24 Hours in Bogotá
Due to a technicality with Peruvian immigration laws, I needed to leave the country. This was a last-minute trip, designed to be eligible for a 90 day tourist visa when I re-entered Peru. Bogotá had both the cheapest last-minute flights and a person who could host me while I was there. I left Peru Friday evening and returned Sunday morning.
1:00 a.m. Arrival in Bogotá
Though the immigration agent was suspicious about my one-day visit to Colombia, I made it through in record time. Not having any luggage, I went directly outside where my host, Sair, was waiting. He called our ride, who was waiting just a couple blocks away.
2:00 a.m. Beers in the park in Modelia
Bogotá is giant and after two years mostly in small town Peru, it was thrilling to see a big city again. Peru is also still under curfew and a lot of pandemic restrictions, which are definitely not in effect in Colombia. I marveled at the city nightlife as we drove through a few neighborhoods.
Sair, three of his friends and I stopped in the neighborhood called Modelia, which has a lot of bars and nightlife. We walked by several places, peering in through crowded doorways. The group asked if I wanted to go in any, but I’ve been too conditioned by the pandemic to be wary of crowds. They ended up buying a couple 6-packs and we hung out in a park sandwiched between several bars. Bogotá has great punk and alternative scenes and I reveled in being around such a wide variety of people. It was refreshing after the homogeny of Cusco.
4:00 a.m. Sleep
After the beers and another tour through lively neighborhoods, Sair took me to his house so I could get some sleep before tackling the rest of the day.
10:00 a.m. Breakfast
I had intended to get up earlier, since I only had one day in Colombia, but just couldn’t make myself get out of bed before 9:30. I was served a big mug of coffee, accompanied by cheese, scrambled eggs and buñuelos. These are delicious and I wish they were a thing in Peru also. Buñuelos are a perfect sphere and best in the morning when they’re fresh. The outside is slightly crunchy, and the inside is soft and moist.
My 5th Covid test
With only one day, I had to get my Covid test first thing in the morning so that I could get on a plane to Peru that night. The pandemic is still raging in South America and Covid tests are required, even for those who are vaccinated like myself.
11:17 a.m. Covid test
The first order of business, after coffee and breakfast, was a Covid-19 test. Peru requires a negative test to enter, so even though I had literally left Peru hours before and am already vaccinated, I still needed to get a test.
The clinic I went to get the test as was across the street from a vaccination station. Only two people were ahead of us in line for the test, though the vaccine line stretched down the block and around the corner.
This was my fifth Covid test, so I wasn’t surprised by the long cotton swab that they stuck so high up my nose that it felt like it was bumping up against my brain. It’s unpleasant, but over quickly. It was exactly 11:17 when they finished with me. They double checked my email address, since results would be emailed to me six hours later.
Just to compare, the three Covid tests that I’ve had in Peru were all blood tests from a finger prick. I had the results from each within 20 minutes. The Covid test I had in the US (so I could go back to Peru) was a nose swab test done at the airport. Those results were emailed to me in just over 30 minutes.
12:00 p.m. El Mercado Paloquemao
My first bit of actual tourism was a ride on the TransMilenio to the Paloquemao market. The Transmilenio is bus system that functions kind of like a metro. It doesn’t go underground but it the busses do have their own lanes so that car traffic doesn’t affect them.
Mercado Paloquemao is the size of a city block and like most markets has sections for fruits, vegetables, meats, dried goods and cut flowers. It’s covered but the roof is high enough that it still feels open.
I wandered around but kept going back to the fruit section. All of the fruit that is available in Peru was on display, plus some that I have only seen in Asia. At least a dozen stands had mangosteen and almost as many were selling rambutan. Upon inquiry, I learned that in Colombia they use the same word for mangosteen but rambutan is called lychee. I didn’t see any actual lychee to ask what those would be called. I bought some mangosteen and a large tan colored fruit with an orange interior called sapote.
We had orange and carrot juice at one of the many juice stalls, wandered around some more, then decided it was time to move on. We took a taxi to the planetarium.
1:00 p.m. La Macarena
When I was in Bogotá in 2015, I stayed in a neighborhood called La Candelaria. It’s a stately colonial area full of museums and nice restaurants. La Macarena (yes, the same name as the 90s song) is equally picturesque and has just as many great restaurants, though it lacks much in the way of museums.
La Calle de los Abrazos
One of the many fun murals in La Macarena is in a little alley called “The Street of Embraces.”
I love murals and street art, so this was the perfect place for me to walk around outside after being in such a crowded and noisy market. South America is not known for having a lot of vegetarian options, so neighborhoods like La Candelaria and La Macarena are especially important to me. I took photos of murals and read menus posted outside places as I walked by. There was one vegan place and several places that boasted at least one vegetarian option on the menu. I passed at least three Peruvian restaurants, plus an English pub, two breweries and many places with local fare on the menu. I picked a Lebanese place called Raad.
Raad Restaurante Árabe
The food was delicious, authentic and the baklava was perfect.
2:00 p.m. Raad
Colombia has had several waves of immigrants from the Middle East. The two major waves were in the 1880s and 1920s. Most Arab immigrants settled in coastal cities like Cartagena, though there is also a sizable Arab community in Bogotá.
Raad is the family name of the restaurant owners. I ordered the “Mixto Árabe Vegetariano” which included rice cooked with lentils, falafel, tabouleh, hummus, babaganoush, warak enab, lebne, pita bread and an eggplant stuffed with rice then covered with cheese and baked. I had baklava and more coffee for dessert, wanting to stay up until my flight back to Peru.
3:00 p.m. Monserrate
After lunch, we caught a cab to the foot of Monserrate, a tall bluff that looms over downtown Bogotá. The cable car wasn’t in operation, so we got round trip tickets on the funicular. Monserrate is a beautiful place for walking or running, though I didn’t actually have time for either of those. Next time I’m in Bogotá I’ll make time for that.
The funicular is fun and quite steep. The first half gives you a great view of downtown though the second half is inside a tunnel. At the top you step out into an area with manicured gardens and signs with bird names and photos of the birds that are common in the area. I was really excited to see a sign for the Sword-billed hummingbird, which I’ve been looking for since my first trip to Peru in 2013.
The top of the bluff has a giant church and a couple colonial houses that have been transformed into fancy restaurants. If you walk around the back side of the church, you have a spectacular view of a densely vegetated valley and a row of hilltops above. This is a protected area called the Eje Ambiental and the reason why there are so many bird species so close to the city.
Behind the church is also where you can find souvenir shops and little restaurants with decent prices. Walk through the row of shops and restaurants to get to an open area with a great view of the Eje Ambiental. Bogotá is at 8,660 feet above sea level, so it’s not the same kind of equatorial jungle you get in the low elevation Amazon basin, but it’s still equatorial jungle.
Sunset is a lovely time to be up at Monserrate but not the best for photos, since the sun sets directly on the other side of the city and most photos end up backlit. Just as I was about to head back to the funicular, a Sword-billed hummingbird zoomed over to the tree I was looking at below me. None of my photos turned out the way I wanted, but I finally saw one of the birds I’ve been looking for the whole time I’ve been in South America.
The Sword-billed Hummingbird
I was overjoyed to finally see this hummingbird. My bird book dryly notes that it is “unmistakable with it’s amazingly long bill.” I saw it at 10,340 feet above sea level and the bird book says it is “uncommon in montane and elfin forests” between 5,600 and 11,800 feet.
6:00 p.m. La Séptima
Back down in town we walked past fountains and through the university district, passing the Quinta de Bolívar, Simón Bolívar’s residence in Bogotá. Simón Bolívar was the biggest figure in the fight for independence from Spain starting in 1808. He was also a big proponent of a unified South America, intending to make one country out of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Perú. Bolivia was named after him and at one point he was simultaneously president of Gran Colombia (present-day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador), Bolivia and Perú. Born in Venezuela, he died in Colombia.
Policarpa Salavarrieta, aka “La Pola”
Just past Bolívar’s place is a statue of La Pola who was a seamstress and instrumental in the fight for independence from Spain. She was executed for high treason by the Spanish on November 14, 1817. Every year the Day of the Colombian Woman is celebrated on November 14, which is also my birthday. I’ll have to find a way to spend my birthday here some day.
Leaving the university, we walked through Plaza de las Nieves, which was gearing up for an outdoor punk concert. I spotted several perfectly done mohawks and a lot of Ramones t-shirts. It was getting dark and there was so much excitement in the air I figured the concert must be about to start. Unfortunately, I had to keep going.
We walked along the main pedestrian avenue in Bogotá: La Séptima. We weren’t far from La Candelaria and I recognized La Séptima as one of the streets I walked in 2015. Even at night it’s full of families out for a walk and young couples pushing strollers. We walked along La Séptima until we were back at the planetarium, where we had started at 1:00, then took a cab back to Sair’s house.
9:00 p.m. Siesta
I put everything back in my backpack and sat down to nap for a couple hours before it was time to go again.
12:00 a.m. Junior’s
One of Sair’s relatives, who he called Junior, picked us to take us out to dinner before I had to go back to the airport. Cities like Bogotá and New York are awake 24/7, so I expected that there would be somewhere open for dinner that late. However, when Junior heard that I’m vegetarian he decided to take me back to his place, since he thought it would be too hard to find a place with good vegetarian food so late.
At Junior’s apartment he served me a big plate of food and I played with his cat until it really was time to go.
2:00 a.m. El Dorado Luis Carlos Galan Sarmiento International Airport
My flight left at 3:45 and without luggage to check, I didn’t need to be there any earlier. The flight was on time, and I had a whole row of seats to myself. I laid down to get a few hours of sleep before I landed back in Peru.
When I see mountains like these out the window, I know I’m back in Peru.
