To Bogotá!    Sunday 10/07/2022

On Thursday morning I flew to Bogotá. It’s 955km from Santa Marta and Google says it’s a 16-hour drive, so flying is the way to go – it only takes an hour and a quarter. With four or five airlines competing on the route, the cost is reasonable. This is the furthest I’ve been from the sea since I set out sailing!

The thing that is extraordinary about Bogotá is the temperature. Although it’s within 5 degrees of the equator, the average maximum temperature year round is 18-20 degrees – because the average elevation of the city is 2,640 metres (8,660 feet). It was a shock arriving – at 11am the temperature was 16. In Santa Marta at the same time it was 31, feeling like 38! Bogotá’s on a high plateau, surrounded by the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes. It’s the third highest capital city in the world (after La Paz in Bolivia and Quito in Ecuador) and the third largest city in South America, after São Paulo and Lima. There are 8 million inhabitants (whereas La Paz only has 800,000 and Quito 2.8 million – Bogotá is the highest mega-city, or “global city” in the world).

Bogotá seems generally to be regarded as not very interesting by travellers (Medellin and Cartagena are much preferred). I wanted to see it, because it’s the capital, and for its climate. So, three nights right in the heart of the historical district (La Candelaria), in a 1-bed apartment for only £41 for the stay. 

I’m very pleased I made the effort – Bogotá is wonderful! Sure, the city is huge and crowded (there are street vendors everywhere), but it’s vibrant, charismatic and interesting. La Candelaria is a large area, full of historical buildings painted a huge variety of colours, from striking reds, pinks, deep blue and greens to more subtle yellows, ochre and white. Most are well preserved, without being over-restored, and there are numerous restaurants and great cafes. All-in-all it makes for a varied, eye-catching experience.

On Friday I walked up Monserrate, the mountain that towers 500 metres above La Candelaria. At the top is the Santuario de Monserrate, a 17th century church and shrine, which is an important pilgrimage site. There’s a funicular going up there, but I chose to walk. It was heavy-going! From the start of the stone steps leading up, you climb 475 metres in 2.2km, which took about an hour. When you finally get there you are rewarded with the most fantastic view over the whole city. Really spectacular; it enables you to see very clearly how Bogotá is surrounded by mountains.

One thing that I had not given any thought to was altitude… Apparently at around 2,500 metres (about 8,000 feet), the air becomes noticeably thinner and some people will start to experience altitude sickness. Well, Bogotá itself is at 2,640 metres, and the top of Monserrate is 3,150 metres! No wonder that I found the climb hard going, and was very out of breath most of the time. I thought that I was just being lazy! Up there, a young Slovak guy asked me if I had not felt a bit dizzy when I reached the top and I said yes, I had, but it went away very quickly. It was only afterwards that I investigated online and discovered that strenuous activity is quite a challenge at these altitudes! So I have revised my opinion of my performance from “lazy” to “great effort, well done!” Haha. No ill effects, but I did sleep well that night!

Saturday saw me at the Botero Museum, just two hundred metres from the apartment. Fernando Botero, who is now 90 years old, is regarded as the leading living artist of not just Colombia, but of South America. Some years ago he donated 123 of his own pieces (paintings and sculptures) and 85 of other artists, to the Colombian state. An old house was bought to house the collection, and the result is a superb gallery of international art. His work is instantly recognisable by his characteristic fat people! 

The other artists are the leading figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Renoir, Monet, Matisse, Degas, Braque, Chagall, Picasso, Dali, Miro, Henry Moore, Bacon, Freud. One of the best art museums I’ve been in anywhere, helped by the relatively limited number of pieces on display! Entrance: free. Apparently it gets 500,000 visitors a year, but was not overly crowded when I visited.

Leaving the museum, I walked a long circuit westwards through the city. Market stalls spewing over pavements and clogging the road. Motor vehicles battling through it all. An interesting feature of Bogotá is that retailers of similar products tend to cluster in the same location – something typical of cities before the modern age. In a huge arcade, there are innumerable jewellers and precious metal dealers, the buy and sell price of a gram of gold displayed outside each; on a fairly scruffy street, sellers of white goods: fridges, washing machines etc. And over 5 blocks on one side of a main thoroughfare, Calle 19, opticians. Opticians? I was so struck by this that I retraced my steps and counted them. There were 60 opticians in a 400 metre stretch (and at least another 30 or 40 just around the corner of the roads that intersected these blocks). Incredible! The obvious question is: how on earth would you choose an optician when you are so spoilt for choice? Get somebody to blindfold you, lead you randomly about, and then when you shout stop, take you into the nearest one?

So exhausted was I by counting opticians, that I repaired to a cafe – where I ate two different cakes, accompanied by an espresso. After a rest back in the apartment, dinner of steak, followed by beer in a delightful pub owned by the BBC. The Bogotá Beer Company, a maker of a range of excellent craft beers – a far more worthwhile use of these initials than for that broadcasting corporation…