Next on the agenda was Colombia's capital, Bogotá. After seeing the homelessness and drug problems in Medellin I was a bit unsure of what to expect with a city housing 8 million humans. Here's a picture of the old town which is basically just tourists, pigeons, people selling stuff to tourists, police and of course some army guys in full uniform with enormous guns.
I spent weeks in Medellin and felt like I walked around so many different areas of the city so I certainly saw how everyone was living. The thing is in Colombia all you need to do is take one wrong turn or walk one street too far and you'll find prostitutes, homelessness, extreme poverty and drug problems. The street behind the biggest museum in Medellin is full of prostitues. When we first arrived in Bogota I was wondering why everyone said it was so dodgy. Next minute I'm confronted by the large nipples of an overweight woman in a dress that is essentially made of rope. Like one of those shopping bags you get. Yep, we took a wrong turn.
Anyway it's not all bad. They have a hill with a church on it of course! It's called Montserrat and this is the view from the bottom. And don't worry, the hill next door has Jesus on it.
Your options to reach the top are funicular, cable car or a million steps. In South America every guidebook and the Internet tells you that climbing the steps is a bad idea because basically you'll get mugged. This seems to be standard regardless of the country. Haha. Anyway I've been on so many cable cars in the last six months so we decided to take the funicular.
It's actually gorgeous up the top. Besides the church there's shops, restaurants and an area to exercise if you're feeling keen. And at night it's all lit up. Oh and that white thing on the other hill is Jesus but I have no clue how you get there.
And this is what a city of 8 million inhabitants looks like. You actually can't see the sprawl for the clouds/fog/pollution.
Later that day we visited the Gold Museum which is one of Bogota's main attractions. The museum is incredibly well presented but I still found it kinda boring since there wasn't much explanation. Or maybe it was boring and I didn't read it. Not sure. Please don't judge me. Here's some things made of gold...
Then we went off to the Botero Museum which is the guy that did the chubby statues. I didn't know who he was before and when I saw his art used in an anti-obesity campaign in Ecuador I thought it was really amusing but it only just clicked! Here's one of the art works used in that campaign on display in the museum.
From what I read he actually donated a lot of his own art and some from his personal collection to create this museum. What a guy. Here's some more of his stuff.
And this beautiful sculpture by Salvador Dali which I loved.
Then we finished the afternoon with a hot chocolate and cheese. This a a Colombian thing. You can dip the cheese in the chocolate but since it's like rubber anyway not much happens. Not that I needed to further cement my theory that Colombians have no taste buds but I have.
And no, we didn't get a bad one. If you google Colombian hot chocolate with cheese you will see images identical to this. Including the buttered hot dog roll!
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