Our flight into Bogota was super easy – 1 hour drive to the airport in Armenia (outside of Salento), 45 minutes at most in the air, and a 25-30 min. drive to the hotel. Overall, much better than the bus we’d been thinking of taking!

By Bogota we were pretty tired from traveling/transiting/hiking, so we took it pretty easy. My stomach still wasn’t 100% yet either, so there was that. The first day we spent relaxing in our hotel room, which was really more like a 1 bedroom apartment. It was so nice to be able to spread out after 2 weeks of living out of hotel rooms! We stayed near Parque 93, and explored around there for lunch and dinner our first day. Our best find was lunch at Wok (hey, I know it’s not traditional Colombian cuisine, but Bogota has a lot of international restaurants and we wanted some vegetables!)

Museo Del Oro

Our second day in Bogota we attempted to be a bit more adventurous and see more than the area right outside our hotel room. John and I figured out Bogota’s mass transit system – the buses that have designated lanes that act like a metro. We had to walk a mile to get there and then figure out which bus number we needed (harder than it sounds!), but we did it.

Just to get to the historic La Candelaria area in time for rain.

We were trying to get to the Museo del Oro, one of the highest rated tourist destinations in Bogota, but got stuck in the rain on our way there and had to hunker down under an overhang of a bank with about 20 others. Turns out that the rain that drove us to cover was nothing! It proceeded to pour, with water filling the roads and rushing like a river down the street. It was impressive in the beginning, but an hour after taking shelter, cold and hungry and running out of time to see the museum, we were over it. The rain finally started to slack enough (probably to the level that drove us to cover in the first place…), that we decided to make a run for the museum. Or more accurately, waddle like penguins because our flip flops were sliding all over the place. Once there, still cold and hungry, we decided to delay our museum tour even more by eating at the museum restaurant. Generally I’m really opposed to eating museum food because the price is comparable to airport food, but given our slightly wet jeans and grumbling stomachs, I made an exception. Plus, they had wine to warm us up!

After avoiding rain and eating, we only had 1.5 hours left to enjoy the museum, which turned out to be exactly what we needed (John and I have about a 2 hour limit on museums before we get punchy and 12 year-old boy inappropriate). The museum was excellent! The building was gorgeous, the displays and information with the displays well done, and the gold beautiful. Highly recommend!

La Candelaria and The Botero Museum

The next day we went back down into the La Candelaria area to continue exploring without the rain. We wandered through the historic streets, through the main government plaza, through a random market, and back up to the Botero Museum.

John and I had seen Botero’s statues in Medellin, but were excited to see his paintings as well! Also, the museum is free, so that’s a great bonus as well! (The Museo del Oro is only a $1.50 to get in – a great deal! They should probably be charging us foreigners more – it’s well worth it!). The Botero Museum is also well done and is in a gorgeous two-story building with a courtyard. See below for some of our favorite Botero’s!

After taking public transit back to the hotel (yeah, we’re pros at it!), John and I went on a date night. Which, when you’re backpacking, ends up taking on a different meaning. We put on our backpackers’ finest – wrinkled button down for him, wrinkled dress for her, hiking shoes for both (it was cold and we were going to walk a mile to dinner!). We headed out to Zona T, located within Zona Rosa, the nice party district in Bogota. We had a lovely meal at Central Cevicheria, of course having ceviche, as well as a seafood rice and sangria. A wonderful dinner with a wonderful husband 🙂

So Long, Colombia…

We’ve really enjoyed our time in Colombia! It was the perfect spot to start out trip. The food, weather, and people were all amazing! And we were super impressed by how clean the streets were and how the dogs seemed to be well cared for. Salento definitely receives the award for cutest doggies! We’re sad to say goodbye to Colombia, but excited for our next adventures!

What’s Next

We’re off south of the equator to Chile–starting in the seaside city of Valparaíso!