First Impressions of Bogota

Over-cast and quite a change from the open blue skies or thunderous but perfectly formed, brilliantly defined white clouds that seemed to pass us by only on the horizon and never overhead when we were in the jungle. Several degrees cooler, we were back in jumpers and jeans, but it was a no point shivery and uncomfortably cold. Walking around candelaria and the centre of Bogota was just what I needed. A mixture of old and new architecture, large structures and small tiled roof houses sprawled over a weird network of seemily interwoven roads. Latin. I had read that Bogota was a cultural capital and a quick look around the centre seemed to confirm this, a couple of art galleries, some cool shops, graffiti on the sides of walls, really cool-looking buses, an amazing bookshop (heaven, I love books) and a slightly beaten up freak-show of a main square. This is what I had wanted and hoped this city would be like. There were llamas in the main square. This is something I was not expecting. Graffiti on statues, bubbles, people selling mangos and other forms of street food, children, adults, tourists and locals. Police.

We got stopped by some policemen and invited to look around the Police Museum. Police museum? Strange. Didn't sound that interesting to me. I was proven wrong, if you think about it, it's logical, in a country like Colombia where there has been a fair amount of violence, drug crime and terrorism that these interesting conditions create an interesting police force. Serious shit. I wouldn't want to fuck with the Colombian police force.

The change in gear from the jungle seemed to have made us all a bit tired and groggy. We searched for a good and cheap place to eat. We landed on our feet, finding a small cafe that had the most delicious menu del dia. It was a good introduction to some Colombian regional dishes - I had a vegetarian bandeja paisa which was delicious.

Colombian coffee! I love coffee.