The Sights of Bogotá

Sept 14-15, 2015

So this post is a little out of chronological order.  I'm still working on getting posts for Cali and diving in Santa Marta put together.  Those are still on their way.  However, I´m doing a long-distance learning thing with my aunt's Spanish 1 and 2 classes in Port Angeles, which I'm super excited about.  They are following my blog each week, and I'll be answering questions and talking with them about my travels here, and then visiting their classes when I get back to the states.

This week they researched Bogotá a little and send me some suggestions of things to do, so here I have pictures from those places and some stories about them.

I had a couple days to explore all by me onesie between sending Shay off in a taxi to fly home (sad face) and my good friend Taryn arriving for a week of adventures. (excited face)

La Candelaria
The main downtown area of Bogotá, which is all the way in the south, actually.  It is home to Plaza Bolívar, which is huge.

It's also filled with pidgeons.

The surrounding area has quaint streets filled with food and hostels, which got explored a little.

There is also La Septima (Carrera 7) which is a perpetually blocked off main road.  It's filled with food vendors, artists, street performers, and people with tarps of goods to sell (shoe laces, blenders, shirts, soccer jerseys, books, scarves, etc. One thing per tarp) lining the sidewalks.

You can see the street with everyone in it here, I didn't get a very good picture of the street vendors/performers unfortunately...

 These signs were lining a construction zone in the middle of the street.

In the new 7a! You will enjoy much fresher air, without cars, with more plants

The new 7a! It will be a place where you, as a vendor, can show your products in spaces designed for it.  Your clients can shop peacefully while they walk in a green space free of vehicles.

In the new 7a! It will much greener with sustainable gardens and new healthy trees. You will have a new walkway where it will be a pleasure to walk!

In the new 7a! You will be the good guy because this was thought up for you.  You can walk with your family and friends in a safe and calm environment.

Museo de Botero
Fernando Botero, painter, born 1932.  He is well known for his paintings and distinctive style of fat people.

Fat Mona Lisa

He also had some sculptures on display, all in the same chubby style.  These were my favorites, titled 'Horse', 'Cat', and 'Bird' respectively.  He doesn't have very inspired titles for his art.

While I'm not totally enamored with his paintings, it was a free museum and interesting.  There were also paintings from his personal collection, by artists including Picasso, Degas, Monet, Matisse, and Dalí, which was kind of cool.

Pablo Picasso

Claude Monet

Attached to the Botero Museum was Casa de Monedas, or the House of Coins.

It was a museum dedicated to the money of Colombia and its history from ancient times.  There were coins and bills from Conquistodor times, and a very interesting history of the emergence of a central bank in Colombia.

When paper money became a thing, each bank printed its own bills for varying amounts.  It was a while before the government managed to set up a central bank that was stable and accepted by the population.

There were also some antique minting machines on display.  This one was made in the US in 1883.  Different machines were able to make different diameter and thickness coins.  They had the original carved and wax designs for the current 500 peso coin, though I wasn't allowed to take a picture of it.

Museo de Oro

The gold museum in Bogotá is huge.

Its got three floors filled with gold, silver, and copper artifacts dating back to 1200 BC from South America.  There were lots of nose rings and breastplates.

earrings, maybe 2 inches across

Adornments for ceremonies.  They were shiny to reflect light and the bottoms have a kind of gold fringe with small pieces attached with rings so there was movement and sound too.

Displays had bowls, jewelry, diety figurines, masks, tools, and crowns from all over South America from different times in history.  Signs and videos showed processes of hammering, embossing, smelting, polishing, and goldsmithing using moulds.  It was extremely interesting.

Embossed pieces.  The sheets were poked or hammered while laying on top of a soft surface

There was a floor dedicated to the history of gold with ancient societies and how they viewed it as being connected to the spirit world.  Lots of jaguar and bird shaman figurines there.

This one happens to be a fish

Botanical Garden
This was a student suggestion (shoutout to Hugo) that I gladly followed.  There is a beautiful big botanical garden in the middle of the city.

It had sections for all the different types of plants growing in Colombia.  I got there near closing time (Bogotá is big and takes longer to walk places than you might think...) so I didn't get to see absolutely everything.  It was still lovely though.

Some of my favorites

Rose gardens with a fountain

Room full of orchid species, of which there are a ton in Colombia

I have no idea what this flower is, but is a puffball and that's fun

Tree covered in either vines or roots

The Amazon room complete with pond and hanging vines

Desert room.  Cactus for dayyyys.

One of my favorite desert plants, its so wonky looking.  They're around in town too.

There was even a heron/egret in the pond completing the ambiance

I had a lovely couple days adventuring around in the city, enjoying the sunshine and getting to know the public transit systems a little better.  I still have to make it up to Monserrate, a church on top of one of the hills overlooking the city.  It's definitely on my list though.

View from Plaza Bolívar of Monserrate up on the hill

Stay tuned...