#18 - Bogotà

With a slightly heavy heart, we say goodbye to Rio and also to the warmth. The airport is still quiet at 6 in the morning, so we can relax on the flight. 6 hours later, we land again in Bogotà, just like two weeks before. To our surprise, the sun is shining and it's not cold. It's about 15 degrees cooler, but we expected worse.

We take a taxi to the hotel, where we actually encounter the infamous traffic jam. The traffic here seems to be even more chaotic than in Medellín, there's traffic jam at all times of the day, and we experience that as well. Nevertheless, we manage to reach the hotel, which is located in the "Zona Rosa". We read that it's a safe neighborhood and a trendy area with many restaurants, but we didn't expect this much. Like in Medellín, there are many charming and unique restaurants and bars that embody different ideas. What surprises us the most is the absolute shopping street. It's almost a bit strange. There are stores like Armani, Versace, Hugo Boss, but also cheaper ones like Zara or Adidas, etc. In addition, there are 3 huge shopping centers with a wide selection of food.

Here, too, there are many security personnel and in the hotel or when leaving, you have to press a button to open the door. When entering a store, every bag is searched. So if you want to go shopping on a large scale in Colombia, this is the right place. However, our backpack is already full, so we just look at the shop windows.

The weather here is similar to Medellín, just colder; sunny in the morning with clouds, rainy in the afternoon, and then it gets cold. The scarf is back on.

We really notice the altitude difference in both cities and need some time to get used to it.

On the first morning, we try to go to the Gold Museum, but it turns out to be closed on that day. So we continue until we reach the Botero Museum. The artist, whom we already encountered in Medellín at the Plaza Botero with his sculptures. There are also many paintings and sculptures by international artists, including Picasso and Giacometti, and the entrance is free.

After the museum, we just walk towards the famous Bolivar Square and coincidentally, we would never have found it on purpose. Hundreds of pigeons are being fed by visitors and you see selfie sticks everywhere. After taking a few obligatory photos, we continue walking and end up in a huge chaos of stores. Shouts from all directions, and it almost feels like being in India. We don't feel comfortable anymore and then look for a street with taxis.

One highlight that we experienced in Bogotà was taking the cable car (or funicular) to Monserrate. Since we're there early, there aren't many people and we can fully enjoy the view at over 3100 meters above sea level. Yes, we really need to take a deep breath because the air is much thinner and the view is breathtaking. Houses as far as the eye can see and below us is the national park. It's impressive to think that there's snow at this altitude and even tropical plants are growing here. We find our way to a hidden café that is simply beautiful to look at and resembles an old villa. Then the sun comes out even stronger and it gets really hot before cooling down again. We return to our neighborhood at the base station and take a stroll. There are noticeably many cyclists, no wonder given the traffic...

Otherwise, we're still exploring Bogotà. So far, we haven't had the best food, many things are just extremely greasy and perhaps the altitude or "soroche" takes its toll.