We’re going to South America! Literally the five most exciting words I had heard in a long time back in mid-2018, when my boyfriend and I decided to book the trip. For years, YEARS, South America (any part, I didn’t care where) was at the top of my list of places to travel. I was enchanted by every part of it – the historic architecture, the bright colors, the beautiful landscapes, the fast-paced, high energy cities. The sheer scale of life that leaped out of almost every photo I saw of the continent absolutely captivated me.
Funnily enough, the idea of going to Bogotá had never crossed my mind – I’d always envisioned going to Peru to explore Machu Pichu, or to Argentina to experience vibrant Buenos Aires and rugged Patagonia, or to the wine country in Chile. Visiting a place that was once infamous for drug lords and crime (as I was continually reminded by my family) had not been an option I considered.
Given Bogotá’s history, was I a little nervous as we stepped off the plane, after an exhausting overnight flight? Yes. Was I gripping my bags maybe a little more firmly than strictly necessary? It’s possible. Was that due, at least in part, to my being sleep deprived and confused? Probably.
But once I took a nap (i.e., crashed onto the bed as soon as we walked into our Airbnb) and got over the shock of discovering that the toilets in South America do not, for the most part, accept toilet paper (not a detail I was made aware of prior to the trip), I was ready to get out and about. Okay, if I’m being honest, I was so ready to get out and about on that first morning because I was on an urgent mission to find a toilet that would, in fact, accept toilet paper. Surely there had to be one somewhere, right? (Spoiler, there wasn’t.)
Either way, I didn’t dwell on that rather disconcerting detail for long, because after all, we were in Bogotá! And let me tell you, it’s a city that grabs the attention. It’s a gorgeous blend of old world neighborhoods, complete with cobbled streets and colorful building fronts, and absolutely overwhelming city streets packed with so many people that it makes you forget where you were trying to go in the first place. Just to give you an idea, I live in Chicago, and before going to Bogotá, the Chicago rush hour foot traffic would overwhelm me; after coming back from Bogotá, I looked at that same rush hour foot traffic and felt relief that there was barely anyone on the streets. So yeah. LOTS of people.
We were in Bogotá for 10 days, and it was simultaneously not enough time to see everything and also more than enough time in such a high-energy, exhausting place. It’s a larger than life, in-your-face city, and I think one of the things that best exemplifies that is the riot of color that’s literally everywhere. Virtually every available space, from the sides of buildings to bridge underpasses, is covered in graffiti, but not the type of graffiti you’re probably envisioning. When I heard the word graffiti, I generally visualized (pre-Bogotá) some words scrawled across the side of a building in spray paint. In Bogotá, that’s not what it means. There, it means, huge, colorful, gorgeous murals done by people who clearly have a talent for art. The presence of so many colorful images really lent itself to Bogotá’s vibe of wild beauty, and was one of my favorite things about the city.
We planned a road trip to a little village in the middle of the 10 days, to break things up a little bit, and it was a great idea – Matt and I both needed a rest from the hustle and bustle. Because when I say “wild beauty,” I’m not exaggerating- it’s a wild place, and probably not a great destination for the faint of heart traveler. While we were there, we saw two muggings and one instance of a person driving a scooter getting hit by a car. Yikes. But I would like to say that what we did not see anything of was weapons of any kind, and neither of us felt at all nervous about that at any point during the trip. Also, the shock of seeing the scooter driver get hit was also somewhat blunted by the fact that as soon as it happened, pretty much everyone in the surrounding area immediately stepped in to help (it was clearly a regular occurrence that everyone knew how to handle), and luckily the scooter rider hadn’t been hit very hard and wasn’t badly injured.
On the whole, our experience of the city was that even though it was completely wild and overwhelming, the people were extremely kind. I think that fact was best demonstrated by the street dogs running around the city. It absolutely astounded me – they were everywhere. You’d think that would be a sad thing, right? Sad, skinny dogs trudging around with their tails between their legs, trying to avoid the crazy drivers?
No.
These street dogs were the happiest things I’ve ever seen – they trotted confidently down busy streets, tails held high, ears perked, and were clearly kept well fed, either by one regular source or by various different shop and restaurant keepers. I was terrified the entire time that we were going to see one get hit by a car – I mean really, how could we not, with the sheer volume of both dogs and crazy drivers – but you know what? We didn’t. Not a single one. I will say that it probably didn’t hurt that the street dogs there displayed an oddly savvy knowledge of the rules of the road. They stayed on the sidewalks, not in the road, and we saw at least one waiting at a crosswalk and then proceeding to cross the busy street with a big group of pedestrians. Smart pup.
My advice for any would-be Bogotá visitors would be the same as it is for any other destination- be a smart traveler. Matt and I didn’t carry any bags with us when we were out and about (we just took the bare essentials in our pockets), and neither of us went anywhere alone. We also didn’t walk around with our phones in our hands- if we needed to look something up or wanted to take photos or whatever, one of us would deal with a phone while the other kept an eye out for any potential drive-by robbers (absolutely a thing- that’s how one of the two muggings we saw happened.)
Okay, but anyway – our road trip out of the city. For a few days right in the middle of the trip, we stayed in and explored an adorable little town called Filandia, which was an absolutely perfect break from the hectic craziness of Bogota. (And where we found some of the best food we had during the trip.) While we were in Filandia, we were lucky enough to have the absolute nicest Airbnb hosts I have ever come across. They were an adorable retired couple who were originally from Bogotá, and as it turned out, Matt and I were close in age to their children, who still lived and worked in the city.
When we arrived, I was fighting off what turned into a pretty severe cold and cough (which I blame on the stress from the drive, but more about that in a moment), and within the first 10 minutes of our arrival, there was a knock at the door, followed by delivery of a steaming hot cup of panela tea. I had never heard of it before, but it’s a Colombian staple made from unrefined whole cane sugar, and it was just the thing for a dry, scratchy throat. (And did we bring a bag back with us? Of course we did.)
Now: the Bogotá-to-Filandia drive. Oh man. While I would highly recommend venturing out into a quieter village area during any trip to Colombia (after research to make sure the village you’re going to is currently safe for tourists, of course), I would strongly advise thinking twice about driving. Matt and I decided to drive for two reasons: first, because we wanted to see the scenery along the way, and second, because while it’s super cheap for locals to fly from place to place within Colombia, there tend to be different (more expensive) prices for foreigners. Our route took about seven hours in total and took us through the Andes mountains.
The scenery was absolutely gorgeous (see below for some photos), but the stress of driving along the mountain highway was just about too much. (Side note, it’s evidently not super common to see a woman driving in lieu of a man in Colombia. When we pulled up to a toll gate, the woman collecting money started laughing and apparently thought it was adorable that I was driving instead of Matt.) I’m definitely an experienced driver, and have driven in many urban areas, from Boston to Chicago to Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia, but nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for driving through the Andes. The road was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever experienced – very steep, very narrow, VERY windy. Also, to make things just that little bit more fun, for the vast majority of the trip, it’s a single lane road with a lane of traffic going in each direction and no barrier in between.
At the time I was driving, there were also about forty thousand trucks on the road, which, as you may have surmised, is not terribly well-suited to such large vehicles. They can’t really get up the necessary momentum to make it up the steep hills at much more than 10 mph, so the impatient (and INSANE) drivers of regular cars just swerve around them, despite the hairpin turn that’s 200 feet away that you can’t see around to know if any traffic is hurtling down the mountain toward you. Like I said. Terrifying. Oh, and did I mention that the side of the road that isn’t a sheer rock face is a sheer drop? Off the side of the mountain? So if someone screws up and causes a huge accident, chances are good that you’re getting pushed off the road and down off the mountain. Now you see why I was literally sick by the time we reached our destination.
Anyway, while terrifying, the drive also had several entertaining moments. Some of the more interesting things we saw:
- A goat transaction that literally stopped traffic. The guy with the goats was driving by, a guy who lived on the side of the road flagged him down, and goat guy just stopped in the middle of the road, causing a huge traffic jam, while the goat was bought, paid for, and carried off the highway;
- A 24-hour dog wash (dead serious);
- A semi that had clearly overturned while trying to navigate one of the downhill curves too fast (thank God it overturned toward the mountain instead of out over the side, and it wasn’t blocking traffic or we’d probably still be trapped in a traffic jam on the side of that mountain);
- A bundle of sticks sitting in the middle of the busy road with a road cone feebly attempting to protect it from oncoming traffic (just don’t sit your stick bundle in the road, maybe?);
- A one-armed man directing traffic around the most dangerous turn we navigated – you couldn’t see the traffic coming around up the hill, most of which was truck traffic, and the trucks had to swing way out into the oncoming lane to actually make the turn. So if you didn’t know one was coming (and you wouldn’t have, without one-armed guy), you basically would have been flattened by a truck. One-armed guy did an admirable job, but the fact that he was missing a limb did not inspire a lot of confidence in the safety of the system, I have to say.
Matt had considerably less traffic to deal with on the drive back, the lucky duck, but even so, while the scenery was beautiful, it was a long, precarious drive through really high altitudes (can’t forget about that). All in all, unless you’re really gung ho about the driving experience, I’d recommend flying.
So yeah, the altitude – it’s no joke, friends. Bogotá is almost 9,000 feet above sea level, and we definitely felt it. I’ve never done particularly well with high altitudes, and I was feeling a little queasy for the majority of our trip. Luckily, Bogotános have found a way to combat the altitude through, of all things, tea. (Yay for tea!) Coca tea, to be exact. I was skeptical that it would actually have any effect, but it really did help with alleviating my headaches and general queasiness.
I could go on and on about our South American adventures, BUT this post is already just a touch on the lengthy side, so I’m going to wrap things up. Before I do though, I obviously have to mention the food.
Bogotá is amazing in about a thousand different ways, but if you’re looking for a gourmet getaway, it wouldn’t make the short list. My short list, anyway. With a few exceptions, we didn’t find the food to be overly inspiring. We tried the trademark dish, ajiaco, a couple of times, but just couldn’t get that excited about it. I think part of the issue may have been that Matt and I tend to favor spicy dishes with a lot of different flavors, and we just found a lot of the food on offer in Colombia to be a bit bland.
I will say, though, that the coffee was fantastic. Not really news, but I thought I’d mention. Our first food-related stop after arriving in Bogotá was to an adorable coffee shop in the historic district, and that definitely was not a disappointment.
We also went to La Puerta Falsa (one of the places where we did have some pretty tasty food) and we sat at the EXACT table that Anthony Bourdain sat at when he was there. We had no idea until Matt made the comment that the tamale that had just been placed on our table was the biggest he’d ever seen, and our waiter was like “that’s exactly what Anthony Bourdain said when he was here,” and we were like “no way, that’s crazy,” and he was like “yeah, he actually sat at this table,” and we were like WHAT. So yeah. One of our prouder travel moments.
I also have to give a shout-out to Helena Adentro, the awesome, super colorful place we went for lunch (and then again for dessert) in Filandia, and to Al Agua Patos, an adorable, French-themed bistro we went to on our last day in Bogotá. Finally, I’d suggest Azahar Cafe for a leisurely morning of sipping (completely delicious) coffee, eating sweet flaky pastries, and people watching.
So there you have it! Our 10-day Colombian whirlwind condensed down into blog post form. Whew. There’s so much more that could be said, but I’d never get it all whittled down to a post (or even two), so the highlights will have to do. Until the next trip, friends!
What’s your favorite trip that you’ve taken? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
0