Bogotá, Part Eight

Part Eight:  Sightseeing About Town

On our final day in Colombia, we decided to do what we set out to do the first day before the Death Taxi interrupted our plans:  see the old quarter of Bogotá.  Of course, getting to the old quarter and back presented a challenge, as I refused to get in another one of those seatbelt-less, death defying yellow taxis.  Getting there would be easy:  we could just get one of the hotel taxis; getting back would be more of an obstacle.

The front desk quoted us a rate to get to the old quarter of about $13.  "Do you want him to wait for you?"  Stupidly, we answered "No."  We should have just agreed and kept the driver for the day.  (Not to spoil the story, but, in the end, this is what we did anyway.

The driver seemed very nice.  He was a cautious driver.  Did not speak a word of English, but that was okay:  we were just going four miles.  On the way he stopped by a park that had a to-scale, topographically-correct map of the country.  The photos below do not convey the model very well, but one gets the idea.  It was a dated display and desperately in need of maintenance, but a neat idea nonetheless.

Us

Colombia, to scale

Andes

We loaded back into the car and headed up, stopping at an overlook to take in the cityscape.  It was then, when he was asking a young-ish woman if she spoke English, that I realized something was up.  She did not speak English, so back in the taxi.  Next stop was the base of Monserrat, which, of course, was not our destination.  We had planned to so up the mountain but not just then.  The driver found someone who spoke English.  The guy conveyed that the driver wanted us to go up the mountainside while he waited.  "How much does he want to charge us?"  I asked.  The fellow translated back "About $35 per hour."

We talked quickly about it, wondering if we were going to be cheated and thinking through the pros and cons.  We decided that, even if he charged us $50 an hour, it was worth having him at our disposal and not having to deal with the dreaded yellow taxis.  So, done deal; we bought our ticket and made our way to the funicular and up the mountainside.

Bogotá is itself already really high up; Monserrat is even higher, at more than 10,300 feet/3100 meters.  The funicular is quite a ride and not for those who are afraid of heights, or of rickety, old conveyances that look like they may not be very well maintained!

What are you seeing here?  Hard to tell!  You are looking at the tunnel through which the funicular passes as it burrows through the mountain to reach the top

Atop the mountain, one sees the city but then turns to see more mountains, lush vegetation, and nothingness

Looking southward.  It is hard to tell, but one sees buildings and development almost as far as the eye can see

Bogotá's downtown core

Looking northward, toward our hotel

Philip, with the city at his back

And, standing in the same spot as I was to take the previous photo, I just pivoted and snapped this shot.  The two could not be more different

Obligatory, South American, mountaintop statue of Christ

The church atop the mountain

Only from this perspective does one get a real sense of just how large and sprawling Bogotá is

Bogotá, stretching as far as they eye can see

The city's old quarter, from above

Model funicular; notice how steep the rise of the vehicle is

One notices pretty quickly how much thinner the air is atop that mountain!  We lingered for only about twenty minutes before heading back down, where we found the driver waiting for us.  I already liked this arrangement!

He drove us next to the old town, parked, and proceeded to walk us around the city and point out landmarks.  We had a guidebook, so we pointed to the things we wanted to see and he took us to them. He suggested other things, some of which we saw, others we just skipped.  We were so glad that we had decided to take up his offer!

Bolívar Square

Cantankerous Colombian llama

Bogotá's main cathedral, Capilla del Sagrario 

Bolívar Square again

Streetscape; I took this one mainly to show how quickly and dramatically the mountains rise from the city

Inside the cathedral.  In most places I have been, major churches are open and can be gone into.  The only way we made it in here is that they had just had a service.  We actually almost got locked in

Colombia's Congresso building

These buildings are very typical of what one sees in the old quarter.  Notice the beautiful balconies

Watch out!  Yellow taxi!

Us, in front of the Presidential Palace, between two guards.  We were reluctant to get so close to the gate, but the driver insisted

Not sure who decided on this color scheme

Inside.  Yikes!

Strolling the streets of the old quarter

Within an hour or so we had seen most of what we wanted to, so it was time to head to our final destination:  Museo del Oro.  Every guide book we read or saw on Colombia listed this as a must-do.  Neither of us are that interested in this sort of thing, but there are some things you see when you are somewhere, whether or not you are too keen on them.  I mean, even someone who has no interest in politics comes to Washington without seeing the Capitol and the White House.  We gave ourselves about 45 minutes and set up a rendezvous spot with the driver.

Just thought this was a neat photo; not even sure what it is

There were several instances of this sort-of display, showing us where the wearer wore everything

Doors to get into the vault

I hope someone told him that he needed a bit more than just this outfit!

Outside the museum

We were ready to go back to the room.  The drive back was just fifteen minutes or so.  Along the way the driver was sorting out what we owed.  We were not sure if we were going to get cheated or not.  We did not think so, since, if he did, we could complain to the hotel and they would presumably take some action.  We decided that anything south of $100 we would pay without question, even though we though we owed about $70.  He quoted us a figure of $62.  For 3 1/2 hours we thought that was great.  And, he was such a nice, friendly man.  We paid him $75 and were happy.  In fact, when we got back to the hotel, we asked if we could have him drive us to the airport the next morning.

After we got back to the hotel, we walked back down to Zona Rosa.

On the way to the Zona Rose:  taxis ... and horses.  I'd rather ride on that cart than in one of those yellow taxis!

Bomb-sniffing dogs are everywhere in Bogotá, including at our hotel.  This was one of two that worked at the Hilton.  This poor fellow was quite old and seemed ready for retirement!

Back at the hotel we freshened up and then went for our best meal of the trip, at LaDespensa Rafael.  Really an excellent meal to celebrate my birthday.  After a fine meal, it was back to the room to pack and get ready for the flight home.  Next up:  checking out, getting to the airport, and trip thoughts.

Bogotá, Part Seven

Part Seven:  Day Two, Zipaquirá

After we finished with our tour of the salt mine, we headed back to the town that is the cathedral's namesake:  Zipaquirá.  It is a small, quaint place that is fairly unremarkable.  Our first stop was lunch, which was included in our tour.

Zipaquirá, from the parking lot of the Salt Cathedral

As with other parts of South America, meat is the main thing people eat in Colombia.  And, they eat lots and lots of meat.  We wheeled up to the entrance of the restaurant and there was a grill, almost out on the street.  The tour guide ordered for us, though I did ask for just a half portion:  I could see what other diners were getting and I knew that I could never eat that much food, and I did not want to waste it.

What came out first was soup, which, for me, was the best part of the meal.  Colombian food, from all I could tell, has almost no spice whatsoever.  In fact, there was a dish of "hot" sauce on the table.  I reached over to use it and was sternly advised by our driver and guide both that it was "very, very hot."  It was not.  In addition to the tasty soup, there was a lime-based drink served, something akin to lemonade, but not quite.  Very good.

We finished eating, loaded back into the vehicle, and headed for the town square.

The town square looked like a smaller version of the one in Bogotá, with a church and some municipal buildings.  Mountains rose up around the town.  Stray dogs lazed about in the square.  And, just then, we hear a crash behind us.  There were stone pilings to keep traffic off of the square and some woman had ran into one, and with enough velocity to rip it out of the ground.  Funny.

Looking down one of Zipaquriá's streets, just off the main square

Cathedral, on the main square

Traffic is also of the animal-drawn sort.  Notice the stone pillars.  This is before the woman came through and nailed on of them

Looking across the square, with the fog-shrouded mountains rising up behind

Another shot of the square

Another shot of the square

Another shot of the square

Another shot of the square

A couple of stray dogs, in a state of extreme relax

Philip, in front of the cathedral

Another of the square

Cathedral

This is the cathedra's steeple:  notice the grass and vegetation growing atop it

One of the finer structures on the square

Another from the square

We were only at the square for about fifteen minutes before it was time to head back to Bogotá.

After a day riding as a passenger in Colombia, anyone would be happy to be out of the car and on firm ground.  I know that I was.

For dinner, we gave in to exhaustion and decided to eat at the hotel.  It had been pretty good our first night there, so I had fairly high hopes.  They were dashed.  This time round the service was not that great and the food was equally mediocre.  Too bad.

We headed back to the room after dinner and turned in for the night, hoping for a good night's rest before our last day.

Bogotá, Part Six

Part Six:  Day Two, The Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá, Part Two

(This is the second part of our day at the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá.  The first part is here.)

Soon we found ourselves at the Salt Cathedral’s main attraction, the principle sanctuary, which is enormous and, though a bit kitschy, certainly impressive in size and scope.  One’s first impression comes from a sort-of balcony/mezzanine, overlooking the sanctuary below.  As before, the photos do not really do the space justice, but one gets the idea.

First view of the main sanctuary.  Look closely and you can see the people standing on the floor below.  That is the closest you can get to understanding the magnitude of the space

Philip with the sanctuary behind

Walking from the mezzanine to the sanctuary floor below, one passes a "salt fall."  Once upon a time, we can assume, water flowed here but eventually the water stopped leaving just the water

With the people one gets a sense of scale

Upon the sanctuary floor

The cross, up close

One last shot of the sanctuary

This sculpture was on the floor of the sanctuary.  It helps to give a sense of how kitschy the whole place is

On the way out, we passed this:  it is a sculpture carved into the salt on the wall

The Salt Cathedral was interesting enough, and I would certainly recommend a visit, but I don't know that I needed a full tour of the place.  If you are really into minerals, mining, or the religious symbolism, then a tour would be helpful; otherwise, if, like us, you just want to see the place, get a hotel-sponsored taxi to the cathedral for a quick look.

Coming next:  a quick visit to the town of Zipaquirá.

Lasik Update

A couple of folks asked me lately how the whole thing with my Lasik touch-up worked out or for an update.  So, here's one!

Thursday I had a final, pre-op appointment.  This appointment was to confirm that my prescription has not changed, since one needs their vision to have been stable for a bit before the procedure.  It has not changed and I am scheduled for my touch-up for the end of September.

Of concern, though, is that she tried initially to talk me out of the touch-up.  The doctor told me that being a "little nearsighted" was actually not that bad, as it would delay my need for readers from mid-40s to early 50s.

When I told her I wanted to proceed, as I needed glasses to drive at night and to see the television sharply, she described the procedure:  she will lift the "flap" created when she did the initial surgery, and then laser the eye for about two seconds.

Now, and here is the part the sound of which I dislike the most, if the flap has healed too thoroughly, a different approach is required.  This alternative method involves scraping the cornea.  That method requires wearing a clear contact lens on the eye for a few days until the cornea heals.  Great.

So, I am a little torn if I want to go through it, since it did not go spectacularly the first time.  As a dear former colleague once said "I don't know why I even bothered."  Indeed.  Good thing is that I have a few weeks to think it over and convince myself to go ahead or to settle for what I have.

Bogotá, Part Five

Part Five:  Day Two, The Salt Cathedral at Zipaguirá, Part One

For Monday we had booked a tour to the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá.  I had done some online research and found a company via TripAdvisor.  The tour was pricey for Colombia, at about $125 each.  It was an eight-hour tour, with private driver and individual guide, and included lunch.

Given that I’d had an especially bad night’s sleep and was having issues with the altitude, it crossed my mind that maybe it was best not to do the tour.  But, the alternative of missing seeing the cathedral wasn’t very appealing, so I figured I would suck it up and go.

We went to the lounge for breakfast but I had no appetite so I had just a couple of bites of fruit and left it at that.   A call came from the front desk:  our tour company was on the phone and they wanted to confirm we were still going on the tour.  “Yes, as long as there are seatbelts in the vehicle,” I answered.  The person on the other end of the line seemed perplexed by the question.  (If you have been following along you know my observation that the Colombians hate seatbelts.)

When the tour guide came into the lobby, he introduced himself and told us that he’d gotten our question and that the vehicle did have seatbelts.  I know all of this must seem very silly to the Colombians but, the way they drive, I wanted to be strapped into the car if it hit something, a possibility I could certainly envision.

The vehicle was a sort-of truck/SUV, with bucket seats in the front, a bench seat in the back, and then some sort of a covered storage area in the back.  It was almost an off-road vehicle.  The ride there was bumpy, even though we were on freeways most of the way.  On city streets, potholes ranging in size from small to axel-breaking were commonplace; only an alert driver makes it through unscathed, as one comes upon these potholes with no warning.  The freeways were generally pothole free but the pavement was generally buckled and made for a jarring ride.

At any rate, the drive across the countryside brought to mind some photos of Hawaii, with steep, lush mountains climbing up to meet the clouds, disappearing into the fog.  The Salt Cathedral was basically in a straight line, due north of the city, with mountains flanking us the entire 45-minute drive.

From the vehicle.  This was the scene each day:  clouds, sun, and rain

Some kitschy Taj Mahal replica in the countryside, flanked by lush mountains

Our guide was keen to share lots of details with us about Bogotá, Colombia, the salt mines, and the cathedral itself.  He had a real passion about the cathedral and its religious symbolism and especially about salt and other minerals.

Without actually having visited the cathedral it is very difficult to grasp the sheer size of the “rooms” inside the mountain.  There were several, each at least the size of two American football fields and as high as a ten story building.  It is said that over a million people could easily fit in the cathedral.  I certainly believe it.

The cathedral is actually a disused salt mine; actually it is part of an active salt mine that is no longer being mined.  Heavy equipment is used to haul out the mined salt.

Truck used to haul salt from the mine

Us, in the plaza at the entry into the mine

Going into the mine

Our guide talks about the salt on the walls

Us, standing next to a cross carved from the mountain's salt

It is really difficult to get a sense of how deep and large these caverns are.  These photos do no justice, but it’s the best I could do. 

Hard to see how deep this is, but it was difficult to see the end.

This one is a little better but still does not fully tell the story.

 By this point we were not even halfway through out tour.  More photos and narrative are on the way!

Next up:  more photos from the cathedral, including the main sanctuary, which is enormous.

Bogotá, Part Four

Sunday Afternoon (Day One)


As I’m writing this, I, of course, did survive my ride in the death cab for cutie (now I know where the band may have gotten its name).  But it shook me up pretty bad.  We went back to the room to recompose and figure out what to do.  In the end we decided to walk up to the Zona Rosa, which is an upscale shopping area with restaurants and cafés.




Half of the Street In Front of the Hotel Open Only to Cyclists, Walkers, and Joggers:

Random Buildings Along the Way:

Photo of Some Random Guy, Dancing In Traffic:

The walk from our hotel to Zona Rosa was along a mix of busy, chaotic roads and quiet, residential side streets.  We walked at a relaxed pace and managed to arrive in about twenty minutes.

There are a couple of shopping malls and some street-level retail.  The area is pretty indistinguishable from similar offerings all over the world.  I’ve seen similar malls in Warsaw, Buenos Aires, Beijing, San Francisco, and on and on.  But, it’s what we’d expected from what we read in the guidebooks and online.

We eventually found a spot to have a little lunch.  The waiter was friendly and spoke English well enough for us to get by, though he started off saying “I speak English.  But not friendly.”  After a couple of minutes of speaking, though, we realized he meant “fluently,” and not “friendly.”  I thought it was odd, though, that someone would warn me upfront that he was going to speak to me in English but he wasn’t going to like it!  Funny.




At the Restaurant We Ate At Was Having a "Festival of Hamburgers:"

After our late lunch we strolled around a little more before heading back to the hotel room.




Scenes From Around Zona Rosa:

In One of the Shopping Malls at Zona Rosa; Gas Is Bad, But Groggy Gas May Be Worse:

Philip Poses With a Horse:

On the Way Back to the Hotel, We Saw These; They Were Everywhere Around Town:

Back in the room, we freshened up and got ready for dinner, then headed to the lounge for a pre-dinner glass of wine.  It was about then that I started to really notice the altitude, though I didn’t yet know what it was I was dealing with.

Finding a place for dinner was no easy task:  we went to several near the hotel and they were all closed.  We traipsed up steep hillsides, and then ended up back at the hotel for suggestions.  Seems it was a national holiday the next day and that meant that many restaurants were closed.  (Interestingly, we asked several people and nobody could name the holiday!)

By the time we found a place to eat, my reactions to the altitude had become much more severe.  I’d pretty much lost my appetite, I was having issues breathing, and I wasn’t feeling very well.  It was all a shame, because the restaurant we ended up at seemed quite nice.

After dinner we went back to the room, unwound a little, and then went to bed.  Sadly, the altitude also affects the sleep pattern, as neither of us slept very well, not on that night nor on the others.  Actually, on that night, I even woke up at some point, unable to get enough air.   It’s pretty panic-inducing to awake in the middle of the night, heart racing, unable to get enough air.  I wished I'd heeded the warnings about altitude and had stayed better hydrated and taken other steps to combat its affects!


Next Up:  Monday