Bogota

We left Solento and the coffee growing area and took the main road eastwards towards the capital Bogota. We went through some beautiful mountains although the road had a lot of twists and turns plus some slow steep gradients. There were some major engineering works to improve the route, to shorten transit times and to reduce both gradients and mileage but not all of the pieces of the new road were ready although I could see some long finished stretches.

We arrived in Bogota in the late afternoon and explored the area immediately around the hostel. The next morning I went on a walking tour of the city starting in a nearby park.

I saw a patrol car with armed soldiers but they were the first that we had seen since the border and after a couple of times around the square, I never saw any more.

There was plenty to see such as the oldest church in the capital. In the same square were also the offices of El Tiempo, one off the most popular and influential newspapers in the country, the head office of the Banco del Republica, the national bank and the bishops palace.

Just a short walk further on is the site where Jorge Gaitan was assassinated. He was the leader of the Liberals and was popular with the lower paid and peasants. His rivals, the Conservatives regarded him as dangerous especially as he was taking about land reform which was popular with the peasant farmers but would upset the landowners within the Conservative party. Even the Liberals thought that he was a dangerous loose cannon as he would often go off script and was a great orator who stirred those listening to his speeches. Even the Communists thought little of him.

No surprise therefore that he was assassinated whilst walking the streets in central Bogota. This lead to rioting in which 2,500 people were killed and hundreds of buildings in the city centre were burnt. It also started a period of ten years of civil strife. It also explains where so many of the city centre buildings are more modern than one would expect.

A view of the financial district of the city where many of the buildings are built in sandstone and date from the 1950's except for the pretty little building in the centre of the photo, one of the few older buildings in the area.

Then it was on to the central square with the main cathedral, to the right, the bishops palace,

government buildings both here and...

opposite the cathedral which used to be a department store built of wood, which burnt done and was replaced with this brick building which was half offices nd half shop until the government slowly took more and more space.

A museum to the left of the cathedral which I didn't have time to visit.

A fantastic restaurant next to the cathedral...

where I had Ajiaco Santafereno, a great milky dish with types of potato, chicken, a corn cob and a gorgeous flavour. Although it as also served with rice and avocado so it was very filling.

                                     
And the menu was so good and full of local dishes that I went back to have a tamale which was also very filling.

I also made a particular point of visiting the gold museum which of course is one of my favourite metals. It has four and a half floors of gold objects on view, part of a collection of more than 55,000 items. It is a great collection and I must have spent a whole day reading the labels, learning about how the various different societies traded, mined, smelted the metal and how skilled goldsmiths fashioned some wonderful pieces of art.  And all too soon it was time to leave Bogota for the deserts of Villavieja.