Trip Dates: 2009-03-06 – 2009-03-09
After I was in Cartagena, I flew to the capital of Bogotá in Colombia. Here I met my friend Bianca from the carnival in Barranquilla. Bianca has recently moved to Bogotá, and like me was not very well acquainted with the capital. Therefore we agreed to explore the city together.
On the first day we wandered around the La Candelaria district, which lies in the middle of the city center and consists of museums, restaurants, and houses in typical colonial style. Here you can find, among other things, Plaza Bolivar surrounded by the Catedral Primada, the congress building El Capitolio, and the Palace of Justice. Right behind Plaza Bolivar lies the presidential palace where the current president Álvaro Uribe lives.
We visited several museums, including the Museo del Oro, which contains more than 34,000 gold objects from pre-Hispanic Colombia. At the Museo de la Historia de la Policía we could, among other things, see Pablo Escobar’s jacket stained with blood from the day he was shot, his Ray-Bans, his weapon collection, and a Harley Davidson decorated with gold that belonged to one of Escobar’s closest associates. We also took the cable car up to Cerro de Monserrate, where you can enjoy the view over all of Bogotá.
with blood stains
On day two we traveled by bus to the village of Zipaquirá, which lies about an hour from Bogotá. Here there is a large salt mine, and 200 meters inside the salt mountain they have made a cathedral, which consists of 14 different chapels inside the mine tunnels. Each of the chapels is adorned with crosses, angels, statues, water features, etc. There was also a 3D cinema inside the mountain, where we saw a film showing how the salt mine was formed.
Tomorrow I will travel on to Guayaquil in Ecuador, which is the next last stop on my trip.
