Finding New Experiences in Bogota
Recently, I was itching for a new travel experience. I needed something completely different. A totally unique experience. But how to find that? Given this would be the 30th country I’d visited, it had become increasingly difficult to find places that gave me that feeling of experiencing something completely new to me.
Colombia had been on my list for some time but something kept holding me back. I thought it might be the feedback from some, who had probably binged-watched too many episodes of Narcos, that I would certainly be kidnapped or simply murdered as soon as I landed in Colombia. However the more I heard these doomsday predictions, the more I doubled down on defying the naysayers and making this country my 30th stop.
Which Stops to Make?
The obvious choice for travelers on their first trip to Colombia is Cartagena. I’ve found that the obvious choice is not always the best for me. When I went to the Baltics, everyone highly recommended Tallinn and Riga, both busy port cities that daily welcome throngs of cruise-ship daytrippers. While I had great experiences in both of those cities, I fell in love with land-locked Vilnius. I still smile fondly when I think of my time in that off-the-beaten path town full of great food and friendly locals. Given that and other similar experiences with cruise ship ports of call, I feared that in only visiting Cartagena, I was in danger of spending all my time in the “Disneyfied” version of Colombia. I had to add another city to find the Colombia I wanted to explore.
After some research I chose Bogota. I ruled out Medellin pretty quickly, as it seemed a more cosmopolitan, artsy place and I really wanted some real, everyday, in-your-face kind of life. I needed to meet real people and learn from them about life in Colombia post the somewhat fragile 2016 peace agreement with Farc which had limited movement around the country.
Bogota had a mix of neighborhoods, all with different flavors. The place I was most interested in was the historic center, known as La Candelaria. I had been warned by friends of friends who live in Bogota, that it was a dangerous neighborhood. They recommended I stay in a “safe” neighborhood like Zona Rosa, visit La Candelaria during the day and leave before dark. Other travelers described fun evenings there and friendly people. I decided to go for it. As I wanted to experience different neighborhoods in this big city, I split the difference and spent half my time there, and half in the more fancy, nightlife-filled neighborhood of Zona Rosa which came highly recommended.
Introduction to the “Danger Zone”
I arrived at my hotel in La Candelaria at almost midnight. I was greeted with graffitied walls and dark streets that gave me a sense that perhaps the “get out before 7pm advice” I’d heard was not off base. I cautiously headed out to explore the next morning and quickly started meeting some of the locals.
I worked on getting my bearings. I found what became my morning breakfast spot and got some tips from the folks working there. I explored the Botero Museum and spent the rest of the day wandering, as is my usual for a new city. I quickly realized that while I had met some local English speakers, they were few and far between. If I was going to get to know this place I was going to need to take some tours which I usually avoid like the plague. But it had to be done. I needed to make this city my own. I did some research and chose a food tour for the next morning. What better way to learn about a new city than to eat the local food served by the local people?
Making Bogota My Own…
With a plan in place for the next, day, I went out that evening to explore some of the bars in my “sketchy” local neighborhood. I chatted a bit with the bartender as there were no other English speakers to engage with. I tried to learn a few Spanish words from him. On my way back to my hotel, I made another stop for a nightcap. I was beginning to make this my neighborhood.
The next day, I met some fellow travelers, one from Barranquilla in the north of Colombia. She and I agreed to explore together. She would help me with Spanish if I would help her with English. We explored Monserrate, with its beautiful views of Bogota, and then headed back to town to have a coffee. While we drank our coffee and enjoyed some local treats, a random hail storm beat down on the tarps covering our cafe. I had heard the weather in Bogota can change every 15 minutes. True to reputation the hailstorm ended quickly and I had enough time to make it to the square to meet my food tour group.
Santiago, our guide, greeted us in the square, and our group of 5, two couples and yours truly, headed off to see what the locals had to offer. We ate corn, empanadas, ajiaco soup, chiqüiro (Capybara), obleas, arepas, and of course drank the local aguardiente, all served by friendly locals who were happy to share their food and love of their beautiful country. When Santiago introduced us to chocolate and cheese (yes, you mix them together) I told him he had destroyed the trust between us (blech).
At the end of the tour, we visited a coffee shop called Arte e Passion Cafe. Most of the high quality coffee gets sold and shipped abroad. You have to know where to go to get good coffee in Colombia which was news to me. We chose from a list of single origin coffees and learned the best way to brew the various types. Afterwards, as we were all going our separate ways, I asked Santiago for a referral to a coffee farm tour. He gave me a number for a guide he knows, named Carlos. I thanked him and headed off to my local pub, yes I already had chosen a favorite, for my evening drinks. I got on WhatsApp and messaged Carlos who agreed to take me to the coffee farm two days later.
Falling for Bogota
The next morning, I decided to tackle the city on a bike tour. Biking doesn’t usually make it into my chosen activities as I prefer to get up close and personal with a city instead of whizzing by its experiences. But I had to adjust in this city that was less used to welcoming waves of tourists. I met up with Balthazar, who was taking me, a couple and two fellow solo travelers (yay fellow solo travelers!) to see a variety of Bogota neighborhoods. The bikes had seen better days and I pointed out that my bike, while I loved its old world charm, seemed close to being on its last leg. Balthazar looked at my dodgy bike, seem surprised at my assessment and zipped off through the busy intersection. We all followed him as he took on the city, weaving seamlessly through a sea of traffic, pedestrians, animals, and other bikers. I am used to some diversity, biking through the streets of NYC but this felt similar to playing a mobile game of whack a mole, never knowing exactly when something new was going to pop out at you. I named this “urban mountain biking”.
Our first stop was at a local market where Balthazar introduced us to all the local fruit. I had been unsuccessfully trying to find some locals or fellow tourists to help navigate the wide variety of exotic local fruits and was very happy to have this opportunity. Some were very tart, some sweet. We tried a very large avocado that was very cheap there, around 30 cents. It would easily cost over $4 in NYC if you could even find one that big.
Next, we headed across the street for what was my favorite part of the day, to play Tejo! Tejo is a game where you throw rocks at explosives in clay, while drinking beer. It is quite possibly the best bar game ever. You don’t pay for the game, you just pay for the beer. As long as you keep drinking you can keep playing. We all drank our beers while hurling our chosen rocks at packets of gunpowder.
I was falling hard for Bogota.
We jumped back on the bikes and visited walls graffitied by famous local artists, bribed our way into a bullfighting ring for a look around, and stopped in another reputedly dangerous neighborhood for coffee. Some lovely shop owners greeted us and gave us a tour of the back rooms where the final processing of the beans is done. Of course we finished our visit there with some very nice Colombian coffee.
Finally we were back in La Candelaria and it was time for me to check out of my hotel and leave this neighborhood I’d grown to love. I reluctantly got in my taxi and watched as the landscape slowly changed from a vibrant, edgy neighborhood to a splashy urban nightlife center. I took some solace in the fact that I was able to watch my NYC soccer team play in what was a big game for them. The bars in Zona Rosa showed many international sports which were not available in La Candelaria. I tried to embrace this new neighborhood but it was not going to be my favorite.
Coffee Farm Day
I woke up around 4am the morning I was scheduled for the coffee farm tour, four hours before Carlos was coming to pick me up. I had done some googling to learn more about his tour company and this trip I was about to take. I found very little. When a list of the “top coffee farms outside of Bogota” came up in my searches, the one I was headed to was not in there. I did not think much of it at first. But at 4am this seemed a bit alarming. I was sleep deprived, and not in the mood to jump into the car with a stranger I could not find any information online about outside of what he had put himself. I thought of canceling but decided to rally and see where the day took me.
At 8am on the dot, Carlos pulled up outside my hotel with a driver. I am going to call him Lenny as I am certain I would spell his name wrong. We headed out of the city in heavy traffic. I was getting carsick. We soon emerged from the chaos of the city into a lush, green mountain paradise. We stopped at beautiful Tequendama Falls and then at an open-air roadside cafe to sample some arepas. The very friendly owner disappeared into the bushes and emerged with some berries for us to try. Lenny and I loved them. Carlos seemed to want to spit them out so I happily finished the rest. Then we took some photos of our group and headed on towards the coffee farm. We eventually ran out of paved roads. I was loving this day so much. If we were bouncing down dirt roads to my demise I’d be happy to go this way. The deeper we went into rural Colombia the better I felt.
The Best Day
I have to say, this was one of the BEST, most authentic experiences I’ve ever had traveling. When I had looked at pictures of the top coffee farms, the farmhouses looked a bit too perfect, more like they were dressed up to be the ideal tourist destination. This was a normal house, showing a bit of wear and tear and in need of a paint job. In other words, it was a real house where people live and work. The owners were two very lovely Colombians, Rafael and his Aunt Rosa. She showed off her craft room which included knitted items and ceramics she was making. They were kind enough to invite me in and let me poke around everywhere, even in their private bedrooms. I felt like they deserved to keep some areas just for themselves and was a bit uncomfortable. But they seemed happy to have me there, exploring their home so I followed along and avoided taking any pictures in those areas. Rafael, popped up during the tour of the house with large glasses of fresh tangerine juice (YUM!) for Carlos and me. I was so happy to be here.
After I was fitted with a pair of rubber boots and a bucket tied around my waist for the beans I would collect, we headed to the coffee fields. Carlos and a very smiley woman named Veronica, who was working along with me, taught me what to pick and what to leave. As I worked at picking all of the right beans, Rafael checked my bucket for progress and shook his head in joking disapproval. I told him I could do better, just give me a chance. I worked on perfecting my technique and got faster, quickly beginning to fill my bucket. I was only a quarter finished when Carlos told me it was time to head back to the house as Rosa was preparing lunch. I protested and he explained that others simply picked a few beans and called it quits. I wanted to finish what I’d started but reluctantly followed along.
The rest of the afternoon included a tour of the shed where the initial processing of the beans occurs followed by a lovely lunch outside. After we finished eating, we did a coffee tasting in the shed. Carlos and Rafael showed me the best way to make coffee. I got to practice and taste the results of my efforts. The view from the shed was worth the entire trip.
Afterwards we said our goodbyes and took a few photos. I was sad to be leaving. It is a day I’ll never forget. The hospitality of this family was typical of the other Colombians I met. They were warm and welcoming, and very proud to show off their country. Balthazar had told me that when he was growing up, his family had to stay in the major cities and could not travel freely around the country. Now they have that opportunity, although he knows it could, and probably will change in the future. He said that in the past when you remove power from one criminal group, another will eventually take their place. But for now, the Colombians are ready and waiting for more visitors to come so they can show off their beautiful country full of amazing experiences.
Not for Everyone
Many people have asked me if they should go to Bogota after hearing how much I loved the city. To some I say no. Why? Bogota is not easy. If you are looking for a polished, pretty, tourist experience then do not go to Bogota. Bogota is full of people who have not always had an easy life but have more than made the best of their circumstances. They amazed me with how incredibly positive they were, how happily they went about their daily lives, and how fiercely proud they are of their country. Few things bring tears to my eyes, but when I think back to my time there, I often get a little misty.
I set out looking for a unique experience and I more than found one…
