Is Bogotá worth a stopover?

Well hello from Colombia. I thought it was going to be easy to keep blogging while I was out here but this week has been incredibly intense with barely a half hour to rest here and there. If you’re following my travels on Instagram you’ll know that we’re doing an intensive salsa immersion which consists of dance lessons during the day and often trips out to a salsa event at night. Doing that and trying to keep on top of my work at home has me feeling a bit frazzled at the end of this week but luckily I wrote a few reflections about our first 2 days in Bogotá before we left so those are the thoughts I have for you today – and forgive me if it isn’t very fluent, my brain’s in a bit of a scramble. So let’s go – is Bogotá worth a stopover?

Is Bogotá worth a stopover?

It feels quite nice to be sitting writing this, a bit like the letters home I used to send to my mum and dad when I was interrailing. This is our last morning in Bogota, once again the jet lag had us up in time to watch the sun rising over the Andes. The apartment we’ve rented is on the 34ᵗʰ floor of the city’s tallest building. Yours ears pop as you go up in the left but it’s worth it for the view from our eyrie – and this is what I’m looking out over now.

Bogota is the third highest city in the world, something I didn’t factor in when I was planning this trip and decided I couldn’t just pass through it. The potential for altitude sickness on top of jet lag didn’t occur to me but … travel is all about learning! So here’s a round up of what it’s like to spend two days in Bogota.

The first thing worth knowing is that Bogota is known as Colombia’s fridge which makes sense when you realise how high up in the Andes it is. And yet the houses and flats don’t have heating so when we arrived at midnight and climbed into bed as fast as we could, we didn’t feel as if we’d travelled very far from the UK’s February weather! We managed a few hours sleep but were up at 5 am and so we sat and watched as the city slowly came to life. At 8 am we headed out in search of coffee, rather tentatively because when you plan a trip to Colombia, you hear a lot about how dangerous it is. There’s a saying here, ‘no dan papaya’ which means don’t be flashy. You’re repeatedly told to avoid anything that could make you a target so I’d swapped my wedding ring over for my mum’s worn down gold band and based my outfits around inconspicuous navy. As we did our first walk around the area that we were staying in though we soon realised that we stood out anyway – the colour of our hair was the thing that made most heads turn and people commented repeatedly on our blue eyes. I haven’t had that experience since I was travelling through rural India in the 90s when people thought nothing of coming over to touch my hair. The fact that we were so obviously alien really made us realise that Colombia is off the beaten track – there is very little tourism in Bogotá. In our two days in the capital we only encountered one person who spoke English so it’s been a great way for me to dust off my Spanish- rapidly!

Our first stop was the Museo Nacional which is based in one of the city’s former prisons. It told the story of Colombia from an indigenous perspective which was a gentle way of bringing to life the impact of colonialism. It’s only when you travel that you recognise just how much of the world’s land and resources was grabbed by Europe in the 1500s. In the West we’ve grown up with a local perspective on Empire but seeing it through the eyes of the people who were conquered has been a very big part of our trip to Colombia. There’s a rejection of Spanish influence going on here and a reclamation of indigenous culture.

For the afternoon we’d booked a food tour on Airbnb experiences which has become our habit now when we arrive somewhere new. It was run by Bogota bloggers Giovanni and Joey and although it was supposed to be a group tour, visitor numbers to the city are so low that we had the very characterful Gio all to ourselves. Being originally from Venezuela he was the English speaker that I mentioned and he started us off in the food hall attached to the city’s market where we had a hearty lunch of soup, barbecued meats, plantain, prawn and and coconut rice.

We then went deeper into the market to buy fresh fruit for cocktails that we were going to make later. Over 400 different fruits grow in Colombia and there were so many that I’d never seen before. We were on the hunt for ripe lulos, a member of the tomato family.

The Colombians are as proud of their ice cream as the Italians and we stopped off for a mouthwatering guava come. Then of course it was time for some proper Colombian coffee. Ironically good coffee is hard to find in Colombia itself because most of it is exported but Gio took us to a drip coffee bar where we tried a few different delicious blends.

And then it was back to his place for a cocktail making session which was great fun. For once it’s something that comes across better in video than words so here you go -you can come along with me.

We were tired the next day so we decided to have an easy wander through the city. We both wanted to go to the Botero museum which is one of the best compact galleries I’ve ever been to. Fernando Botero is Colombia’s most famous artist, born in Medellin he only died in 2023 and his work is very distinctive. He celebrates volume – all of his works are centred on the theme of voluptuous form whether they’re a still life painting or a sculpture of a Woman.

He was also an enthusiastic collector of art, most of which he bequeathed to Colombia so there was the most perfectly encapsulated collection for the Impressionists onwards – one perfect piece from each of the 19th and 20th century’s biggest artists, it was like playing art bingo!

As we left the gallery we were looking forward to choosing a print to take home with us but there was no shop. And there were no sellers outside, nobody taking the commercial opportunity that we always expect these days. It’s been the same at every museum or gallery we’ve visited in Colombia so far. The country caters for its people, not for tourists.

Wandering back to our apartment through the city we remarked on how different it was from any capital we’ve ever visited before. There wasn’t a single big brand in the city centre – no MacDonalds, no Starbucks, just a stream of small shops whose window displays would have felt absolutely contemporary in 1975. I’ll talk more about the challenges of Colombia in my next post but you can’t deny that in many ways life is simple in Bogotá. Men play chess in the streets while their families lay out the fruits that they’ve grown to sell to passers by. Through Western eyes there’s a charm to it, it’s easy to overlook the grinding poverty that lies beneath. Bogota is a gritty city, I can’t say I loved it but I’m glad we took a couple of days to experience it. When you’re flying a long way there can be a temptation just to plough on towards your destination. For us that was Medellin which we’ve found to be a much more modern, shiny place. Bogotá gave us an introduction to an older version of Colombia, more authentic, it was like travelling back in time to the cityscapes of my 1970s childhood.

Travelling to Colombia-your questions

The people following our travels on Instagram have had lots of questions. Here are some answers to the ones that are coming up again and again.

Is Colombia safe for tourists?

I was worried about this before we came. I think it’s hard for people in our generation to forget the horrors of the cartels and the drug wars that we used to see in the news. They ended in the 1990s though and Colombia has worked hard to recover and restore peace. We haven’t felt worried once. We wander around in the same way that we would in a city like Barcelona or New York – with an awareness of our belongings and the people around us. We’ve felt perfectly safe.

How was the altitude?

Bogota is one of the three highest cities in the world and coming from sea level you have no idea how it will affect you because it takes your body three days to make the new red blood cells you need. We were advised that the older you are, the easier your body adapts (not often you can say that!). We were fine for the first couple of days but a combination of altitude sickness and jet lag hit us on our last night in Bogotá, making us feel post viral and pretty wrung out. We were fast asleep by 9 pm but felt better in the morning.

Do they speak English in Colombia?

Not at all really which was a surprise. Luckily I speak Spanish but other people we’ve met are mostly managing by using Google Translate and holding their phones up.

Is Colombia an expensive country?

No, everything feels remarkably cheap. A meal for two is less than £20. A cocktail is about £4 max.

How easy is it to get around?

Very easy – in Bogota we used Ubers and a short ride across the capital was between £3-£5.

And now I must rush because we have our last dance class ahead and we really need to crack our routine, the pressure’s on! I’m not going to post next week so I’ll be back on Friday 7th March hopefully with a clearer head and clearer words. First though some much needed sunshine – we’re leaving Medellin this weekend and going to somewhere completely different.

Is Bogotá worth a stopover?

Is Bogotá worth a stopover?