Bogota, Colombia – March 1 to 4

We’re not in the Caribbean anymore. 😫

Bogota is a real city. A really big city. I didn’t know it, but Bogota is a city of over 8 million people and has an average elevation over 8,000 feet. Traffic is gnarly and not many people speak English. It’s nickname is aptly the “Athens of South America”.

After waking up at 4:30am in Barbados, flying to Miami and then catching a connection to Bogota, we got to spend about an hour in the Colombian customs line. OK that part sucked. But then, we found a driver holding a sign with Shawn’s name on it and proceeded to the fabulous Four Seasons Hotel – Casa Medina (www.fourseasons.com/bogotacm/). BTW, our travel pro Tammy Cane (www.theartoftravelbytammycane.com), secured a great rate, 20% off on spa activities and a room upgrade to a killer suite. Thanks Tammy!

Zona G (for “gastronomica”) is where the hotel is located. Apparently this is the location for some of Bogotá’s best restaurants. The monikers of the Four Seasons’ closest neighbors provide a good sense of Colombia’s most popular food group – “El Butcher”, “La Biferia”, “Mister Ribs” and “Sagal 100% Carne”. They like their beef in Bogota.

Juan Diego, the front desk manager, asked if we had plans for our three night stay. We, of course, had absolutely no idea what we were doing. Thankfully he gave us some great ideas and the following afternoon arranged for a driver to take us to Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirá (the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira) and then to a restaurant called Andres Carne de Res.

Bogota traffic was some of the worst I’d ever seen. After a 90 minute drive – and four or five near misses with insane motorcycle drivers and cyclists – we arrived. The Salt Cathedral (www.catedraldesal.gov.co) is an underground, modern Roman Catholic Church carved into a salt mine that dates back to the 5th century. Main attractions include individual chapels representing each Station of the Cross and a cavernous main sanctuary two hundred meters underground anchored by the largest underground cross on the planet. It’s extremely unique and memorable.

Next stop was dinner at Andres Carne des Res – a place which is extremely hard to describe (www.andrescarnederes.com). It is dinner (yes largely beef!) and then a wild dance club with way over-the-top decor. Did I mention that it can host 2,000 people and has a 60 page menu? A super-fun place and a “must visit” if your going to be in Bogota.

More recommendations from Juan Diego led us to the top of Mount Monserrate. There is a funicular that goes to the 10,000 foot peak for a spectacular view of the city.

After visiting the top we took the funicular back down. While waiting for our driver a geriatric Colombian man implored me to take a picture of him kissing his llama. I declined!

We next cruised to La Candelaria, Bogotá’s historic district for a typical Colombian meal of rice, beans, some kind of sausage and beef. We walked to the main square, Plaza Bolivar, which houses a huge cathedral and the most important government buildings. This particular evening it was hosting a big rally for a political candidate. Cool Latin energy.

As the rally ended, and night fell, we went for a walk around the crowded streets which were full of street performers and food vendors. It’s a pretty vibrant place, but after dark the area got a bit surly and felt kind of unsafe. Kind of like a bad version of the streets around Hollywood and Highland.

Sunday was our last day in Bogota. Every Sunday thousands of “Rolos” (that’s what you call someone from Bogota) participate in something called Ciclovia. A series of major streets going all the way around the city are closed to anything with a motor. Thousand of bicycles hit the closed streets. Unfortunately for us, we had just shipped our bikes back to Manhattan Beach cause they were getting thrashed by air travel (and were getting pretty unwieldy) so we were unable to participate. But it looked awesome.

One last note on Bogota. The staff at the Four Seasons were incredible. The aforementioned Juan Diego gave us great suggestions on sights to see and Julian, one of the bell men was unbelievably helpful. He went to the cell phone store to get us a Colombian SIM card and then went with us to a shipping store and translated the over-complicated process of sending our bikes back to the U.S. Probably the best service we’ve ever had at a hotel. We can’t recommend this Four Seasons highly enough.

With Bogota in our rear view mirror, we are now headed to the airport for a short flight to Armenia and the the Colombian coffee triangle!