We had no digs booked and we chanced our arm at the ¨Lying Planet¨ backpacker spots but they only had dorms. We found a basic hotel, stayed one night and checked into a more salubrious place, in the La Candaleria district, the following day. La Candaleria is the colonial area with beautiful coloured houses & bohemian cafes.We were a little worried about wondering around the streets of Bogota at first, but really the advice is...day light hours are ok, once night falls take a taxi from A to B. Bogota is a huge sprawling city with a population of 8 million. Consequently it has that big city feel and look. It isn´t a beautiful city but it does contain a few gems. We really enjoyed ourselves in the Botero museum, which says a lot as we don´t really care for museums! We also took a cable car trip to mountain Monserrate, it afforded us good views over the city. There is also a very attractive church named Church of the Fallen Christ at the top, the site of several miracles apparently.upmarket Instead of Christ on the cross there is a large statue of Christ down on all fours, ie fallen christ. There are also some "self service bathrooms", see piccie!!! Sure, what other kind are there?
We took a trip to the modern, affulent party area "Zona Rosa" (80 blocks away from where we were staying). Other than the usual designer stores (Tiffany's, Luis Vuitton) there were also copious numbers of trendy bars and restaurants. We sank a few brews in an Irish pub aptly called the Irish Pub! We also spotted a multiplex cinema across the road and decided to take in a movie, we even payed a little extra to sit in Premier Class seats ie the back 3rd of the cinema sure the seats were a little bigger but that was all! The flick was called Perfect Crime in Spanish but I think it´s called Fracture in English. It starred Anthony Hopkins. We had a really enjoyable ¨normal evening¨.
The following day we took a trip to Zipaquirá It is the site of a large salt mine. Within the salt mine they have built a huge underground Salt Cathedral. It´s 90 mins outside Bogota and is well worth the visit. You get taken in through a vent shaft post uniquely designed stations of the cross then finally enter the cathedral itself. It boasts the highest underground cross in the world (16m), but we´re not sure what competition is like in the field of underground crosses but it is pretty damn big. The town of Zipaquirá is also quite pretty around the colonial town square.Back to Bogota, a little more wandering around Bolivar Plaza what a surprise... this guy (Simon Bolivar) has his stamp everywhere in South America then our last meal in Crepes and Waffles (Claire´s fav). Over the 4 days I did manage to get to the Golden Arches twice, much to Claire´s disapproval, so I can´t complain too much, mmm god bless Mickey D and his Big Mac.
No comments:
Post a Comment