Bogotá, Colombia

I was supposed to arrive in Bogotá in the afternoon but due to two separate multi-hour delays (one due to a car driving off the road and over a cliff and the other due to semi-truck spilling its cargo all over the road) I arrived at about 10pm. The hostel I was supposed to stay at had lost my reservation so I got put up in a room with a queen size bed instead of the dorm room I had reserved. No complaints, especially since they charged me the price of the dorm room.

Anyways, spent the next day with a Colombian that I worked with at a resort just outside of Glacier National Park in St. Mary Montana. Diego is from Popoyán but recently moved to Bogotá following his graduation from college. We ate lunch at a mall near his house and then spent some time exploring La Candelaría, the older colonial part of Bogotá. We visited the Plaza Bolivar and also saw where the Colombian National Congress meets and the Casa de Nariño (which is where the Colombian president works). Across from the National Congress is the Palace of Justice where in the mid-1980´s the M19 guerillas held over 300 people hostage. Eventually all of the guerillas and almost half of the Supreme Court Justices were killed in a shootout with the police.

We then wandered over to the Colpatria tower, one of the tallest buildings in Bogota, where we took the elevator to the roof for some views of Bogota.

By this time it was dark so we decided to head to the newer, trendy part of Bogotá called La Zona Rosa. We spent some time at the Bogota Beer Company, the only microbrewery that I had seen on my trip. The place was packed as Colombia was playing Venezuela in a World Cup Qualifier match.

Bogotá has really surprised me. La Candelaria has a certain old colonial charm to it, while one could think they were in any major city in the US or Europe while in La Zona Rosa. I have found Bogotá to be very safe, there is a very large police presence, and the Colombian people have been incredibly helpful and friendly. I am really looking forward to checking out the rest of the city over the next couple of days.

To see more pictures from my trip, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren