Bogota - A Risk Worth Taking!

Bogota Colombia
Where else in the world can you watch Guinea Pig racing live on the streets and get a really stiff shot of whiskey in your coffee at any time of day?  (We have had many in the middle of the afternoon in order to warm up - or at least that was our excuse!)  In a city of 8 million people things can get kind of crazy but we have had a lot of fun here in Bogota and we would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for adventure. 
The Gold Museum or Museo del Oro is really cool and the security doors they have protecting the exhibits are stronger than the security deposit box doors at home at my bank.  There are lots of really interesting gold pieces from way back when and the museum entrance fee was only $1.50 or three dollars for the both of us.  I was trying to show Gary the solid gold necklace I wanted for Christmas but he would have no part of it.  I also tried to get him into the Emerald museum with no luck. What is a girl to do?

The first person we met here in Bogota was from LA and all he talked about was the Vancouver Riots as soon as we told him where we were from.  He said he was glad to see that Canadians had some spunk in them.  Great!  The next two people we talked to were from Calgary and the guy had just graduated from UBC - go figure! Our spanish sucks so it is a little difficult to converse with the locals.  Our goal is to be able to speak this beautiful language at least a little bit before we leave.  We shall keep you posted on our progress.
Ok so after dragging Gary through the Gold Museum we went to the Police Museum and we saw the Gold and Silver plated Harley Davidson motorcycle that Pablo Escobar the Cocaine Drug Barron owned.  It is apparently worth $90,000 US and you can tell by the look on Gary's face that he would love to have it. 

We went to a small bakery that has been around since 1861 called La Puerta Falsa and we had yummy hot chocolate and cheese.  Yes you dip the chunk of cheese in the hot chocolate and go for it. Now don't get me wrong, I love chocolate and I love cheese but this combo was just a bit weird. 

The next day we headed off to the Museo Botero which is totally cool.  They've got great Picasso paintings as well as Salvador Dali statues.  The museum was free and it was really well set up.  We discovered the Juan Valdez coffee chain which has so much more than Starbucks because you can get the shot of Whiskey in your coffee anytime you want. In the evening we went to the Zona Rosa which is like a mini Champs Elysees in Paris.  Actually it is not so mini and I would say that almost all of the
major names and designers were to be found there.  I even found a Naf Naf store which I have not seen outside of France since leaving Paris.  It was a very cool part of town and we had a beer at the Bogota Beer Company.  They have 3 litre Giraffe's or very large tall glass jugs there.  It was really fun watching them serve up the big pour!

We took a trip up the cable car to Montserrat which sits at 3600 metres.(That's 11,800 feet and yes you can feel the altitude as you walk up the steps to the beautiful church on top of the mountain).  For lunch we had Pollo y Papas con Guacamole (Chicken and Potatoes with Guacamole) and they gave us clear plastic gloves to eat it with instead of cutlery.  Gary was in his element!   The shot below shows the city and the place we are staying.  Try to pick it out!  Just kidding.

Tomorrow we leave for Cartegena and we hope to find some sunshine and warm weather.  We will keep you posted on our adventures and we really like hearing back from you all as well.

Until next time,
Salud!
Pat & Gary