- Air Europa: Not as bad as you might think
- Do you normally live at or near sea level? The altitude may bite
- Wandering around the old town area, La Candelaria
- Cerro de Monserrate and the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá
...Okay, so I'm going to start this with two confessions; one is that we didn't do those last two activities, as we were both utterly floored from the flight over from Madrid (more on that below), and two, this is my first post on our 'new' blog, and I am already playing catch up... Alex is thus far outclassing me on the frequency and effort front. Apologies, internet; I'll do better!
The Flight From Madrid To Colombia
We flew into Bogota on the fifth of October, flying with Air Europa. As this is a budget airline, our expectations were pretty low; we were pleasantly surprised. The plane was new (787 Dreamliner...), we had plenty of leg room, and the staff were all cheerful and pleasant. The food wasn't outstanding (when measured against, say Emirates, whom we consider to be the gold standard in airline food), but given those low expectations, perfectly acceptable. Aside from the fact that this was a day flight of ten hours (ugh), it was better than expected. Why is ten hours so bad on a plane? Its not, usually, but as we wanted to defeat the inevitable jetlag as soon as possible, we elected not to sleep on the flight at all. Which means we were thumb-twiddling and watching stuff the entire time! I did, however, discover a fantastic series a few people had told me about; Westworld. Check it out. I may or may not have binge-watched the entire first season ;)
Incidentally, while on the flight both Alex and I could have sworn we knew a guy that was sitting a few rows back, but couldn't put our finger on how... 'Meh', we thought, 'no way could we know him. We're flying from Spain, not from Germany...' Turns out we did know him, via a mutual friend! Toby lives in Munich, and is good mates with Ann-Kathrin, a childhood friend of Alex's who I got to know quite well when we lived in Germany. We ended up sharing a taxi into the city, together with a girl we also met at the airport. Small world!
Our Hostel in Bogota
Once in Bogota, We spent three nights staying at CX Hostel in the suburb of Chapinero. Typically, the average traveller will stay in one of two areas of Bogota; either La Caldelaria, which is the 'Old Town' near most of the things you'd want to do in Bogota, or further out in Chapinero, which is where we ended up staying. We would recommend any prospective traveller to stay in La Candelaria, not only for reasons of proximity to the sights and activities, but also due to hostel 'vibe'; while our hostel was nice and comfortable enough, it was very quiet to say the least, probably due to its location as Chapinero is a solid hour walk from La Candelaria, or 15-20 mins on the bus. We chose to stay out there based on it supposedly being closer to nightlife and 'better' eating options, though we made little use of either. We explored and found a great little Mexican restaurant, but little else, despite numerous folks mentioning how awesome it apparently was. To us, it felt like a very busy suburb which didn't have much to offer.
Day One
The first morning, we got up and I instantly felt a bit dizzy; altitude strikes! Bogota sits at approximately 2650m above sea level, and while only a small height above that which people typically experience altitude sickness, it wasn't agreeing with me at all. The symptoms did eventually abate after a couple of days, but it was unpleasant nevertheless. The worst of it was walking around, and feeling like I'd run a marathon after walking relatively slowly up a small hill. Not fun.
Altitude aside, we wandered into La Candelaria on foot from the hostel, and spent the day soaking up the atmosphere and starting to get to know Colombian culture. The centre of Bogota is pretty good for this, just wandering around; there are a heap of old colonial buildings in and around the city square, some quite beautiful. Upon arrival in the centre, we dove into a decent-looking cafe and had our first 'proper' Colombian coffee. It. Was. Awesome! So very tasty, and it portrayed all the parts of Colombian coffee that I like. The texture was velvety, the crema rich, the characteristic nuttiness was present, and the subtle sweet aftertaste. We paid western prices though; turns out the cafe was either upmarket, or a tourist trap. We got our first reminder of 'Tax & Tip' here; if you're American, this will be very familiar. A tax of 19% is added to the bill in 'upmarket' places in Colombia, and often a 10% 'propina voluntaria' as well, which is a 'voluntary' tip. Establishments are supposed to ask if you want to tip; we're usually fine with it. It grates both of us when we're not asked though, and it seems assumed that we'll tip, presumably because we're foreigners... (end rant) Our advice? Eat / drink at local places, where you'll feel much more welcome, and are much less likely to be ripped off.
We stopped in at a very popular 'comida rapida' for an early lunch, and it happened to be one of the picks from our travel guide, La Puerta Falsa. They're famed for producing high quality quick eats, and although now popular with travellers, it seems they've maintained their charm and not sold out. We shared a Tamal (chicken, split yellow corn, vegetables and various spices wrapped in a banana leaf and then steamed), and 'Chocolate caliente con queso y pan'; a very sweet hot chocolate, accompanied by a large hunk of acidic cheese (think feta) and a couple of pieces of bread. Both were delicious, the Tamale being especially filling. The hot chocolate was sweet to the point where it puckered our lips though, representative of Latin America's obsession with sugar (everything seems to have sugar in it!)
While we were in Bogota, Dining in the Sky happened to also be there; it looked pretty damn sketchy if you ask me, I'm not sure how keen I'd be to eat my dinner danging from a crane!
On the way back to El Chapinero, we happened upon a market, where there was a) awesome graffiti (see above!) as well as a couple of locals selling what turned out to be excellent coffee beans; for about 1.70€ / $2.60AUD we scored 250 grams of high-altitude arabica, grown in the Santander region of Colombia! I'll post about our coffee experiences soon...
We wandered back to the hostel and spent the rest of the day hanging out and recuperating, nothing too exciting.
The Next Couple of Days
...Were honestly not very eventful. We spent one day hanging out and acclimatising, ate some rather tasty Empanadas, and started planning out our route to Villa de Lleyva. We ended up staying three nights in Bogota, and that was enough; although we missed out on Cerro de Monserrate and our bus organisation game was off (we'd planned to go via Zipaquirá to see the Salt Cathedral, but ended up heading directly to Villa De Lleyva), unless you're there to party, there are better areas of Colombia that are more worthy of your time as a traveller.
As usual, we've been working hard to record and cut together more video blogs, and are actively working on more website content with the aim to help you plan and execute your own travel adventures. Stay tuned for my next post on Villa De Lleyva, a beautiful old colonial town northwest of Bogota.
Thanks for reading! Sound off in the comments below :)