Bogota

June 13, 2014

Bogota had been a much-anticipated stop for us. We’d heard of a recommended mechanic that could do some of the work that we needed done to the van and the conveniences of a modern city was also on our list of things to be excited about. Despite the insane driving, the kindness of the Colombian people showed true even in this massive city.

We arranged to drop the car off at 9 in the morning on a far side of the city and in true Latin America fashion we waited for an hour before there was any sign of life at the shop. After we got the van into the tiny space, we were talking about all the work we wanted done when another customer arrived to discuss his racecar that was also in the shop. Yep, that’s right Dolores was getting worked on by a Race Car mechanic. Anyways the other customer, Juan Carlos, started chatting us up and before you know it, he offered us a ride to back into town. We learned more about him during the drive - that he owned a few hotels in town and a shipping business in Miami. As we neared town, he decided to take us to his hotel and insisted on buying us breakfast and having his driver return us to our hotel another 30 minutes away. He also offered to help us with anything else while we were in town. His generosity made our heads spin.

It sounded like the work on the van could be completed on Monday. We had dropped it off on Friday so this gave us 3 days to explore the city. There was plenty to see, but 3 days turned to 5 and 5 turned to 7. At one point we thought we were going to have to jailbreak Dolores, but despite the numbered mechanical set backs, and the massive damage to our budget, we loved every minute in the city.

We explored the gold museum, which holds the largest collection of gold works in the whole world. Many of the relics were found in Lake Guatavita, which you may remember our visit from here. There were tiny intricate figurines, stunning pieces of jewelry, masks, weapons, full body armor and so much more. The designs and ways they learned to work with the gold by heating it to different temperatures and mixing it with different metals was fascinating. We thought our spin through the museum would be quick, but it was so impressive we ended up being the last people ushered out at closing time.

Most mornings in the city for us started at a little French bakery we found around the corner from our hotel. They served the most amazing jamon y queso croissants - they were buttery, light, fluffy and flaky, pure heaven in a bite. With the great coffee and fresh orange juice and fluffy eggs, they were hard to beat.

Perhaps one of the most exciting days was when Colombia played their first game in the Cupa del Mundo (World Cup) in 16 years. We knew the city would be wild and crazy, you could tell from the build up of vendors selling Colombia gear on every corner, taxi drivers decking their vehicles out with flags and banners in short – the city was a sea of yellow, red and blue. We had scoped out our places to watch the game the day before –Bogota Brewing Company down the street. The owner of our hotel warned us that the city could be pretty dangerous on a day like today so we need to be extremely careful. We expected total mayhem in this city of 5 million people, but the craziest thing happened. In the hours leading up to the game air horns blared from every corner of the city, taxi drivers excessively toted their horns, everyone was wearing their jerseys and flags as capes things were shaping up to be pretty wild. About an hour before the game it happened. As we opened the door to leave our hotel we looked around we saw the most stunning scene. In a city that hadn’t stopped in the three days that we had been there, we looked out on complete stillness and quite. There wasn’t a car on the road, not a person to be seen, it was absolutely silent. We both looked at each other in awe. Everyone in the entire city was glued to a TV somewhere ready to cheer on their team. As we made our way to the Bogata Beer Company you could begin to hear out of every tienda, bakery, restaurant, and place with a TV or radio the same announcer introducing the Colombian team. It was the only thing to be heard and it echoed across the entire city.

After an exciting win against Greece the city exploded. Cheers, air horns and boys running around blasting anyone and everyone with flour and powdered sugar riddled the city. As a precaution all of the squares were closed and we saw only one wild chase involving police on motorcycles and the epic take down of the runaway.

We took to the street on bikes on a Sunday. We quickly learned that many of the main streets in town were closed to cars on Sunday and replaced with vendors, bikers and Sunday strollers out enjoying the sun.

We checked out Monserrate, a famous city look out. Originally we were going climb to the lookout, but after our friends told us about their encounter, which you can read about here, we took the tram up and down. It was a bit of a gloomy day, but still made us appreciate the massive size of the city.

When Dolores was finally released back to us we felt fulfilled about our time in the city look forward to visiting there again.