Bogotá, Colombia 11/02-11/12/2017

• Thursday November 2nd 2017
  

We had a frustrating day spent trying and failing to get money from the ATM. We had planned to get cash and then take a walking tour. The walking tour is free, but you need cash to tip the guide. We walked around for several hours, trying at least 5 ATMs. I had read that certain banks won’t work for international transactions, so we kept trying. We aren’t used to walking on pavement and cobble, so after awhile we were exhausted and gave up. We called Wells Fargo using WiFi and my Vonage app and found that they’d put a block on our account. You’re supposed to the tell the bank you’re traveling, but we never have before, and have never had an issue. After an interrogation to confirm that I am really me and haven’t lost my card, the lady on the phone said we should be good, so we went back out for another walk to the ATM and struck out again! We had another call and interrogation with Wells Fargo and now we are hopefully good. Guess they don’t trust Colombia! We talked to other travelers at the hostel, and none of them have experienced any issue with ATMs here, so hopefully we are all fixed up! It was torture walking the streets all day and seeing all of the produce and street food vendors and not being able to buy anything!! Of major interest to us are arepas (a Colombian version of tortillas, only a little thicker), roasted giant kernel corn, massive avocados and tropical fruits! We brought a lot of food with us on the plane, and we were able to buy some groceries with my credit card, so we’re not suffering too badly! I thoroughly explored the Colombian grocery store and bought us an assortment of tropical fruits to sample, and we had savory steel cut oats with lentils and veggies for dinner. We found the food to be very affordable! We are staying in the historic district of town called La Candelaria. Our hostel is called Alegrias Hostel, it’s located old Spanish style building with two lovely courtyards full of succulents, so we got to spend some of our day relaxing and enjoying the outdoor space. Bogotá is at about 8,500 feet and has a refreshingly cool climate. There are also two real nice fluffy dogs that live here. Jeff made friends right away, and even I like them! They are all Mocha and Poka, one is the mama and the other is the baby. The whole neighborhood is made up of colorful old building that were a joy to look at as we walked around today. We are exhausted now and going to bed early, so we can try again with the ATM and hopefully get on an early walking tour!

Jeff with his new friends. Mocha (the mama) in front and Poka (the baby) in back.Having breakfast on the back patio. Bread, pineapple, coffee and juice.Plaza Simón Bolívar. People sells food for pigeons to tourists, so the bird population is out of control. Kind of makes your skin crawl to walk though this area, because birds are flying all over the place and often get uncomfortably close.The cathedral in the main square. These chips are actually vegan, they are flavored with artificial chicken flavor. They taste exactly like rotisserie chicken, in a disgusting way!Our hostel from the street.Looking down Carrerra 2 (one of the avenues) from Calle 9 (street 9) in La Candelaria.Papaya, mango, tree tomato, granadilla (passion fruit) and lulo.Three buses in one!

• Friday November 3rd
  

We woke up early this morning in an attempt to get out of our hostel in a timely manner and try to get cash before the 10 AM walking tour. 

We succeeded and breathed a sigh of relief when we heard the ATM make it’s signature cash dispensing noise!

There were 29 people on the walking tour, which based on the guide’s reaction, was way more than usual, so the tour was kind of slow and tedious and also probably not as good as it would have been with a smaller group. We visited shops and restaurants along the way to sample food and drink. The first stop was a typical restaurant that served us a sample of chicha, a fermented corn drink that tastes exactly like kombucha, but with the alcohol content of beer. It was really good, we will definitely be going back for a full size serving! We got to try some tropical fruits at a covered outdoor market. Colombia has an abundance of cheap and exotic fruits, many of which only grow in Colombia. The diversity is thanks to the diversity of the land, they have every growing condition and altitude you could imagine. We stopped in a shop that specializes in the production of food and drink containing coca leaves, the plant from which cocaine is extracted. The plant in it’s natural form is completely safe and very different from the heavily refined cocaine. It’s believed to be useful in relieving symptoms of altitude sickness. We got to chew unprocessed dried coca leaves, which are very bitter, and we also sampled tea and a cake make from coca leaf flour. After these initial stops, we covered some distance and saw historical sights outside on the streets. This was perfectly timed with an afternoon downpour, in which everyone got soaked. There were rivers of water running down the steep narrow and cobbled streets! We could actually watch debris flowing past in the torrents of water! We had our rain jackets which worked well to keep the upper half dry, but our shoes and pants got sopping wet. I found it hard to focus and listen to the guide at this time as he droned on about history. I think Jeff got a little more out of this part of the tour than I did. At least it wasn’t cold, and it was even a bit funny! (: The last stop on our tour was a fancy coffee shop, where we learned about Colombian coffee production and got to sample a top quality coffee. Colombia is known for its coffee, but nearly all of the good stuff is exported, leaving just the crap for all the locals. Neither Jeff nor I are big coffee drinkers, but we’ve definitely tasted it and have an idea of what it’s like, and the coffee we had today was nothing like anything we’ve ever tasted! I have visited coffee farms in Panama and Costa Rica and had fresh coffee, but never remember it tasting any different than anything else. They told us a high quality fresh coffee should never be bitter and that it should never need sugar, and that adding sugar would be like adding milk to wine! They also said if the coffee is more than 1 month old it’s already lost most of its desired properties, so essentially everything you could buy overseas would be considered spoiled! The best I can compare the taste of the coffee to is an unsweetened lemonade. It was sour, but not bitter and had a lightness to it. It reminded me more of a tea than of coffee. We received a coupon for a return visit to the coffee shop, which we will definitely go back to out of curiosity! The coupon is really not needed, as the most expensive drink on their menu was $2!! The cost of food and accommodations here has been delightfully cheap.

This is called Plaza del Chorro de Quevedo and is thought to be the place where Bogotá got its start in the 1500s. The 12 windows are supposed to represent the 12 apostles of the Catholic Church, which were represented in the initial city construction with 12 buildings. The statue of the juggler is a local art project that is supposed to pay tribute to the common people of the city. There are many green statues perched on building tops, we also saw one of a shoe shiner, and many others whose identities could not be confirmed. This street is known as the “funnel” street, because it is just a narrow walking path.

We returned to our hostel briefly after the tour to try and dry out, but we don’t have a whole lot of spare clothes, since we packed very light. When we went back out to find lunch, we decided to try our our new Xero sandals, some ultralight, ultra minimalist, barefoot style sandals we learned about when we were hiking the John Muir Trail. They will definitely take some getting used to!

During the walking tour, I spotted a chalk board displaying a vegan plate of the day meal at the market where we stopped to sample tropical fruits. A meal of the day is a set menu that usually includes soup and main dish and a fruit juice. These set meals are offered at just about every restaurant and there seems to be a restaurant (or more) on just about every block, so they are abundant, but generally not vegan or vegetarian! The typical plate of the day usually contains at least 2 kinds of meat, along with beans, rice, avocado and plantains, and even the beans are not safe, as they are usually stewed with meat! So I was delighted when I saw the sign for vegan food! We had a delicious starchy soup containing carrots, spinach, plantains, yucca and potatoes! All three of my favorite starches in one bowl! The main dish was rice, beans, salad and plantain chips with a mixed berry juice. It was all wonderful and cost less that $2.75 each! There are a surprising number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants to choose from, but this one was neat, because it is not on Happy Cow (the vegan restaurant finder app), and was more of a local place. Vegetarian food is popular with locals, because it’s seen as a healthy alternative that they may choose every so often, like Meatless Monday in the US. We plan to try many more dining options! We hadn’t expected to like Bogotá so much, but we have found we could easily spend a week or more here.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging and drying out the rest of the way in the hostel. Around sunset we went for a walk to look for the grilled corn man! We were successful and along the way we also tried a hot alcoholic drink called canelazo. There were many carts selling this concoction containing a sort of cinnamon flavored sugar water mixed with the local anise flavored alcohol. It was pleasant and for at least a double shot of alcohol, it only cost about $1.25! The corn sadly was not wonderful, it was roasted to oblivion and was almost like trying to chew popcorn kernels! I don’t know if this is how it’s supposed to be or if we just got bad ones. We’ll have to try again sometime. It was fun taking an early evening walk. There were all sorts of street performers out, as well as music playing and art/crafts for sale, it felt like a party in the streets.

Looking down the hill from outside of our hostel. At the bottom of the hill in the busy pedestrian avenue, Carrera 7.This is the mixture that is added to the alcoholic drink called Canelazo. The pot of liquid is steaming hot and smells wonderful.Street vendor in the plaza selling hot canelazo.

Back at the hostel, we had leftover savory oats for dinner and are again going to bed early. Tomorrow we will move to a new hostel, just to experience something different. We also want an early start because we will be taking a short hike to the high point above the city.

• Saturday November 4th

We awoke to a steady light rain that kept up for most of the day. The mountain we planned to hike was completely hidden in clouds, so we did not hike. After delaying as long as we could, we packed up our stuff and moved to our new hostel, Hostal Botánico. We liked our last place just fine, but we like to switch around when we have an abundance of days in one place, to see other hostels. In this neighborhood, it’s especially interesting, because all of the houses are a few hundred years old and have lovely gardens, patios, balconies and courtyards. I also like to see what’s on offer for breakfast at each place! (: Breakfast is included in most hostel stays and is generally serve yourself and includes coffee and tea, milk, butter, jam, and some type of bread. A “good” breakfast will also include one or all of the following: fruit, eggs, cereal, and/or oatmeal. The last hostel had a different kind of bread/roll each day and a different fruit each day, pineapple the first day, bananas the second and papaya this morning. Our new hostel is only a block from the last, and we think it’s owned by the same people. We purposely arrived just before breakfast was finishing up. We found the basic spread, but instead of just one kind of fruit, there were two! So we enjoyed a banana and an orange, then set out to fill the rainy day.

First stop was the coffee shop we visited on the walking tour. We were presented with three kinds of coffee beans to sniff and choose from. The beans were then ground and we were presented with them again for sniffing. The grounds were placed in a French press and a little hot water was added to create an “infusion,” and again we sniffed. After a minute passed the rest of the water was added. The water was poured from a fancy golden tea pot. After 4 minutes it was time to drink. The coffee was poured for us into tiny cups and the extra from the press was then deposited into a small glass pitcher. It was quite fancy and was all done at our table. They have several other fancy coffee preparation methods, so we will go back again for the amusement!

There are tons of museums in this area of town, 80% of all the museums in Bogotá are located here in La Candelaria neighborhood. We don’t usually go museums, but we weren’t sure what else to do in the rain. We thought about going to the movie theater, something we only ever seem to do when we are traveling. The movie theater is located in a big mall that is two miles away and we weren’t sure if it’s a safe walk, so we instead chose to visit the Museo del Oro (gold museum). Our Lonely Planet guide says its Bogotá’s most famous museum and one of the best in South America, with 55,000 gold pieces! We spent 3 1/2 there, learning about how the native peoples of Colombia have worked with gold over the last 2,500 years. There were some insanely ornate pieces. It was crazy to think about the technologies they were able to come up with so long ago. Inventions always blow my mind, how and why do people think up the things they do?? They learned to mine gold, silver, platinum, bronze and copper, then learned they could build super hot ovens to melt it and make molds out of wax and clay and pour hot molten metals into these molds to make all sorts of things, like figurines and jewelry. They also hammered the gold and other metals into thin sheets and made vases, dishes and jewelry. They even learned to use local plants to make acid solutions for dipping the metals and creating unique effects! Pretty neat!

Incredibly detailed pieces of jewelry at the Museo del Oro. It’s hard to see in the picture, but this pendants are made up of a pattern of continuous tiny rings that are amazingly symmetrical.A display of what a person of high status may have wornThe grand finale of displays at the end a circle room that you get enclosed in a watch the lights go on and off while weird music plays.On the roof of the museum. This is a view of the tallest building in South America. I think it’s 44 floors. It was pretty recently construcsted, but has been deemed unstable and remains mostly unoccupied and must be redone at some point.

On the way out of the gold museum, we saw a street vendor selling something that looked like bbq sauce covered ribs, but it was surrounded by coconuts, so I had to ask what it was. It turned out to be coconut strips, that were coated in some sort of sugary glaze. We of course purchased some. Street food is the best, so cheap and delicious. We got a perfect little serving for 2,000 pesos, which equals about 65¢, and they were pretty good. We have been trying to keep our meals light, so for a late lunch we went back to the chicha place from the walking tour yesterday and ordered a bottle of chicha and two arepas each. We hadn’t tried arepas yet, but they are a slightly thicker version of a corn tortilla, and are a bit more moist. They reminded me of polenta.

Fried CoconutChica. This is the traditional way to serve it. The bowl is like a gourd, but comes from a large inedible fruit that grows on trees. The fruit is called totumo and the bowl is called totuma.A white corn arepa. They are also made with yellow corn. They come in all different sizes and some come stuffed.The streets are definitely not ADA friendly. This is one of many obstacles you will find in this (and pretty much all large cities in Central and South America). We often wonder how frequently people are texting (or just not paying attention) and step into a hole and fall down.

For our final activity of the day we went to the grocery store to stock up for dinner. When we came out of the grocery store, the rain had become heavy, so we bought a $3 umbrella from one of the 5 or more people standing at the doorway selling umbrellas and ponchos! We wish we’d brought our trekking umbrellas on this trip, but hopefully we won’t need them for most of the rest of the trip. We hope to try to get away from the rain. 

Back at the hostel, we enjoyed pan seared ripe plantain slices as an appetizer. It was probably the biggest plantain I’ve ever seen and cost only 35¢! For dinner I made a stew of lentils, giant corn kernels, potatoes, carrot, green plantain, onion and garlic. We ate the stew with fresh tomatoes and steamed broccoli. It was really delicious, and yielded enough for tomorrow’s dinner and cost only $1 per serving! The food here is so delicious, fresh and cheap, I’m going to cry when it’s time to go back to Alaska! 

Over dinner we got to a few fellow travelers, a guy from the US, who is actually the only other American we’ve met, and a guy from Canada as well. It’s always interesting to talk to others. I don’t think we’ll meet many Americans down here, they’re all falsely scared of Colombia. There are lots of Europeans. There were also some British, Australian and Kiwis on our tour yesterday. 

We are again in bed early, at the time when everyone else is leaving the hostel to go out for a night of drinking. Tomorrow we will go on a cycle tour, rain or shine. We hear they offer ponchos! We will at least have the luxury of dry shoes to start out the day! We did not have that luxury this morning, we had to put on soaking shoes, and wearing them all day did not dry them! It is thanks to the fire place at the new hostel that they are dry. We like our new room and find this hostel to have slightly nicer shared living spaces than the last. Accommodations are cheap in Colombia, $26 for our own room. At some point that will go up, as right now we are in the low season.

Outdoor seating area on the top floor of our hostel. It’s right next to the kitchen. The mountain in the background, hidden in the clouds, is Monserrate, the one with the view point at the top.Our nice room at Botánico Hostel.

• Sunday November 5th
  

Today we went on a bicycle tour of the city. Bogotá has over 200 miles of bike lanes and every Sunday over 70 miles of roads are closed to vehicle traffic, to make even more space for bicycling enjoyment! The event is called Ciclovía and it is the reason we chose to do the bike tour on Sunday. There were about 20 people who showed up for the tour, so we were split into two groups. We were unfortunately placed with the younger less experienced guide, but we were separated from the hipster bozos that ended up in the other group. The tour took us to several places around the city in which we stopped to learn. I’m not really sure why it was part of the tour, but we stopped at a bull flighting ring right in the middle of the city. Our guide told us it was a practice that was done away with in the past, but was brought back recently by the current political leader. There is one event per week and each Saturday a bull is killed. It was weird that the stadium was right in downtown and had high rise apartment buildings surrounding it.

We then rode to a big public park that is called national park, but is not a true national park, that just happens to be its name. There we sampled some unique juices from a street vendor, as well as a traditional fruit salad called salpicón, which contains tropical fruits in watermelon juice. We then toured a coffee factory and spent an exorbitant amount of time in their cafe while everyone ordered coffees and snacks. We had nothing. It was the type of coffee that is considered of lesser quality and remains in Colombia for the Colombians to drink, so we didn’t feel compelled to try it, since we don’t like coffee anyway. After the coffee factory we rode through a dirty sketchy neighborhood full of trash, prostitutes and homeless people. This was “just so we could see it.” It was rather depressing. Then we visited a fruit vendor inside of a small market and tasted a variety of tropical fruits. That was a highlight of the tour, but I could have easily done it on my own and have been doing so each day anyway. After that we went to play Colombia’s National game, called Tejo. It involves drinking beer and throwing lead weights into a clay pit at a bulls eye that is made of wax coated paper that is filled with gun powder. The weight strikes a metal ring underneath the clay and somehow causes an explosion if thrown just right. The sound was deafening. I don’t know how anyone could stand it. I sat with my hands over my ears the whole time. It was especially bad, cause you never know when someone is going to hit the target and set off an explosion. I gave Jeff my beer, and he finished the beers of a few of our companions also.(:

The Tejo hallJeff attempting to hit the target.A street vendor selling super perros, heavily loaded hot dogs. They come with an abundance of toppings including: a special heavy duty pan perro bun that is up to the job of holding all the toppings, melted mozarella cheese, ketchup, mustard, garlic mayonaisse, ketchup-mayo mix to exite the eyes, relish, onions, tomatoes, a mound of crushed potato chips and can also include coleslaw, quail eggs or a pineapple sauce. They are really cheap, less than $1. Makes me wish hot dogs were healthy.Here is a street art depicting the popular idea that chemicals should not be part of food. Colombia as a country has banned Monsanto.Avenue 26 closed down to trafficLooking the other way down Avenue 26 from an overpass.

Finally we rode back to La Candelaria and briefly visited the main plaza, which was overrun with people since its Sunday. It was like big party in the street with all kind of games and live music going on and every type of street food being sold. Our last stop was to try more chicha from a street vendor in another public square. It was nice to have more chicha. The best part of the tour was getting to ride the streets that were closed to traffic and seeing all of the people out enjoying themselves and getting exercise. We probably would have been better off just renting bikes and enjoying the ciclovia on our own, but we decided to do the tour because it was so highly rated. As I was writing this, I struggled to remember the sequence of events. Much of the tour was rather boring. On the bright side it cost less than $15 per person and it lasted 5 hours. We covered 8 miles and it never rained and it was even a little warm.

By the time the tour was over, it was 2:30 and we hadn’t had lunch, so we went back down to the main square to search for street foods. Jeff had some homemade potato chips and I had two different kinds of tropical fruits. Then it was back to the hostel for an early dinner. I made arepas out of some arepa flour I found on the free shelf in the kitchen here. They are really easy to make, similar to tortillas, but without the difficultly in forming them. We had the arepas with our leftover stew which turned out delicious. We had finished dinner by 6 and have been struggling with what to do with ourselves in the evenings. Currently all of the common areas are overrun with young drinking hooligans and loud music. Unfortunately we are in somewhat of a party hostel. So early to bed for us again!

Jeff unfortunately caught a stomach bug of some sort, maybe it was the beer, maybe the chicha or something else entirely. Monday November 6th

The plaza busy with activitySunset from the roof of our hostel.

• Monday November 6th
  

We lucked out with good weather today and got to climb up Cerro Monserrate. The climb starts about 3/4 of a mile from our hostel, and consists of 1,500 steps over 1.2 miles to reach the top. Along the way, there are endless snacks and drinks for sale, it seemed every 20 steps or so was some type of refreshment. There were coolers full of homemade popsicles, plates of homemade cheese topped with caramel and jam, all sorts of fruit and fruit salad, sandwiches, corn on the cob, arepas, empanadas, chicha and other fermented drinks, sodas and juices. There were even some stretches that were spacious enough for full restaurants stalls! There were tons of locals out because today was a holiday. We kept up a slow and steady pace and made it to the top in just under an hour. We heard lots of heavy breathing along the way and watched people practically run past us, only to be keeled over out of breath a few steps later. You reach an elevation of just over 10,000 feet at the top and there are two fine dining restaurants, a whole souvenir market and probably 50 different food stalls to choose from, in addition to a church! The view is really amazing, the city spreads as far as the eye can see and then keeps right on going. The city supposedly takes up an area of over 1,000 square miles and sits in a big valley between two mountain ranges. We spent an hour and a half at the top, then slowly made our way back down, stopping for snacks along the way. We had chicha, watermelon, tangerine juice, pineapple and a green mango with salt and lemon. Jeff still isn’t feeling too well, so I ate most of those things myself!

Tons of people up on Cerro Monserrate.Bogotá. The tall buildings are near where we are staying.Looking to the north, the city keeps going around to the right.Panorama of the cityat the left and right of the photo are the two fancy restaurants a look at some of the food stalls along the walk. We had chicha in the one on the left.at the bottom of the hill this is the beginning of a series of cement pools, they are all that’s left of the San Francisco river. This is called “mango biche” and is short for ceviche. It’s just mango, lime and salt.

In the afternoon we tried to go on the graffiti tour, a walking tour that explains why there is so much street art in Bogotá. It’s actually legal here currently, you just have to apply and get your planned artwork approved beforehand. Just about every surface in the city is covered in murals. The turnout for the tour was incredible, probably 50 people, and even though the guide talked on a projecting headset, it was hard to hear and also very tedious to try and walk the narrow streets with such a crowd, so we gave up after a few minutes.

A look back toward Monserrate from Parque del Periodista. The monument is a Simón Bolivar statue. The colorful buildings on the left are student housing and are so expensive only foreigners or really rich families can afford it. This was the meeting point for the graffiti tour.The street crowded with at least 50 people on the Grafitti tour.

So instead we went to pick up a few groceries. The grocery store is located on the 7th Avenue, which in this part of town is a pedestrian street. Every time we go down there it’s like a circus, overflowing with people, street performers and street food. Today was especially crazy since it’s a holiday. The locals really get into the street performances! Huge crowds gather around seemingly useless talents, like a guy who uses a marionette to “sing” popular songs, or a guy with a clown/jester painted face who crouches inside of a basinette such that all you can see is an adult clown face with a fake baby body attached. It’s quite creepy, he makes baby noises and people pay to get a picture with him!

Carrera 7, the pedestrian street.

We had arepa tacos with beans and salad for dinner. Trying to cook beans at 8,500 feet with out a pressure cooker took 3 hours, even after soaking for over 24 hours!!

We’ve been in Bogotá for 4 full days now and are no closer to a decision about where to go next as we were when we got here!! We are supposed to check out of our hostel tomorrow, but we will probably just move to another one and put off the decision for one more day. This hostel has pretty nice facilities and good beds, but it is kind of a party hostel, and the loud club music and hipsters are starting to get on our nerves. 

• Tuesday November 7th
  

Leftover beans with homemade arepas (made by the lady the hostel hires to prepare the breakfast) and tropical fruit salad.

We took the graffiti walking tour this morning. The turn out was much less than the previous afternoon, but still a lot of people, at least 25. The guide, Jeff, was really good, the best we have had so far. He spoke really good intelligible English, so it was easy to actually learn something from him. We hadn’t expected to find the tour that interesting since we aren’t huge art fans, but surprisingly it was great. Graffiti was made legal in Bogotá following the August 2011 shooting of a 16 year old. He was confronted by police while painting a wall. He got scared and ran, and they shot and killed him, then tried, but failed to make it look like self defense. It happened in the northern part of the city, where there is now a monument to him, he has since become quite the symbol. Now, as long as you have the permission of the owner of the wall, you can paint it, except here in La Candelaria where all of the buildings are historic, and you must also get city permission. Even if you don’t have permission, there isn’t much the police can do about it, as they are not allowed to respond with violence. They can write a ticket, but it is only for a fine and wouldn’t be counted as a criminal act that goes on record and you can’t be jailed for it either. Currently it’s only Bogotá that has these laws. People in the graffiti community are working towards a country wide law. Most of the images are very politically charged, so a lot of the tour consisted of learning the message that each mural was trying to convey. We saw 20 or so different walls, but there are probably hundreds in this part of town, and thousands in the city.

After the tour we went to Nativos restaurant, a vegetarian place we’ve had our eye on. We ordered the meal of the day. It came with tomato/carrot soup, salad, lentils and brown rice. I think we were also supposed to get a dessert, but the waitress was in over her head and it never came. It was only 9,000 pesos, or about $3 each.

After a heavy afternoon rainstorm had passed, we moved to our new home for the night, Masaya Hostel. It’s considered a “boutique” hostel, more like a nice hotel than a hostel. It has very fancy decorations. We usually go for cheaper accommodations, but every so often we like to get a nice room with our own bathroom. This room even has a TV! And it’s way more quiet than the party hostel!

We spent most of the evening researching and going over all of our options, the battle continues on where to go next...

• Wednesday November 8th 2017
  

Included in the cost of our fancy private room was a buffet breakfast, so we got to have pancakes this morning, along with homemade jam, toast and a wide variety of fresh fruits. 

We thought we might check out of our hostel after breakfast and leave Bogotá, but that didn’t happen. Last night while doing research, we got interested in visiting a place called Caño Cristales. It’s a place that has stood out to us since we began our research about Colombia (just days before we left, haha), but it seemed difficult to get to, so we never got serious about it. The area is a national park, and the highlight is a river that runs red, green and yellow (from April through November) with a unique type of algae bloom, creating a multi colored view. It’s extremely remote, requiring a bus ride, a plane ride, a boat ride and a 4WD Jeep ride to get to! I discovered that we can get there quite easily with a travel agency making all of the arrangements for us and for about the same cost that it would be if we figured it out on our own. So we extended our stay at our hostel, moving from our private room into a 4 bed dorm. The dorms here are neat, cause they are kind of like cubicles with head and foot boards that extend to the ceiling and a privacy curtain that allows you to completely close yourself off. Each bunk also has a backpack locker at the foot of the bed and its own reading lamp and power outlet. This seems to be a popular style in Colombia, I have seen it in the photos of many of the hostels I’ve researched. At $11 per person, this is one of the more expensive hostels around!! 

We spent a lot of the day communicating with two different travel agencies, one by phone and email from our hostel and the other in person because it was close enough to walk to. During one of our multiple visits to the travel agency, we learned that we are required to have proof of a yellow fever vaccine in order to be granted entry to Caño Cristales. There’s about a 30% chance that we will actually be asked for proof, but we don’t want to be turned away in the event that they do ask. It’s a national park, and apparently other national parks that we want to visit are requiring this as well. It’s a new policy within the last year, so it’s not mentioned in our guide book. I am pretty sure I have already gotten the vaccine at least once, if not twice, but I didn’t bring proof, and Jeff has definitely never had the vaccine. We found out that you can get it for free at the airport though, so we are going to have an adventure in public transportation getting to the airport tomorrow for the free vaccine. We will also move hostels one last time and stay there for the weekend. The new hostel is called Casa Colibrí (which means hummingbird house). It’s a new property and is really cheap, less than $17 for a private room, compared to $22 for the dorm we are currently staying in! Hope it’s nice!

This weekend is a long holiday weekend, and so was last weekend. Last weekend we heard was the Colombian equivalent to Día de Los Muertos, which means Day of the Dead and is the Mexican version of Halloween. This weekend is an Independence Day celebration. The national park gets really crowded with locals on holidays, so we are going to wait to begin the tour on Monday, the end of the long weekend. But it seems they have availability, so we should definitely get to go! It will be a 4 day, 3 night tour. 

Once we finish the tour, we will finally begin our travels around Colombia! We’ve also finally come up with a rough travel plan, that will bring us to Colombia’s other major cities, Cali, Medellín and Cartagena along with a few stops along the way. Once in Cartagena (on the Caribbean coast), we plan to take a 4-5 day sailboat ride to Panamá via the San Blas Islands. From Panamá we will work our way north though Central America, then Mexico too! Once we make it to Mazatlán, we will take a ferry to the Baja Peninsula and keep on going, all the way to Tijuana, where we can literally walk across the border and take the trolley home! This is something I have always wanted to do. I have also always wanted to see more of México than what’s along the border and we recently made the decision not to go back to Aspen for the winter, so now is the perfect opportunity! We will perhaps make it back to San Diego by mid March. 

To fill up space in the rest of our day, we visited a historic estate that was once the home of Simón Bolivar, a former president and hero of Colombia during the 1800s. He is known as the liberator, responsible for making Colombia its own country. The house was neat to see as it’s been fully restored and all of the furnishings are either original or have been curated to match the period of time in which it was inhabited by Símon Bolivar. It had a garden so big it was more like a jungle and I always love the layout of Latin style houses with there patios, courtyard and outdoor corridors and hallways. It really brings the outside in. The property also had irrigation channels running through it, diverted from a nearby steam. The irrigation channels actually flow with water that is used for the garden and for filling pools and bathtubs!  

The entrance to the Quinta de Bolovarthe garden

There was an intense rain storm in the afternoon again with thunder too. We were out to lunch when it struck and it poured so hard that the roof of the food court we were in started leaking and the thunder was so loud that it made everyone in there jump. The rain kept going and going. We unfortunately had to walk back to the hostel in it, and our flimsy $3 umbrella was insufficient! There were rivers running though the streets and now we have swamp shoes again.

The rest of the evening we spent in our hostel. Now that we are no longer in the fancy room, we will no longer have an included breakfast, so I prepped some steel cut oats for us (that I brought from USA) and also made some brown rice and black beans so that they will be ready for tomorrow’s dinner. This hostel has a stove top pressure cooker, so the beans cooked in a reasonable amount of time. We had a lovely salad for tonight’s dinner consisting of a full head of hydroponically grown local lettuce, a whole avocado, a tomato, half a cucumber, a carrot, a mango and lemon juice, all for the astonishingly low price of $1.92! Still haven’t gotten used to how cheap the food is! I added some sweet and salty pecans to the salad (that I made in San Diego and brought with us).

• Thursday November 9th
  

We managed to figure out the bus system and get to and from the airport for our shots. When I was buying the passes, the lady in line behind me said she was going the same way and would take us with her. You have to buy a plastic card (like a hotel key card), and load it with money. Each ride regardless of how long cost 2,200 pesos, which is close to 75¢. The bus we took is called the Transmilenio and is set up like a subway. It was the solution to all of the problems the city was having trying to build a subway. It operates the same way a subway would, you have to scan your pass at a turnstile and walk up to a platform. The buses have special doors that are designed for loading at the platforms. The buses themselves are huge articulated style buses with accordian like hinges that join extra buses onto the back. These ones had two hinges, so were like 3 buses in one, and there are apparently even bigger ones. It was pretty neat. The lady who helped us was named Raquel, I believe she was a government worker. She gave me a map of the system and even her cell phone number, in case we needed anything else! She was incredibly nice. 

There was a small clinic in the airport that was called a hospital. They specialized in vaccines and they were free for everyone. We had to wait about an hour. I wonder if getting it a second time is bad for me. We both felt a little lousy for awhile after the shot, but we at least now have proof of vaccination, in case it’s required anywhere along our journey.

Looking forward from the back of a triple length busbus platform

We made it back from the airport easily. In total the round trip took about 3 hours. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent hiding out from the rain in our hostel. I made us a nice dinner of rice, beans, salad, plantains, avocado and arepas. 

Another fun street art we found on the way back from he busIn my mind, this is the most perfect meal. I think I was intended to live near the equator.

• Friday November 10th

We stayed busy all day today with two walking tours. We redid the city walking tour with a different tour company called Beyond Colombia Tours, and enjoyed it much more. Our guide spoke really good English and was really good at making the history of Colombia and Bogotá make sense. We also went to more historic sites and less restaurants/shops. The first tour was from 10-1. 

The second tour was a free food tour, also run by Beyond Colombia Tours, with the same premise as the walking tour, in which you tip the guide if you enjoyed the tour. You walk for 3-4 hours to 9 different food vendors and spend about $7-8 if decide to purchase and try each food. Along the way you learn about the different street foods and quick on the go foods that people frequently eat in Colombia, and how they eat them: I am often torn when I travel between wanting to stick with my vegan diet and being curious about the local foods. I choose to eat the way I do mostly for my own health, but in doing so, I’ve learned about the animal agriculture industry and it’s quite disturbing. So honestly the thought of eating meat or dairy makes me kind of nauseous. But today I decided I would try whatever was offered.

We skipped lunch in order to have an appetite for all of the things we were to try on the tour. We ate from about 2:30-6:30, switching to a new station even 15-30 minutes. Our guide Hector led our group of 20 around to various food stalls, carts and restaurants. In total we had 8 different samples and learned a little of the history behind each dish and how the locals eat it.

Here’s what we tried:

1. Empanada. An empanada sort of resembles a calzone, but is made with a cornmeal dough and stuffed with beef, potatoes and onion traditionally, and then deep fried. I have had these before. They are very popular in Panama and Costa Rica. In Colombia it is common to eat them with a variety of different toppings, so we got to take our empanada down the length of the salsa bar trying a different salsa with each bite. We also learned that empanadas originated in the Middle East as a way to preserve a meal for travel. In some countries, like Argentina, they are made with a wheat flour dough. We had a very tiny one to try for 700 pesos or about 25¢. I don’t typically eat them anymore as they are extremely greasy and I rarely find vegan ones, but they do come with a variety of fillings beyond the traditional meat and potatoes.

A variety of different shapes and sizes of empanadas. They are often put in a display case like this one, facing the street.many toppings to choose from

2. Jugo natural de Lulo. This tropical fruit is grown in a few countries in Central and South America. In some countries, it’s known as naranjilla. It’s orange on the outside and green on the inside. It’s sour and is most commonly made into a “juice.” They call it juice, but I’d call it a blended drink. The whole fruit is blended with lots of sugar to make a refreshing concoction. This is done with all sorts of fruit all over Central and South America and they are called natural fruit juices. They are so common that they are included with most set lunches. The lulo juice was sour, like lemonade and got really frothy and creamy when blended.

This is what a lulo fruit looks like. They are green inside and kind of gelatinous.

3. Ajiaco. The most traditional of Colombian soups. It’s a thick stew containing chicken, a few kinds of potatoes an ear of corn in each bowl (the giant kernel variety), and a unique herb called guascas. There is no translation for it in English. It gives the soup an unique flavor. The soup would not be the same without it. The soup is topped with a thin sour cream and capers at the table. We were given a 1/2 bowl of the broth and plates of chicken, capers and cream to add ourselves. I don’t feel that we really got a good idea of what it tastes like, since we didn’t get to have any of the vegetables. 

4. Obleas. This is a street food for which we have seen many carts around town. They are a sandwich made of thin wafers. The wafers taste exactly like a basic ice cream cone. You have a variety of toppings to choose from including chocolate chips, sprinkles, condensed milk, jam, caramel, coconut, grated fresh cheese and more. The most traditional combination is with caramel and grated mild fresh farm cheese. Colombians unfortunately put cheese on and in everything. We tried the traditional combination and shared one. It was definitely good, but I don’t feel compelled to eat it ever again. It was very rich. They were traditionally purchased as a treat on Sunday’s for kids who behaved in church. They are now eaten all day everyday! They are very cheap, at less than 75¢ each!

Apparently Mick Jagger once bought one from a street vendor in Bogotá, now many of the vendors display this sign, claiming that they were the one!

5. Chocolate Santafereño. Here is another example of Colombians putting cheese in everything, hot chocolate with cheese!! Hot chocolate is often eaten for breakfast or dinner. It’s so popular that there is a special metal pitcher that is used specifically for making hot chocolate and a special stirring stick that goes with it. The hot chocolate is served with about a 2” brick of cheese which is broken into pieces at the table and thrown into the hot chocolate. After you have drank about half the hot chocolate, you begin eating the cheese with a spoon. The cheese doesn’t melt, but kind of puffs up a bit. It’s salty and didn’t seem like the best combination to us, but it was interesting to try. The hot chocolate cheese combo is often eaten for dinner with a pandebono, a type of bread I will describe next. Breakfast and lunch are typically big important meals that are eaten with family here in Colombia and dinner is more of a snack traditionally. 

6. Pandebono y Avena. The word pandebono is thought to be derived from Italian and means the good bread. It resembles a dinner roll but is not made with wheat flour. It is made mostly of cheese (!!), some tapioca starch and corn starch or corn meal and egg. The one we tried was also filled with guava paste (which is extremely popular). It was kind of a wet goopy dough, but tasted good. It was served with a drink called avena. Avena means oatmeal, and there is a little oatmeal in the drink. To make it, a small amount of oatmeal is boiled in a large amount of water and milk with some cinnamon and sugar. It’s then cooled in the fridge until cold and blended until smooth. It’s the consistency of a thin milkshake and like all sugary fatty things, it tastes great. It was served ice cold. I will try a version with soy milk sometime soon. 

7. Arepa Santandereana. Arepas are the most common street food and are eaten eaten every day by most Colombians. The arepa is to Colombia what the tortilla is to Mexico. It is similar to a tortilla as they are both made of corn, but the arepa is a bit thicker and can come in all different sizes. They are made with both white and yellow corn and they are often stuffed. The long word after arepa above refers to an arepa from the Santander region. This type is made with yellow corn and is about 3/4 of an inch thick. The dough is mixed with fresh cheese, it’s formed into a disk and then cooked on a griddle until crispy. Arepas are delicious, I hope to find some vegan friendly ones on our journey. They are similar to what Panamanians call a tortilla, the big difference is that in Panama they are usually deep fried. The stuffed arepas remind me of pupusas from El Salvador.

Large and small arepas. For some reason they look huge in the photo. The smaller ones are about the same size as an English muffin.

7. Aguardiente. This words is supposed to translate to “fire water” in English and is the word for the national hard alcohol. It is flavored like anise or black licorice. Just like all of the previous stops, Hector led us all into a bar, a local non touristy bar. It was a little after 5 pm by this point and the bar had a few drunk locals inside listening to salsa. They took an interest in the big group of gringos that walked in and made attempts to talk to anyone that could respond, me being one of them. It was pretty funny! We all had a shot of the fire water, which was followed by biting a lime. We learned a typical toast as well: “Pa’ arriba, pa’ ‘bajo, pa’l centro, pa’ dentro.” It means to the top, to the bottom, to the center, to inside. It doesn’t really work in English though cause it doesn’t rhyme! As you are saying the toast, you are lifting and lowering your shot to the corresponding position. 

9. Café de Origen (single origin coffee). We went to a school of baristas to try out the coffee. Jeff and I shared one since it was getting so late. Three jars of coffee were passed around for sniffing and each person chose their preferred bean. We chose the weakest one. Then we got to watch as three different methods were used for preparing the coffee, the most interesting being the syphon. It was like watching a chemistry experiment! We were able to appreciate the coffee in the same way we did at the fancy coffee bar a few days prior, but we still aren’t big fans of coffee!

After this eclectic mix of foods, I was feeling a little ill, but attributed it mostly to the alcohol and caffeine and snacking for hours, but never having actually had a meal. So when the tour concluded around 6 pm we decided to walk the busy Avenue 7 in search of something for dinner. It was dark by this point (it’s light out from about 6 to 6 here near the equator). We have not really been outside of our hostel after sunset, so it was kind of strange to walk around in the dark. The street was bustling with activity as always. We decided to line up for buñuelos at a place where we always see a big long line. Buñuelos are made with a similar dough to the pandebono, but with the addition of a bit of sugar, and they are shaped into round balls and fried. They were traditionally a treat eaten at Christmas time, but now they are just as common as any other street food. We stood in line with everyone else and got two to try. They were only 500 pesos each (less that 20¢) and are just a little smaller than a baseball. They had a strange really chewy texture, and the exterior was tough and hard to bite into. I can’t say they were good or bad. They kind of reminded me of hush puppies. We were glad to have tried them, but probably won’t ever have them again. While we waited in line for those we watched a guy try to sell stuffed Venezuelan style arepas from a cooler. Street sellers shout repeatedly about whatever they are selling to attract attention. No one bought any the whole time we were in line, so we decided we would. It came with a garlic sauce for squeezing over top and was stuffed with stewed chicken. It was definitely good, and only cost 2,000 pesos (less than 70¢), but again I hope to find more vegan friendly versions.

Buñuelos fresh from the fryerthe line for buñuelos and the cooler full of arepas!

By the time we got back to the hostel is was the latest we’d ever been out, 7 pm!! I began feeling more and more gross as the night went on. I started to get hot sweats and nausea and eventually I vomited repeatedly. Jeff faired better, he felt just fine. I suffered all night! Guess it was my turn to be sick. We are constantly bombarded by street food vendors. You are never far from one. I am glad to have had the opportunity to try many of them and know what they are like, but I don’t think I’ll be tempted by them any longer! That being said the food tour was really fun, and I don’t regret it at all!

I found a neat blog called my My Colombian recipes. It’s written by a lady who grew up in Colombian and now lives in the US. Every time I see a street food I don’t recognize, I look it up on her page. It’s an incredible resource. So far she’s had a recipe for everything I have searched plus tons more. So if anyone is interested in any of the foods I mentioned, you can learn how to make them on her page.

• Saturday November 11th
  

The thing I love the most about traveling to warm places near the equator is the abundance of produce year round. I LOVE going to markets to admire all of the beautiful fruits and vegetables. There happens to be an enormous daily market here in Bogotá called Paloquemao. It’s not far from where we are staying (2 miles) and I really wanted to go. I had thought we would be going there on the bicycle tour we took last week, but sadly we didn’t. I considered walking or biking there. There is a big movie theater next door to it, so I thought we could go to the movies and market, make a day of it, but wasn’t sure it was really safe, so we decided instead to take the exotic fruit tour! This is another option from Beyond Colombia Tours. It’s one that costs money and is little expensive but it was worth it to me. Our guides name was Ricardo. He met us in a nearby square, where all of the other walking tours meet. From there we took a short walk to a place where we could catch a bus to the market. On the way there we rode past the sketchy neighborhood we saw during the bike tour, only it was worse. We saw crazy guys sniffing glue, Ricardo told us this is a serious problem. We also saw an abundance of prostitutes, two of which were wearing nothing more that a bra and thong. It’s pretty amazing that they are not sheltered in the least from public view, all of the children who ride by on the bus get to see that! Good thing we didn’t try to walk or ride here!

Once at the market we found that it wasn’t just fruits and veggies, but also eggs, dairy products, all types and cuts of meats, fish as well as restaurants and kiosks selling food to eat right away. You could even buy a live chicken! The market was massive and confusing. We visited a dozen different fruit stands, trying a different fruit (or two) at each one. I also got to ask about everything else I saw and didn’t recognize. We were the only ones on the tour. I was still feeling rather ill from the previous day and struggled a bit to eat so many fruits, but I persevered! Only a few of the fruits were new to me, the mangosteen and the cherimoya, both of which I’ve always wanted to try! It was very exciting for me to see the market and all of its beautiful produce! At the end of the tour we got to have a natural fruit juice of our choice. The natural juices, I mentioned before, are just thin smoothies, typically one fruit plus sugar and water or milk. They aren’t really juiced. I chose guanabana and Jeff chose pineapple guava. We then got back on the bus and rode back to town. The bus ride, all of the fruits and the juices were included in the cost of the tour. 

These are the fruits we tried:

1. Guayaba (guava)

2. Sapote

3. Mangosteen 

4. Lulo

5. Feijoa (pineapple guava)

6. Cherimoya (custard apple)

7. Maracuyá (a type of passion fruit)

8. Passion fruit 

9. Granadilla (a type of passion fruit)

10. Guanabana (soursop)

11. Uchuva (cloud berries or goose berries)

12. Curuba (a type of passion fruit)

13. Tomate de arbol (tree tomato)

14. Tomate de arbol con mango (hybrid with mango)

15. Tomate de arbol con mora (hybrid with blackberry)

16. Pitthaya (dragonfruit)

Uchuvablackberries, not like the ones we get in the US at all. These were firmer and tart.pithaya/dragon fruit

Before it got dark we took a walk along the pedestrian street. It being Saturday evening, it was especially busy. We were stopped by two local guys who wanted to practice English, so we let them walk with us for a little while. 

We spent the rest evening in our hostel. Still not feeling real well, I made us a smoothie out of our leftover fruit from the market and a couple of simple arepas.

When we moved to this hostel, as always, I did a thorough inspection of the kitchen for free food and cooking supplies. I found a pressure cooker, a partial bag of beans, some fresh ginger and curry powder, so I got the idea to make curried beans. Only I failed to notice that the pressure cooker didn’t have its rubber seal, so the beans I discovered need multiple rounds of cooking get soft. The kitchen at this hostel only has a two burner stove, so it’s really not convenient to cook at all, let alone leave something simmering for hours. I tried leaving it to simmer after everyone was done cooking, but it drew attention and someone turned it off on me. It’s a really weird hostel. It’s like being in someone’s house. On Friday night we could hear the singing of happy birthday and looked out our window to see that a crowd had appeared in the courtyard to celebrate. Loud music played late into the night that night and they have continued to play loud annoying music each night that we have stayed here. It’s hard to sleep. It also seems that ever since the birthday, a bunch of family members have been staying at the hostel and it’s just really not a very welcoming environment. We feel like intruders, so we’ve decided to move one last time tomorrow for just one more night! The new place is called Fátima Suites. It’s part of a chain of hostels in Colombia. They have two branches in Bogotá, one called Fátima, which is supposed to be the party hostel, and the other Fátima Suites, which is supposed to be the quiet and peaceful hostel. Fingers crossed for quiet and peaceful!

• Sunday November 12th

We never intended to stay in Bogotá so long, but it just worked out that way because we really like the city and we had no idea where to go next. Never have we had such difficulty in choosing a route of travel. The biggest decision was to decide whether to go north or south, and then what route we would take through Colombia. Going South would mean seeing Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, which I’ve always wanted to visit. The downside to that itinerary is that we are going into the rainy season right now, so we would remain mostly in cool, cloudy, high elevation conditions like we are in here in Bogotá. We kind of envisioned a warm trip, so we decided we would travel North and take a sailboat to Panamá, and just recently decided that we would just keep going north overland from Panamá until we reach San Diego. I wasn’t initially too excited about going north since I’ve already been to every country in Central America. But Jeff hasn’t been, and the sail boat sure sounds neat, and now with the addition of Mexico, I’m really excited! I’ve always wanted to see more of Mexico and I’ve also always wanted to walk across the border in San Diego and ride the trolley home at the end of a long trip. 

As for our route though Colombia we finally made a decision. We decided against Caño Cristales ultimately because we just couldn’t subject ourselves to 4 days of group touring with rich, older and mostly Colombian people, and all in Spanish too! It was fortunate that we considered going there and found out about the new rules with the yellow fever vaccine and got vaccinated. It wasn’t for nothing, there is another park on the Caribbean coast which requires it too, and we will definitely be visiting that park.

We decided not to travel south in Colombia at all, to save that for the trip in which we are actually headed that direction. We have chosen instead to go west to coffee country, more specifically the town of Salento, where Jeff happens to know someone from New Jersey that now owns a successful hostel in the area. From there, the northward journey begins.

Although we had many days in Bogotá, we enjoyed them all. I am most pleased to still be here on this Ciclovía Sunday! Bicycle day!! We got up early and moved to our new hostel to store our bags. They had a room already ready for us, so we got to put them in our new room, and we also got to have breakfast! Papaya, banana and oranges! Then we went and rented bicycles, $10 for 4 hours. We had a glorious time riding the closed streets all around the city. We finally got to see the north of the city where the fancy rich people live, and we also got to see the huge public park that we’ve been wanting to visit. The park is called Parque Simón Bolívar and it is supposed to be bigger than Central Park. The park was filled with all sorts of activity, soccer, sand boxes for kids, a lake with fish to feed, aerobics and yoga classes outside, a church pavilion with a service being held, a dirt jogging trail, cyclists, rollerbladers, paddle boats on the lake and even a concert. The north of the city was more green and a little more spread out than the historic district. There are lots of high rise apartment building and street side cafes. We even saw Starbucks, McDonalds and Subway with luxurious open air patio seating!

An aerobic class in Simón Bolivar Park The jogging trail and a cobbled path huge lake inside of the park where you could rent row boats and paddle boats people in this area were feeding the fish, the food was for sale at nearby snack stands. The shade structure in this photo is what I believe to be an open air church taken from an overpass above a busy freewayhere is a bicycle path located inbetween the of the lanes of traffic, this is common here and was quite pleasant there were some intersections where we had to wait and let traffic go this is taken in the mid town area known as Chapineroa few of the millions of snack stands lining the roads

After biking we went to lunch at the vegetarian place we went to before. I was delighted to find that the special of the day was ajiaco, the traditional soup, only vegan this time! Jeff got a veggie burger and we got some vegan tamales and empanadas to take on the bus with us tomorrow. 

Inside Nativos restaurantNativos storefront

After getting a few groceries, we spent the rest of the evening in our hostel. This is the first hostel with no loud club music. It’s so quiet and peaceful. We wish we’d been here all along! Plus our room is nice and the kitchen is big. I was able to simmer the beans long enough that they finally finished cooking! I turned it into a stew with garlic, onions, red pepper, tomatoes, cashews, raisins, plantains and rice, in addition to the ginger, curry and beans that I started with. When I make an invented concoction like this, I never know how it will turn out, but it was delicious! I made a whole pot, so we have leftovers for the bus ride. Tomorrow morning we are off to Salento. We will be traveling for about 7-8 hours.

Wall art inside of our hostel. Each room had a different name, ours was Maria.