What we've seen so far... it is a BEAUTIFUL city. Very cool. We left Cartagena sweltering and here we're wearing long pants, real shoes with socks, and fleeces.
We are staying in the Hotel Platypus, a backpacker place recommended by Lonely Planet and many others. But they have just opened a new building with more rooms, and we got a brand new room with private bath and hot water, and I think it's only costing us $25 a night.
When we checked in, we saw a sign for a free tour, in English, of the major tourist attractions with the 'tourist police'. So we hustled off to lunch and were able to join the tour in the Plaza Bolivar. I have to say that my Spanish is almost better than his English, but it was enjoyable. It was comical for awhile... we had 4 men in army uniforms escorting only 3 tourists up the street.
We got walkthru tours of the famous Museum of Money, the Gold Museum, and the Botero Museum. And a little info on the old buildings on the Plaza Bolivar. It was definitely the 'nickel tour', but it got us oriented. We doubled back to see the Gold Museum a little more thoroughly. The full museum is down for renovation now, so we got 'just enough'.
Tomorrow we go up to the Monserrat... a convent (I think) on the mountain top. You ride up via cable cars.
Our building is so new that they were stringing the wifi cable tonight. Hopefully we'll have 'in-room' wifi by tomorrow. Will try to post a few pics then.
The Platypus is in a great location... 3-4 blocks from all the downtown museums, and steps from a busy city center and a metro station.
The big news in Colombia is that the military have liberated 15 hostages from the guerillas that have been captives for about 5 years. We've seen a few interviews on the TV in Spanish and don't comprehend all of exactly how it went down. But it is a VERY big deal here. One more step on the road to normalcy, everyone hopes.
More pics of our Bogota adventures
Glad that you're having fun. The news on the former captives is big here, too! Deb
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