With a lot of different impressions from around Colombia we were approaching one of the last big cities: Bogotá. We avoided the capital since the beginning of our trip as it is not well known for its beauty. But we also heard that it offers some great sightseeing spots for a few days.
The first thing we noticed was the big change in weather. From one of the hottest places, the Tatacoa desert, we arrived in the coldest place of the country. Because of that the people sometimes refer to Bogotá as the fridge of Colombia.
Golden history
Like with every big city we wanted to start off with a free walking tour through the historic center. But as we were a bit tired from our last trip and it took to long to understand the bus system, we ended up in the famous Museo del Oro!
The Gold Museum is one of the highlights in Bogotá. It contains the largest collection of gold artifacts in the whole world. As it is this huge we spent nearly 2 hours inside and were quite stunned by the different collections. We saw pottery, stone, shell, wood and even textile objects covered with pure gold.
The most impressive and well known artifact is the Muisca raft. It refers to the ceremony of the legend of El Dorado. We expected it to be bigger, but were still impressed by it’s detail!
Historic Center
La Candelaria, the center of the city, offers a lot of colonial buildings and invited us to experience the history of the capital of Colombia. With a local guide we got to know Bogotá from it’s artistic side, like the Botero museum, but also from it’s bad times during the reign of Pablo Escobar for example.
Standing on the big main Plaza Bolívar was a weird feeling when we heard all the terrible stories. Escobar beeing in the presidential building trying to persuade people that he isn’t just a criminal or the bloody raid of the military against M-19…
Besides the history we were able to taste Chicha, a fermented drink made of corn. It wasn’t bad but we enjoyed the hot chocolate drink a lot more that we got at the same café.
After the tour we strolled around the center on our own and enjoyed some of the local street art. A lot of different people doing cosplay of famous movie characters or just dancing in the street or making music… The city center is definitely not as dangerous as you might have heard!
Above and below…
Another famous tourist attraction is the ride or hike up to Monserrate. This mountain lies at around 3,200 meters above sea level and offers a great view over the city. But for us it turned out to be more of a waiting game than a great experience. The number of tourists suprised us on a Monday and so we had to wait in line for the cable car for more than an hour. The view from above was still great, but a lot of time wasted…
Because of that experience we decided to skip the famous Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá and decided to visit another salt mine outside the city. Our day trip took us to Nemocón which has the second-largest salt mine of Colombia.
It was a perfect decision as it was really less touristic and we even got an English tour through the mine with only another couple. We got to know a lot of history and information how the landscape was formed outside of Bogotá. Then we headed deep into the old mine and got some amazing views. The most impressive part was when we entered a room and we felt like there is a huge hole in the ground. But it was just the perfect reflection of water! Really a strange feeling looking at it. Also we saw the room they used as a film location for the movie “Los 33” about the disaster in 2010 where Chilenian miners were stuck underground for more than 2 months.
Big city life
As we stayed longer then expected we also just enjoyed what a big city has to offer. We finally saw the new Star Wars movie at the cinema and also got something else to eat than colombian food. Furthermore we had a night in a small rock bar where we had some cheap beers and even danced to old rock songs! 🤟
All in all Bogotá definitely was better than we expected! The city offered a lot to see for us and there was only one thing we didn’t like…it is really the fridge of Colombia! 🥶😅
