Bogotá tends to be omitted from many a tourist schedule, due to a reputation for bad weather, pollution and not being tourist-friendly. Furthermore, there are plenty of other choices available in Columbia, so why bother with Bogata? However, once you spend a bit of time there you may discover a little bit of understated appeal to this city. Let’s have a closer look!
Street Art
Amongst the artistic community, Bogotá shines, with many international artists flocking to its streets to contribute to what is a thriving art scene. Bogotá actively encourages art, with neighbourhood commissioned pieces, privately funded works and local schools hiring street artists to teach classes. In La Candelaria, Bogotá’s oldest neighbourhood, you’ll find the highest concentration of artwork. The narrow, cobbled streets have become a backdrop for artistic expression and the buildings are cloaked in colourful works from strikingly lifelike faces to bizarrely endearing flying potatoes.
The creativity doesn’t stop at eye level. The tiled rooftops are littered with strange pieces, such as a juggler on a unicycle wobbling along the edge of a roof and a figure sitting with a banana dangling from a fishing rod. The Bogotá Graffiti Tour, which is free of charge, offers an excellent introduction to this dynamic culture and is led by guides who are all closely involved in the street art community.
The tour helps to put the various pieces into historical and political context and introduces the styles of the city’s most compelling artists, from Guache’s multi-coloured, often-dreamlike focus on indigenous issues, to Toxicómano’s hard-hitting socio-political pieces.
Urban Cycling
Once a week, every Sunday, “Ciclovía” happens - a cyclist’s paradise is created. This clears the traffic from the miles of city centre streets and over two million people come out to reclaim the tarmac: cycling, jogging, roller blading, dog-walking and strolling with pushchairs. Then there’s “Recrovía”, which fills the parks and paths with free yoga and aerobic classes.
This long-running programme began in 1974 and has been so successful that now it is being emulated in many other cities throughout Columbia and internationally. For Bogotá, a place where the wealth gap is so large, this scheme brings an egalitarian feel and a chance to forget, for a while, the dominance of the motor car.
Great Gourmet Pleasures
Bogotá is undergoing a culinary revolution. There are quirky hybrid ventures offering menus drawing upon interesting combinations of Columbian and foreign cuisine, whilst elsewhere we find the newer “Nuevo Colombiano” restaurants where the chefs are experimenting with traditional ingredients and international techniques. In this city, every district boasts its own foodie subculture.
If you wander around the streets of La Candelaria, you’ll soon encounter a number of small, creative eateries tucked away in the various nooks and crannies. A small space with an exposed brick bar, Sant Just has an innovative, daily-changing menu that blends French cuisine with Colombian ingredients, served up in massive portions. A few streets away, La Peluqueria blends a spiky café with hairdressing and a space for emerging artists.
In La Macarena, once a village but now subsumed into a big-city neighbourhood, you’ll find a clutch of international restaurants. Tapas Macarena is a tiny, charming spot for authentic Spanish cuisine.
Bogotá’s posher dining can be found to the north of the city, where establishments such as the Zona Rosa and Parque 93 compete with Central Cevicheria, which serves up zingy ceviche in a cool space decked out with bare wood and industrial lighting.
Real Coffee
Colombian coffee is world famous but, unfortunately, the best stuff is exported. However, this is gradually changing as many cafés in Bogotá make a real effort to bring about improvements.
Leading the way is Azahar, housed in a shipping container and founded by travellers who wanted to re-establish the connection between coffee, local farmers and Colombian people. This care and passion trickles down to the product - each single origin coffee served by Azahar can be traced back to the individual farmer, with the bag detailing information about the farmer and the plantation – there’s even a QR code that links to a video of the farmer explaining what makes their own coffee so special!
The Views
Looming over Bogotá’s city centre is Cerro de Monserrate, one of the city’s most loved landmarks. If you want to do it the easy way, there are cable cars and a funicular railway to take you up and down the mountain. For the more athletic, once you’ve adjusted to the altitude, why not tackle the steep, one-hour-thirty-minute walk up to the top?
From the top, you’ll be stunned by the panoramic sweep of the cityscape below. Often framed by a dramatic sky, the city spreads out from forested mountains into a sprawl of low-rise tiled roofs. A smattering of taller buildings suggests a high-rise district is only a matter of time away.
The Underground Cathedral
Why not add an extra day to your Bogotá stay to explore the surrounding area? An unmissable day-trip will take you to Zipaquirá, where you’ll find the only underground cathedral in the world, carved out of an old salt mine in the depths of a mountain. It’s an astonishing labyrinth of passages, carved crosses and small chapels but the most impressive part is undoubtedly the vast main cathedral: an eerily-beautiful, purple-lit space delineated by huge pillars and a lofty ceiling, filled with a rock-hewn altar and the biggest subterranean cross in the world.
Title Image Credit: Tijs Zwinkels (www.flickr.com) (Image Cropped)