Bogota, Colombia

January 21, 2015

Bogota, Colombia

Late night flight into Bogota. We flew on VivaColombia ... the shittiest airline in South America. BUT it's cheap.. we like cheap.

The cab driver picked us up at the airport and drove us to La Candelaria, where are hostel is located. We stayed at The Masaya, the best hostel we've stayed at so far.

The next morning we headed to a nearby museum that showcased art from Fernando Botero, a famous Colombiam artist

Botero apparently has a thing for large naked women …

There were other interesting contemporary pieces as well. Here is Jesus, all lit up..

That afternoon we took a bike tour of the city.. also known as “the gringo tour”. It was a group of about 10 people bicycling around some very local parts of Bogota.

Camelpack.. check. GoPro.. check. Helmet.. check! Most obvious American tourists ever..

We were like those large Asian tourist groups that you see following the guide with a flag.. cameras and all.

I hate doing “touristy” things like this, but I was very glad to do this tour. This would’ve been the only way to see parts of the city that I never would see without a local guide. Bogota is full of art.. it's everywhere. Nearly every corner in our neighborhood had rooftop sculptures.

Throughout the city there were huge murals of colorful graffiti. The government recently started a program that funds some of these graffiti artists.

We learned a lot about the drug cartels and civil wars that went on between the cartels and the government.

This park was once one of the most notorious neighborhoods in Bogota- if not Colombia. About 15 years ago a large group of people from this neighborhood shot rockets at the nearby governors palace, causing riots that led to a huge civil war. The government eventually kicked everyone out of the neighborhood and bulldozed all the buildings, creating this masive park.