Day 3

Today I woke up to another beautiful day in Bogota, Colombia; the weather here is really fantastic after spending the last 3 months in hot and humid Houston. Bogota being in the middle of the Andes mountains and over 8000 feet above sea level; you get nice crisp fall weather, not too hot and not too cold. On the way down to Colombia, I met Greg, another All You Can Jettter with Jet Blue and he had arranged a driving tour of Bogota. Sounded like a great way to cover a lot of ground and see the city in a few hours so I decided to tag along. Unfortunately, what seemed like a good idea in theory turned out to be a disaster.

The guide while very friendly did not speak a single word of English which makes leading a tour for two people who speak English a major challenge. We basically spent three hours driving around the city with him showing us the various districts like Zone G or Parque 93 and pointing out restaurante, discoteca, or iglesia. At one point we saw a beautiful church and he couldn't tell us anything about it or even the name for that matter. After a few hours we had enough and he dropped us back at the hotel. While the first part of the day was disappointing, I'm glad to see it quickly turned around after that.

After the tour it was time for lunch and we asked for a recommendation for Colombian food. I always make a habit of really trying to embrace the local cuisine whenever traveling. The concierge at the hotel made a recommendation and I followed up with my standard question when asking for good local food. Will there be any tourists in this restaurant? He said yes and my response was “no bueno”, I want to be where the locals are for lunch. He then recommended a place called Casa Vieja which was a quick 10 minute walk through La Candeleria, the historic district of Bogota.

We arrived at Casa Vieja and true to form there was not a tourist in the place and nobody on the staff spoke a word of English; it was perfect. I crack open the menu and recognize some words and a few of the dishes but the vast majority were completely unfamiliar to me. The waiter comes up and I say the following. “Yo quiero comida tipica de Colombia... Que recommendias?” Which roughly means “I want typical Colombian food, what do you recommend?” I've done this dozens of times when traveling and every single time I have been floored with the delicious and unique food that comes out. At Casa Vieja the waiter recommended Almuerzo Campesino which I had no idea what it was and he couldn't describe it in English. I looked directly at the waiter and asked “es muy buneo?” meaning “is very good?” He said si and shook his head vigorously in the affirmative; that was good enough for me. About 15 minutes later this is what the waiter brought out:





It turns out that Almuerzo Campesino is kind of like a stew with lots of things slowly cooked in this traditional clay pot. The broth was delicious and slowly cooked beef, pork ribs, sausage, and a chicken leg along with plantain, yuca, corn on the cob, potato, and pumpkin. To say this was delicious is a gross understatement. This restaurant also had “jugo” or fresh squeezed juice on the menu and based on my experience yesterday with the amazing fresh fruit in the market, I had to try some. I once again asked the waiter for his recommendation and he suggested passion fruit juice. It was fantastic and the perfect sweet note to end the meal.

After lunch we decided to meet up with another All You Can Jetter in Colombia to visit Montserrat. As I mentioned earlier Bogota is in the middle of the Andes mountains, the city is actually on a flat section between mountain ranges. As you head south in the city you get closer and closer to the Andes the city starts to slope up dramatically and eventually you hit this very large hill / mountain. Montserrat includes a funicular or cable car that takes you from Bogota to this top of the hill where there is a charming little community with a church, restaurants, local shopping, and a killer view of Bogota.

The church in Montserrat is called the Santurio De Montserrat and pictures are below:







Apparently the Jesus and Virgins at this catholic church have a reputation for being so powerful that locals will actually climb the mountain on their knees to reach it; which apparently takes over six hours. I didn't have six hours so we decided to take the funicular for a few dollars.

Also, Montserrat is covered with these beautiful cobblestone walkways leading all over the mountain top. Here is a view looking down a walkway towards a restaurant with the Andes mountains in the background.





Finally, the main reason tourists come to Montserrat is for the amazing view of the city. Bogota is enormous with over eight million people and the city stretches out in nearly every direction you look. Unfortunately, Bogota has a pollution problem primarily with smog which hampers these views. We actually saw a donkey selling buckets of coal door to door in La Candeleria which really surprised me for a modern city in the 21st century. Both of these shots below only encompass a small section of the city, even with my wide angle lens the city was just too big!





Overall Day 3 was great and can't wait to see what Day 4 brings. If you have any questions / comments please post below or you can email me at chris@pricelessperspectives.com