Bogota, Colombia

Bogota, Colombia slideshow

The museums and the efficient public transportation – TransMilenio were the highlights for me in Bogota. The green buses have their own street lines, uninterrupted by other vehicles and it is very inexpensive. Although always crowded, I loved seeing the efficiency of these buses and wished we had the same in Brazilian cities.

Of the several museums I visited, Museo del Oro and Donacion Botero were the highlights for me. I learned about the history of gold, how the Indigenous people used as ornament of the ruling class, offerings back to nature as a way to give thanks and foster abundance. Over 34,000 pieces housed in the museum show how techniques used for transforming the mineral into jewelery with simple tools were highly developed in pre-Hispanic cultures. It was customary for chiefs and royalty to be buried with their gold, turning these sites vulnerable to robbers after the Spanish colonization.

It was a pleasure to see the originality of Botero's work, highlighting the beautiful roundness of his models. I also went to the Museo Historico Policia, mostly a propaganda for the Colombian police force, but it was interesting to see some of Pablo Escobar's memorabilia and the hype about his capture. Cocaine is such a household theme in Colombia that there is a current soap opera about the capture of a group of traffickers.

I also enjoyed staying with Maria and Fernando, a charming couple working on their PhD in Electronic Engineering. But Claudio, their cat, was the real joy of the household for all of us.

Bogota was the last cool city I visited, at over 8,000 feet, the temperature hovers around 20 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.