Bogotá, Part Three

Day One, Sunday Morning:  Market and the Death Cab

Sunday morning we awoke to our first daytime sighting of Bogotá.  Our view from the room was sweeping, looking northward over the vastness of the city’s northern suburbs.  To the right, we saw the mountains climbing quickly, just a few short blocks east of the hotel.  The city was vast and our view gave us our first signal of just how big a metropolis is Bogotá.

The views from our room:

For breakfast, we went downstairs to the Executive Lounge for something to eat.  The spread was cold-cuts and cheeses, fresh fruit, cereal, and scrambled eggs.  There was coffee and fresh-squeezed juice.  The spread wasn’t comprehensive or big, but it was enough to be filling and to make a nice start to the day.

Our agenda for Sunday included a local craft market, though they called it a “flea market.”  After the market, we planned to go down to the old quarter and explore there.

To get to the market, we coordinated with the hotel front desk for one of their taxis, for about six dollars.  They’d drop us off and we’d get a local taxi to the center city.  The ride to the market was smooth and without incident.

This was our first exposure to a city that is still a bit notorious, so we were a little on guard.  And, the altitude was a little noticeable and left us winded if we walked too fast.  It was a bit of a foreshadowing event I paid little attention to.

The market was just okay.  I did find one gift that was quite nice and I saw a few possibilities, but it wasn’t as exciting as some of the other markets I’d seen in other cities.

The Market:

The street near the market:

After the market we were looking for a café to relax a little.  It was a little difficult to divine out which places were cafés and which were restaurants.  We saw a couple of folks on the patio at one establishment, so we went there and had a coffee.

Philip's Artistic Take on Our Coffee Break:

After the café we scouted around a little more at the market and then embarked upon a terrifying taxi ride.  Our intent was to go to the old city, which was about as far south of our hotel as the market was north.  We hailed a taxi and quickly realized that disabled seatbelts are de rigueur in Bogotá.  You see, there were seatbelts but they had been tucked behind the seats and were irretrievable.  The buckle was also disabled and pushed down into the seat so that it was not reachable.  The taxi drivers seem keen to make sure you do not have this safety option.

The taxi ride was just about one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, as we darted through traffic and pedestrians at great speed, nearly hitting a couple of cars and a bus and then, the final straw, we nearly rear-ended a car about twice as big as the taxi we were in.  I’ve had crazy taxi rides before and usually am able to just suck it up, but, without seatbelts and in such a small car, it was too much for me.  The thin air wasn’t allowing me to get in full breaths, and that didn’t help.  Finally I’d had enough and we directed the driver to our hotel and decided we’d do the old quarter later that day or another day.  I was never so glad to get out of a car in my life.

Next posting:  Sunday Afternoon