasn't long before some of our fellow diners were up dancing on the tables and nailing bottles of aguardiente! There were performances by professional salsa dancers and some interesting performances by some not-so-professional diners who decided to try their hand at pole dancing! Anything goes here! Our evening was finished off by a stop and search from Bogota's constabulary, needless to say after a few drinks we didn't take too kindly to this and its lucky that the police didn't speak much English or David may have finished his evening in a cell!
Sunday: A sedate Sunday spent chilling out, taking on fluids and recovering our strength...i.e. hungover. We took the cable car to Montserratte which is about XXX metres high giving you a fantastic view of sprawling Bogota. There is a church at the top and is popular for local Colombians to visit on a Sunday. However, Lynne's fear of heights didn't combine well with the hangover from the previous evening and it wasn't long before we were heading back down to the city. In the evening we popped round to see Alex and Fleur for a relaxed evening of cheese, biscuits and red wine, needless to say it wasn't a late one for us!
Monday: We took the bus to Zapiquiera to visit the Catedral de Sal, Salt Cathedral. Despite this being 'Colombia's number 1 tourist attraction' there are surprisingly few signs and it took us a while to actually find our way there, with the help of the friendly locals and our excellent Spanish! It is worth making the effort though, the Cathedral is just a small part of the HUGE salt mines at the site. The cathedral was originally built for the miners that worked there around the turn of the century, the original is now closed off and they rebuilt the 
current Cathedral in 1995, its quite spectacular and very eerie. We had a tour of the Cathedral in Spanish, followed by a tour of the Salt Mines in English (thankfully!). The Salt Mines are not somewhere for those who are scared of the dark or claustrophobic, and Lynne found them pretty scary, especially when we were told to turn our head lights off and walk through a tiny passageway in the pitch black! David loved it though and may have a new vocation as a salt miner if needed...as the pictures show!
Tuesday: Our last day in Bogota sniff, sniff! We spent the morning attempting to post some letters back to the UK...Colombia doesn't appear to have a national postal system, instead there are a number of carriers who freight mail nationally and internationally, we managed to negotiate a price for our parcel eventually, although it took us most of the 
morning to do so! In the afternoon we took the Transmilenio to the upmarket Zona Rosa area of Bogota. This area feels more like an international city, with glass multi story buildings and swish apartment blocks. We managed to track down a cup of earl grey tea, much to Lynne's delight! Then we wandered through the blocks to Parque 93, (Usabequen) a trendy square with loads of bars and restaurants where we splashed out on a burger and chips!
In the evening we went to Andres Carne de Res, a restaurant/club on the outskirts of Chia (about 60 mins away). This was a wedding gift from Spikey, Gaz, Nathan and Welsh. It was an awesome evening, the steaks were huge, the cocktails were EXTREMELEY potent and the dance floor was heaving from about 10pm onwards. Its a really cool place to head on a Saturday night and popular with the locals, we arrived about 7.30pm and it wasn't long before some of our fellow diners were up dancing on the tables and nailing bottles of aguardiente! There were performances by professional salsa dancers and some interesting performances by some not-so-professional diners who decided to try their hand at pole dancing! Anything goes here! Our evening was finished off by a stop and search from Bogota's constabulary, needless to say after a few drinks we didn't take too kindly to this and its lucky that the police didn't speak much English or David may have finished his evening in a cell!
Sunday: A sedate Sunday spent chilling out, taking on fluids and recovering our strength...i.e. hungover. We took the cable car to Montserratte which is about XXX metres high giving you a fantastic view of sprawling Bogota. There is a church at the top and is popular for local Colombians to visit on a Sunday. However, Lynne's fear of heights didn't combine well with the hangover from the previous evening and it wasn't long before we were heading back down to the city. In the evening we popped round to see Alex and Fleur for a relaxed evening of cheese, biscuits and red wine, needless to say it wasn't a late one for us!
Monday: We took the bus to Zapiquiera to visit the Catedral de Sal, Salt Cathedral. Despite this being 'Colombia's number 1 tourist attraction' there are surprisingly few signs and it took us a while to actually find our way there, with the help of the friendly locals and our excellent Spanish! It is worth making the effort though, the Cathedral is just a small part of the HUGE salt mines at the site. The cathedral was originally built for the miners that worked there around the turn of the century, the original is now closed off and they rebuilt the 
current Cathedral in 1995, its quite spectacular and very eerie. We had a tour of the Cathedral in Spanish, followed by a tour of the Salt Mines in English (thankfully!). The Salt Mines are not somewhere for those who are scared of the dark or claustrophobic, and Lynne found them pretty scary, especially when we were told to turn our head lights off and walk through a tiny passageway in the pitch black! David loved it though and may have a new vocation as a salt miner if needed...as the pictures show!
Tuesday: Our last day in Bogota sniff, sniff! We spent the morning attempting to post some letters back to the UK...Colombia doesn't appear to have a national postal system, instead there are a number of carriers who freight mail nationally and internationally, we managed to negotiate a price for our parcel eventually, although it took us most of the 
morning to do so! In the afternoon we took the Transmilenio to the upmarket Zona Rosa area of Bogota. This area feels more like an international city, with glass multi story buildings and swish apartment blocks. We managed to track down a cup of earl grey tea, much to Lynne's delight! Then we wandered through the blocks to Parque 93, (Usabequen) a trendy square with loads of bars and restaurants where we splashed out on a burger and chips! 
Frank aka dad says
ReplyDeleteMirror, mirror in Bogata; who is the slimmest lady in the gallery by far?
It's not the fat bird in the painting with no clothes on: it's the new Mrs. Henderson bar absolutely none!!!
Nice pose Lynne.
I hope you did not mention your "Brothers record" - in two countries might I add - on your tour round the Police Museum - wouldn't want him barred from Columbia - there's lots of plants there that still need discovering.
Dark bars; strange dancing (including Eastern Europeans from Poland); unusual drinks; stop and searched by police whose command of the English language is limited - sounds like a regular night at Mr. Smiths!!!
Earl Grey Tea followed by Burger and Chips - David really knows how to treat a Lady Lynne!!!
Tara, tara to Bogata.