¡Adios Bogotá! - Ciclovía, Gardens, and Delicious Food

We started our third day in Bogotá the true hipster way - with avocado toast and iced coffee! But let's back up just a bit. This day was a Sunday, and in Bogota that means one thing: Ciclovía. This is the grand daddy of "open streets" events, where streets are opened up to people on foot and bike. We even have a version here in Atlanta called Streets Alive. Bogotá's version started in 1974 and now occurs every Sunday, with 75 miles of streets open to people. The route went within a block of our hotel, so we walked around a bit before having breakfast at Masa, a very popular spot. We snagged an outdoor table and enjoyed a great breakfast in the early morning sunshine.

After breakfast we continued on the ciclovía route, checking out some nearby neighborhoods and ending up in Zona T. From there we took an uber up to Usaquen, a cute neighborhood on the northern edge of the city. On Sundays there's a market in Usaquen with lots of local art and goods. We had a fun time wandering the market, and found a beautiful wooden plate and some soap before stopping in at the Bogotá beer company for a flight of beer. We hung out for a bit in Usaquen Park, people watching and enjoying the weather before walking a short distance to the nearby Parque Hacienda Santa Barbara. Usaquen is pretty far north in Bogotá, but definitely worth the trip especially if you're in town on a Sunday.

Ciclovia!

A street with a few cute little restaurants. We came back here later for ice cream.

A delicious icy coffee drink at Masa.

A neat building in Chapinero.

More ciclovia. It was very lively, full of people enjoying the city.

A weird add we saw - I guess your eyes are a good place for onions?

A small park in Zona T.

More fun street art. Hipster baby Jesus!

The Usaquen market.

Guess who is in Usaquen park? Simon Bolivar. He's everywhere.

We had great weather wandering around Usaquen, a very quaint neighborhood.

Beer flight on the patio at Bogota beer company. Not the best beer, but we enjoyed relaxing there.

We had a little arepa as a snack at BBC.

People watching in Usaquen Park.

The church on the square. Very atmospheric.

A narrow alley in Usaquen.

NIMBYs even in Bogotá, this time trying to block a tall apartment building. Check out that spooky image of what would happen to the park. The horror!

From Usaquen, we took an uber closer to our hotel looking for a restaurant that apparently closed forever without telling anyone about it. It was mid-afternoon and pretty hot so we were looking for some shade and a libation. Luckily there were a few other options nearby and we stopped in a place called Oak Ahumados. Within 10 minutes of sitting down and getting our drinks, the wind shifted directions and became blustery. Clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped a good 15*F. The weather in Bogotá is fickle and pretty interesting. At Oak Ahumados we had some great food, including a plantain dish that was among the best things we ate on the trip.

After our late lunch we stopped by Orso for some ice cream (delicious!) then went back to the hotel and watched the Atlanta United soccer match on TV.

Sangria at Oak.

Delicious wood smoked food at Oak.

An amazing plantain dish - sweet and salty perfection.

Oak's pleasant outdoor patio.

Ice cream at Orso. So many choices...so little stomach space.

More cool street art in Chapinero.

For our last full day in Bogotá we had some trouble finding things to do. It was a Monday, and pretty much everything is closed on Mondays - almost all of the museums, the amusement parks, and many other attractions. We started the day with a walk to a nearby bakery called Arbol del Pan. This bakery serves light breakfast in a nice sunlight interior space. From there, we took an uber to the food market near the city center called Mercado Paloquemao. This market is massive and serves as a wholesaler for food to the city's restaurants as well as a market for locals to shop for fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood. The place is pretty overwhelming and the meat areas are pretty smelly. There are a lot of unique fruits in a bustling atmosphere. If you love these types of markets, you should consider checking it out, otherwise stay clear.

From Paloquemao we caught another uber to go to the Botanical Gardens, one of the few major tourist attractions open on Mondays. Our uber driver was learning English at church and she was really happy to have a Spanglish conversation with us while we sat in traffic. When we made it to the garden around 11 AM we were surprised to find out that on the first Monday of each month they are closed until 1 PM for maintenance. We decided to go have lunch at a shopping mall (of course those are open every day!) before coming back to the gardens when it opened. Google pointed us to Titan Plaza not too far away. It's a huge modern shopping center. We don't normally visit malls while on vacation, after all we didn't fly to another country to shop at Old Navy or Superdry! That said, while here we got a good deal on some clothes from a Spanish clothing chain called Pull and Bear, and had lunch at a restaurant in the mall with a super long name called Sopas de Mama y Postres de Abuela (Mom's Soups and Grandma's Desserts).

Natural lighting inside Arbol del Pan.

You were promised avocado toast!

Typical scene inside Mercado Paloquemao.

Lots of different fruits and vegetables!

We chose this place because it seemed the least touristy. Mama and Abuela won't lead us astray!

We both had soup. David got his second ajiaco.

Since it was past 1 PM, we went back to the Botanical Gardens. Entry is super cheap, around $1, and the gardens are very pretty, although some areas could use an update. If you're interested in gardens, in general, we'd recommend a visit here. The gardens are divided into a few separate sections based on biomes in Colombia. Most of the plants were from high altitude forests and chaparral biomes. There was a huge new tropical rain forest greenhouse under construction, which looked promising for future visitors. The gardens have lots of walking paths, a few lakes, waterfalls, tree canopy views and a large collection of flowering plants.

A shady fern-lined path in the botanical gardens.

Us by a pond.

Not the best picture, but we saw several hummingbirds.

There were a lot of unique flowering trees.

A teeny tiny bird's nest.

Another weird flower.

Oh no, pitcher plants!

This one looked like a little poofball.

There were a few little observation platforms with great views. It was mostly cloudy but the sun peeked out here and there.

Some kind of weird bean thing.

The pond in the middle of the gardens.

These flowers looked like gecko toes.

Plant wall art!

Big palm trees with the new tropical exhibit under construction in the background.

From the botanical garden, we went back to the Chapinero neighborhood and walked around a bit. We went back to the park of the hippies, and then walked to the Our Lady of Lourdes catholic church. This hadn't been on our radar, but we had seen it earlier from an uber. It has a very lively large square in front of it, and we sat on the steps for the better part of an hour people watching and relaxing. From there we walked up Carrera 11, a very nice shaded street. It was rush hour, and a ton of bikes were using the nice bike path on the street. We saw a beer place with an inviting little patio, so we stopped in for a quick beer at Mela's Beer House. It turned out to be a nanobrewery, and the bartender was super friendly. We tried some free samples of each type, and settled in for a pint. This was probably the best beer we had in the city. By now night was falling and we kept walking up Carerra 11 toward our dinner destination, Cacio e Pepe. It was a pleasant walk through a very affluent area, with fancy stores and a few gleaming new office buildings. Dinner was fantastic, definitely one of the best meals of the trip. We went all out and had an appetizer, two cocktails each, entrees, and a dessert, and the total price with tax and tip was about $80. Not bad for date night at a fancy restaurant.

The view from our hotel on a cloudy afternoon.

Chapinero is the gay neighborhood of Bogota.

Rainbow Bogota sign in the hippies park.

There a are a whole lot of rules for a hippie park!

Brokeback Mountain karaoke?

The church of Our Lady of Lourdes, with a bustling square and a lot of pigeons.

We sat here for a while. A lot of interesting things happening on this square.

Carerra 11 is a great street to walk on.

This part of Chapinero has interesting European inspired architecture.

Who would guess this is Bogotá?

The bike path along Carerra 11.

Beer samples at Mela's.

Paul liked the IPA.

We liked this area of the city, just north of Chapinero.

The bike path was busy with a lot of people going home from work.

A delicious cocktail at Cacio e Pepe.

A caprese appetizer.

Our food was delicious! We had really good Italian food twice in Bogotá.

David was happy.

We got dessert too!

It was a really fancy restaurant, but thanks to the exchange rate the prices weren't too bad.

We saw this on the way home. Makes sense to us.

We had a fantastic time in Bogotá. It's a really unique city. It's interesting being in the tropics but at such a high altitude that the weather is almost always in the 60s. We had some fantastic food, explored fun neighborhoods, and enjoyed touring museums and churches. The city is very affordable and is a quick flight from Atlanta. If it's not on your travel list, it should be! We know we'll come back to Colombia. We've heard great things about Medellin and Cartagena as well and we'll have to check those places out eventually. We'll leave you with a few pictures from our flight home:

Flying out of the city. The big structure in the bottom left is actually the mall we went to.

The mountains north of the city.

We flew right over Kingston, Jamaica.

And Cuba!

Bogotá - Parques, Museos & Cervezas

For day two in Bogotá, we decided to spend some time outdoors in the morning and hit up some museums in the afternoon. The weather was lovely, a mix of sunny and cloudy in the mid 60s - perfect for jeans and a light jacket. We had this weather for most of the trip. We started with breakfast at the hotel. There was a large group of performers staying in our hotel for some sort of carnaval or event, which added a festive atmosphere. After breakfast we took an Uber to Parque Simon Bolivar, a large park on the western side of the city. There were a lot of people out and about jogging, biking, and flying kites. We walked around the lake in the middle of the park, and then crossed the street to Salitre Magico, a small amusement park. Paul got a roller coaster credit (only his second in South America) and we rode the Ferris Wheel for views of the city and surrounding mountains.

Some of the performers getting ready outside our hotel.

Breakfast on the hotel terrace. A lot of places had these partially open, partially glassed-in eating areas.

The lake in Parque Simon Bolivar, with skyscrapers in the distance.

It's a nice big city park.

Salitre Magico!

Salitre Magico has one of the first modern looping coasters, originally built in South Carolina in 1975.

Unfortunately this unique French-built coaster wasn't operating.

Great views from the Ferris Wheel.

David isn't the biggest fan of heights....

Skyscrapers and mountains.

After spending some time at Salitre Magico, we took an Uber to La Macarena district for lunch at Chibchombia, a restaurant specializing in typical Colombian cuisine. We tried Bandeja Paisa and Ajiaca, two popular local dishes, both delicious. Next we walked to the National Museum, just a few blocks away. Unfortunately large portions of the museum were closed for extensive renovations, but what we did see was great. It's housed in a former prison, so it has really interesting interior design that highlights art inside former cells. After strolling around for a while, we took a break at the museum cafe and had some tea. Another general truth is that museums outside the United States have better cafes; something we've come to experience on multiple trips. Here we discovered that té nevada means a frappe. Something we didn't forget later on the trip.

The cool interior of Chibchombia.

Bandeja Paisa, a dish with all kinds of meat.

David with the first ajiaco of the trip.

View toward a business district. There were several large modern skyscrapers under construction throughout the city.

The National Museum, housed in a former prison.

A recently renovated exhibit. Cool mix of paintings and projected photos.

The museum has nice interior design.  You can tell where former cells used to be located.

Mixing impressionism with realism.

Some more Botero, because Colombia.

National Museum courtyard.

After touring the museum we took Bogotá's bus rapid transit system towards the city center to visit another museum and a shopping area called the Pasaje Rivas. The bus system, called Transmilenio, functions somewhere between a train and bus system. The station near the National Museum is underground and looks like a train station. You get a transit card and tap to enter the station. once inside you line up at the door with the bus number you want to take. When the bus arrives, the gates open and  you enter flat as if you were boarding a subway. The bus then comes out from underground and generally operates in it's own exclusive lane, with the only delays being at cross streets when there's a red light. Overall, this system is held up as a great example of how you can build a reliable transit service without the immense cost associated with building a subway system.

Pasaje Rivas is an interesting artist market. There are tons of stalls with different art, handicrafts, tourist knick-knacks and food. The market is located in a bustling part of the city near some of the other major tourist attractions, like the Museo del Oro; which we visited right after exploring the market. The Museo del Oro is a modern museum that houses numerous exhibits of crafts produced by pre-Columbian people in the Andes and coastal plains of Colombia. The museum does a good job explaining some aspects of the culture of the indigenous people through their craftsmanship. The well manicured exhibits highlight some really spectacular pieces of art and the museum is worth a visit, as it doesn't take too long to explore.

The Transmilenio station near the National Museum.

Bustling streets near the Pasaje Rivas.

Museo del Oro exhibit.

Lots of gold here, obviously, but also exhibits detailing the history of the pre-Columbian period.

Candelaria area at sunset.

After walking around the city center a bit, we took an Uber to a beer bar called Dos Carreras. Our Uber driver was very friendly and he told us he collected US quarters. We were bummed we didn't have any on us to contribute to his collection.

Bogotá has a small but burgeoning beer scene. There are lots of little beer bars and pubs popping up around town and it seems to be more common than wine. That said, the beer scene isn't quite as diverse or well crafted as many other places we've visited. Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. After getting a drink at Dos Carreras, we moseyed a few blocks down the road to another bar called El Mono Bandido Quinta Camacho (The fifth monkey bandit Camacho) - weird name. The bar had a really cool industrial interior vibe, some good snacks, beer and cocktails. Overall, one of the better bars we visited in Bogotá.

Afterwards, we stopped by the neighborhood grocery store on the way to the hotel to relax a bit. A little later that evening we went out because David was hungry. We found a little Mexican fast food chain restaurant called Taco Loco - where David got some nachos - and then swung by a small park near our hotel called El Parque de Los Hippies (weird, right?). The park had a bunch of people hanging out, drinking and socializing. All in all a great way to end a fun day in Bogotá.

The beer at Dos Carreras.

Most beer in Bogotá looked exactly like this - not much diversity in style yet.

Paul's always excited to try new beer places!

El Mono Bandido had a neat industrial interior.

Cool theming as well. The little crocodile was tied to our bill, so we just handed that to the register to pay on the way out.

Probably one of the least nice meals we had... but nachos are always delicious.

LGBT pride sign in El Parque de Los Hippies

We spent two more days in the city, coming up in our last Bogotá post.