Bogota - Artisans, a garden and a big ass hill

 Day two and three in Bogota.

On Sunday, the district of Usaquén hosts what they call a "Flea Market" or "el Mercado de las Pulgas". It isn't like any flea market I've ever heard of, as it's filled with local artisans and vendors. The closest thing to used goods was a vinyl kiosk and a young man who crafted interesting wall art with old records. There is a flood of leather goods, beaded jewellery, hats, toiletries, coffee, food - you get the point. I can't even begin to guess how many tents were there, but it numbered easily over 100. At times it got a bit overwhelming, returning the greetings of the vendors as they tried to tempt us with there wares. The colours, scents and sounds were a kaleidoscope.

We got away from the hustle and bustle of commercialism by stopping at a lovely cafe for a bit of a snack and a caffeine pick-me-up.

We headed back to the hotel to arrange for a cab and headed out to the Jardin Botanico for the afternoon. Okay, it probably wasn't the best choice for a Sunday, as everyone's family decided to do the same thing. The line was probably an hour long to get to the ticket booth, but, fortunately, South America has this wonderful concept about cutting Seniors a break, so Ron managed to skip a good part of the line to score us some tickets. Of course, we only remembered this exciting perk when we'd already been waiting for half an hour, as we saw a pair of older ladies march past everyone and go to the "priority" line. We splurged on tickets that included access to the Tropicario - basically a gigantic greenhouse featuring plants from the Amazon and and another section with desert plants. We got to see a wide range of amazing flowers and flora and we sweated our way through the wending path of the conservatory.

It was a bit of a relief to leave the building and find a light breeze playing through the gardens. They had a very nice rose garden, as well as a lot of indigenous plants. Add in a few water features and fountains and the price of admission was definitely worth it.

Can you spot Teddy, on the "T"?

We were delighted to discover that Ron's new phone has a pretty impressive zoom. The picture above the one with the purple water lilies is from the edge of the pond. The actual waterlily photo is on extreme zoom. Yay!

Once done, we diligently messaged our hotel to request a ride home. They sent us the license plate and code for the driver, but moments later, they messaged back saying there had been a change of driver and that he was about to arrive. Sadly, he'd already driven past where we were waiting, as the Botanical Garden entrance is quite large. A bit of madness and a quick jog up the road later, I found the taxi, but he'd already cancelled the request. He was annoyed at the point, having wasted 10 minutes or so without a fare. He agreed to take us back to the hotel anyway and added on a 2000 peso "multa" (fine) for us not being where he wanted us to be. He wound up lightening up during the drive and got us back tot he hotel safe and sound.

We went to Ko Asian Kitchen for dinner, as we'd had a "street food" lunch, whilst waiting in line at the garden. Ron's Chorriperro was okay, but I opted for a hamburger...not the right choice, at all. We were quite desperate for something fresh and stomach friendly, so Ron wound up with a dumpling soup of a special menu and I had a Poke bowl. We both had a Club beer and enjoyed the fresh meal enormously. We wandered back to the hotel, well after 8pm, feeling satisfied and safe. Weird that, isn't Bogota dangerous?

The next day we tackled Monserrate, a hill that overlooks a good swathe of the city. There are two choices to get to the top; a funicular or on foot. Of course, we couldn't pass up the challenge to make the almost 800 metre (2600 foot) ascension. I haven't mentioned it yet, but Bogota's elevation (2633 metres/8,675 feet) is actually higher than Cuenca's (2450m/8070ft), which basically means that there's even less oxygen available to feed your lungs as you ascend. Did we care that we were still getting over colds? Did we worry that we really haven't done anything extremely strenuous for a while? Yes, but we decided to take on the challenge anyway. It took us an hour to get to the top.(It's estimated that the average climb is somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour, so for old, broken folks, we did pretty well.)

Only 1/3 of the way up

Zoom in of el Centro

The hill in the mid-ground has a church

 

 If you click on the above image, you might be able to see a statue of Jesus. Cue our amazing zoom:

I'd be remiss if I didn't add some photos of the animals we saw on the way.

How can I resist a sweet little flitting hummingbird? It's impossible. The climb down made my legs shake. The stairs are uneven and the rock pathway is the same, but we felt quite accomplished once we were down. 

Near the start - deceptively well spaced and level-ish

 

You must know what's coming...we messaged our hotel to get a ride back. We were quickly provided with a license plate number and code, only to have the order cancelled by the driver. Apparently, Mount Monserrate is outside of the standard taxi service area. The front desk clerk was a bit beside herself, as she couldn't get anyone to help us. We decided to do the unthinkable and randomly hailed down a cab. (Danger! Unsafe! We're all gonna die!) A young driver stopped for us and after much discussion over the address of our hotel, he had us on our way. His little putt-putt must have only had three cylinders, as the climbs up the hills were slow and a bit noisy. He was actually quite talkative, with an accent that was hard to understand, but he got us "home" safely and didn't add a stipend onto the fare. Turns out, we didn't have much to worry about.

For our final night (yes, we went out in the dark) in Bogota, we opted for a quick pizza at a place called La Impostora. It's a new joint, that only serves personal sized rectangular pizzas, as well as grilled sandwiches. It's a neat concept and the pizza was pretty good. (Ron's was excellent (the Juana with serrano ham, goat cheese, fig sauce), mine needed a bit more blue cheese (pepperoni with blue cheese.) I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there are fairly safe areas in Bogota. Like everything common sense applies, but we felt perfectly secure wandering around Chapinero.

That wrapped up our first stint in Bogota, but we'll be back in a week. The weirdest thing about the city is that it rained almost every night, once we were safely ensconced back in our hotel. (The day we went to Monserrate, it rained like mad in the afternoon, too, but we were safely tucked away in our suite, trying to get a rest after our big climb.)

Next up: Medellin!