After my recent trip to Bogota, I thought I would detail a few of the places we visited and would recommend to fellow travelers. Bogota is a well kept secret, as far as tourism is concerned and deserves a better reputation than it has. Colombia has worked very hard to move away from the drug-fueled gang wars and violence of the Pablo Escobars and the FARCs of the world. There are definitely still places you should not visit, but Bogota is not one of them.
Hotel Suamox, centrally located in a clean, safe area of Bogota, 2 blocks from the TransMilenio rapid transit system stop at calle 39 on the Caracas. The rooms were $102,000/night, which was about $50 US in February 2010. pretty damn cheap for 2!
Santa Monica Thermal baths in Choachi is a great day trip to relax. You take a bus from Bogota at calle 6 and Caracas for $7000 pesos ($3.50 US); the ride is an hour of harrowing hairpin turns wrapped around mountains, but totally worth it. In Choachi you ask for a local taxi to the baths. They serve food by the thermal Olympic sized pool - I had some "nuggets de la casa" (handmade chicken nuggets).
The Museum of Gold is beautiful and please find the Museum of the National Police, right near the Plaza Bolivar. It is free and you get led around by young national police who proudly show you the models of various stages of Escobars' life, including death. They even have his cousins motorcyle! Funny, in many strange ways.
We stayed at the Hotel Suamox since it was right near La Residencia, where Baptiste and his sister Maia had their show.
click on images to see them larger. all images copyright Ellen Warfield.
1 comment:
Thanks for the reminder of the Museum of Gold in Bogota. I remember seeing an ancient piece that looked just like an airplane.
Rob
www.ofscarabs.blogspot.com
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