March 27, Bogota, Colombia

After breakfast I stopped for coffee.... I have been drinking so much of it.. but it is so good.... I headed to Montserrat. This is a church on the mountain top that over looks the city. It is about 3100 m above sea level, 500 m higher than the city. It was about a 20 minute walk to the bottom where you can catch a train or a cable car. I picked the cable car!

While waiting in line a young girl started to talk to me... her English was a bit rough but more than my Spanish and enough to converse. She was going to the top with her family. We talked on the way up in the cable car, and of course there were several pictures. Once at the top.. more pictures. We walked around a bit and then they invited me to share their lunch. They had brought Chinese food! It was quite good. It was great to sit and eat with them.

She was the only one that had any English...but I did pick up a few words that were being said. I decided to go, as there was a huge rain storm going through the city.... I got in line and she chased my down to say that they could drive me back to my hotel. I declined as it is not that far. It was a great afternoon. When I got to the bottom a very young girl was looking at me, so I said 'hello' and she said hello back and asked how I was, in English. I ended up speaking to her and her mother for a few minutes on the walk down! The people here have been very polite and nice. Even the beggars are polite, saying good morning, and thanking you for nothing!

The views from the top were very nice. Bogota is in the Andes, in the middle of 2 ridges. It helped that I had seen a relief map in the park previously!

Out for more coffee and that is a day!


March 26, Bogota, Colombia

Today turned out to be a day of art!

Started with a 2 1/2 hour Graffiti Tour walking tour. A tour of street art in one neighborhood not far from hotel.

The guide is an artist but has branched out to tours, broker of street art, coordinator of art space and an art shop owner! He was very good with lots of background to the various artists.

He never talked about tagging at all. Some of the work has been sponsored by the city and other government organizations. Apparently Bogota is supportive of this art form. The government and community organizations are even commissioning artists to do work. Most is done just by the artist with the permission of the house owners. There is a lot of talent here... but only a few actually will get paid. Amazing that there are also art works done by people from all over the world.

It was a great tour and really makes you look closer at some of it! There are even mixed media as well as sculptures. We saw 2 bird heads but also a circus cyclist and a shoe shine man and a woman fishing.

Talked to a guy that has a coffee shop, but it is a long ways away. He actually buys beans from the farmers and roasts. Very interesting. His shop is not open until Monday so not sure I will make it as he offered to show me how they roast the beans! He will also export the beans. Really interesting.

A quick lunch and then to the Botero art gallery. Turns out it is the same gallery as the Catholic icon.
Just interesting as I thought there was only sculpture, but there are many paintings as well. The gallery has a large collection of his work. They also had a few of the other famous painters...

Probably a bit too much culture for one day but it was still good. The Graffiti tour was very different from any other tour I have done. The other good thing is that is was in an area that I had not walked around. A great area with lots to see with many restaurants. I will have to go back.