Bogota is the capital of Colombia and home to 11,500,000 people. It’s a big city! Last weekend we flew from Bogota to Cali (42 minutes) and got to know a small part of this great city. The main purpose of our trip was to meet Elissa and Ashley, the two other Fulbrighters in Colombia this year. Elissa and her family are living in Medellin and Ashely and her husband are in Bogota. We have been in touch frequently via WhatsApp, but this was our first time meeting “in person”, and it was great!
But before I met them for dinner on Friday night, I met with Nidia, a professor of science education at la Universidad Nacional de Educacion y Pedagogia. I had met her the week before at a conference in the Education department at Universidad del Valle in Cali, and once she learned I was coming to Bogota, she gave me her WhatsApp and offered to give me a tour of her university. We met for lunch at Crepes and Waffles (my favorite) and I learned a lot about the education system in Colombia. I couldn’t stop asking questions…just wish I had taken notes. Then we walked to the small campus of the University Education Department and squeezed past people trying to enter without an ID card (Nidia got us in quickly) and then stood watching the action from the courtyard. Lots of street art, people selling all sorts of things, walking around, playing drums and eating at street food stands…lots to watch!
Then we walked through the Science Education building, reading all the graffiti and taking pictures of the wall artwork, and Nidia introduced us to everyone! – every secretary, professor, student and cleaning lady. They were all so nice and so excited to meet us. One gave me a gift bag of books and pencils, another told me all about the novel he is writing and another told me about her daughter studying English in Tennessee. Nidia was obviously proud of her campus and her colleagues.
After checking into the hotel, we walked to Parque 93 to meet Elissa and her family. After meeting in the park, they brought us to an amazing Chocolatier owned by a Belgian living in Bogota! Then we met up with Ashley and her husband for dinner. It was so great to meet everyone in person and hear about everyone’s experiences. We had some good laughs!
After a good night’s sleep and a great breakfast at the hotel, Zuri and I left to explore the downtown. We took an Uber to the “Museo de Oro” (Gold Museum) where we saw 4 floors of amazing gold artifacts that had been collected in Colombia. It explained a lot of the history of the Spaniards, the indigenous people and the African slaves during the colonization. At one point a guard waved us into a dark room and the door closed behind us. Slowly music started playing and the lights came on to show different gold pieces on display in the outer walls of the round room.
After seeing lots and lots of gold, we walked down a pedestrian street with so much going on – people playing ping pong and dominoes, people selling food and cellphone cases and marijuana ointment. An old man dancing next to his large speaker, a man pressing sugar cane for juice, people walking with llamas trying to sell a ride to the tourists and men asking to shine your shoes. So much to see, hear and smell! The pedestrian street took us to Plaza Bolivar, the main center square of Bogota and its historical and political buildings, including the “Catedral Basilica Metropolitana” built in 1807, the capitol building, the Supreme Court and the Liévano Palace, also known as city hall. There is a lot of history in this center square!
We walked a few blocks from Plaza Bolivar to the “Museo de Botero”, an artist and sculpture that I have taught about often in my Spanish classes. The building and artwork were amazing, but Zuri was most awed by the Picasso paintings! I took a lot of pictures and created a slideshow of Botero’s art for my Spanish classes.
For lunch we met up with Elissa and her family at a tiny, yet famous restaurant, a block from La Plaza Bolivar, called La Puerta Falsa. We tried what they are most famous for – Tamales and it was well worth the wait and the tight seating!
Our next activity was a free graffiti walking tour in the historic Candelaria neighborhood. The tour guide was amazing and explained the difference between graffiti and street art. He talked about what street art is legal and what is not legal, but tolerated. He explained how street artists hold high respect for each other and there are levels of artistic ability that define who they are and where they can paint or not paint. We stopped at many murals that I probably would not have noticed otherwise and Luis, our guide, explained some background of the artist and the political and historical background of their art. It was a great tour!
The next day Zuri and I decided to go up to Monserrate. After getting out of the Uber and seeing a huge line for the cable car, we figured hiking up it might be faster…well, I don’t think it was. I was breathing heavy by the first 350 meters and the total altitude gain was 2000 meters (6561 feet). My legs and lungs were feeling it, but with Zuri’s motivation and the fact that he carried the backpack, we made it to the top. There were a ton of people on the trail and at the top due to the holiday weekend. But the views were amazing and the restaurant was perfect. We then waited an hour to ride the “funicular” back down. The actual ride was on a steep track through a tunnel and took about 15 minutes.
Our next stop was meeting the other Fulbrighter families for some Tejo. Tejo is a Colombian game where you throw a metal disc at a board of clay that has a circle drawn in the clay, then paper stuffed with gunpowder is placed around the circle. You take turns throwing the disc and trying to make the gunpowder explode. It was not easy, but once you hit it (which I did not, but Zuri did) it was a loud noise. Zuri compared it to bowling, you have a court (like a lane) just for your group, there is loud music and noises and they deliver drinks and food to your court table. We never figured out how the scoring worked, but we had fun trying to hit the board (and not trying to hit the man on the court next to us!) On the way home, it poured so hard and the taxi went through knee deep water, and apparently there was also hail that we saw in the garden when we returned to the hotel. The temperatures got down to 43 F that night.
Monday morning Zuri and I took an Uber to the Botanical Gardens. They had an amazing exhibition of Bonsai trees, as well and 4 greenhouse towers that represented all the ecosystems of Colombia. They also had many paths through a variety of gardens and the temperature was amazing (about 62 degrees with a light breeze).
We returned to the hotel for our bags and then took an Uber to the airport, via a look at the Porsche store for Zuri. From getting out of the Uber to our departure gate, it took 15 minutes! Security was so quick…no need to empty water bottle, no need to take shoes off, no need to take laptop out, bag of liquids and gels, no problem! And 40 minutes after departure, we were back in Cali with Eustorgio, our “taxista personal” waiting for us!