One night in Bogota

MY FINAL STOP: 1 Day Only!

I flew into Bogota directly from Buenos Aires, but spent no time there as I went straight to the bus terminal to head to Cali and get some nicer weather. Bogota is HIGH up, at an altitude of 2,625 meters (8,612 ft) above sea level, as well as the most populous city in and Capital of Colombia. Although it's also the cultural and artistic center of Colombia, I had only 3 weeks left on my trip and heard great things about Cali and Medellin and not much about Bogota. I went for the fun move and will hopefully get to explore Bogota during my next trip.


I did get to spend one day/night in Bogota before flying back to SFO, so I opted for going big on that one day. I took an overnight bus from Medellin and arrived in Bogota first thing in the morning. Checked into my hostel for the night in La Calendaria, the "old downtown" area, and crewed up with a big group of Brits for a "walking tour", basically just wandering around the area looking for landmarks with an iPhone app. 

Inside the Primate Cathederal of Plaza Bolivar with the Brit Crew

 Calm and Casual protest in the streets

La Calendaria alley full of hostels

"Ants" - to join the British crew, they asked me to join them in eating an ant. These little dudes were about the size of a pea, and tasted like a very salty dried berry.

Plaza Bolivar

Street Churros - thin and shaped in a ring, but crispy and delicious for only fiddy cent.

 I was a fan of the decorated lamp posts all over La Calendaria

 Another popular Colombian Street food/dessert - Wafers (obleas) filled with spreads such as arequipe, similar to dulce de leche. These were just OK for me, but the Colombians are big fans.

 HUGE graffiti murals all over La Calendaria

Later on that day, I went on a solo mission out on the town to accomplish 2 objectives:

1. Spend as much of my leftover Colombian Pesos on souvenirs

2. See as much of the city before it got too dark.

Although Bogota is known as the Emerald City (they literally try to sell you envelopes of emeralds on the street), their gold museum has a pretty good reputation. Not sure why I fell for it. Since I had just spent the day at the Exploration Museum in Medellin the day before (post coming soon), I had high hopes for a cool and interesting museum. Unfortch, it was not my cup of tea. Just a lot of stuff talking about how to make gold and a ton of old artifacts. I guess I was expecting piles of gold bars stacked around? At least i got some decent pictures.

I wandered around the markets and downtown area for the rest of the afternoon, trying to accomplish my 2 goals after a few rare non-fun hours at the museum. It's an interesting feeling knowing how out of place you are in a brand new city but having only one day to get in as much as possible. I'm sure I was wondering in an out of some buildings and businesses and people were probably thinking "What's this Chino doing?" (Chino being the general term for anyone of Asian descent). Made it back safely to the hostel after getting lost in the alleys of La Calendaria right before sun down, then went for my last "hostel conversation" of the trip. A "hostel conversation" is one that begins with "so where are you from/how long have you been in this city/where were you before that/where are you going next/how long have you been traveling/how long are you going to keep traveling", and ends with real conversations about life, culture and experiences. As much as I loved the hostel convo's early on in my trip, it got tiresome explaining my 4 months of travel hundreds and hundreds of times to pretty much everyone I met along the way. It felt good to get that last one out of my system and just start talking about life with fellow travelers and having them all ask me about what I've learned and discovered as I've traveled. It really felt like an appropriate wrap-up for my trip, and helped me to be in a good place before falling asleep in a hostel for the last time in the near future. 


I woke up early the next day to pack up the ol' deuter and timbuk2 for the last time, and took a quick walk in the cold Bogota air looking for some breakfast before heading to the airport. As much as I loved traveling, it was a good feeling knowing I would be closing out this trip an a high note with my 3 week stop in Colombia and coming home to finally see the friends and family I've missed so much. 

The cab grabbed me and took me straight to the airport, where I spent the remainder of my pesos and hopped on my flight to Fort Lauderdale, FL. I called my grandparents in Orlando with my first cell phone call in months (it was a big relief to get my phone back), to let him know I was alright and wish them a belated mother's/father's day, and spent some of those dollars I held on to stuck deep in my backpack. Flew in late to SFO (apparently the airline forgot to schedule a pilot? Nice one, jetblue) and enjoyed a nice chicken sandwich from Jack in the Box after being picked up at the airport by my mom and grandparents.

Best feeling of the day: No major stressful thoughts going through Customs - English baby! It felt good.


It had been an amazing run, but it felt great to be home.


Next up - South American Wrap-up. Holler!