Bogota, Colombia

Bogota wins the award for greatest surprise of my travels to date. It’s a city I hadn’t considered given its size and modern presence. Further, a 2021 experience in Medellin had soured my perspective of Colombia so it simply did not register as a destination worth exploring. Fortunately, I found a very inexpensive one way flight from Mexico City and felt the time was right to make another attempt at South America knowing all vaccinations mandates had been lifted. So, I located and secured a comfortable apartment in a high-rise over looking Bogota’s urban center and decided to make the best of my thirty day visit while shoring up plans to journey further south.

 

Bogota sits on a shelf of flat land in the Andes at almost 9000 feet above sea level. The city is built along a very steep, heavily forested mountain range that provides the dramatic background present in many of photos promoted by Colombia tourism. The city also experiences a healthy dose of rainfall that usually occurs in the late afternoon. It’s a daily event that leaves Bogota fresh, renewed and vibrant - something I enjoyed immensely given the arid environments of Mexico that was the norm during my previous month and most of 2022.

 

Like Medellin, Bogota enjoys a very modern urban center that’s specifically focused on progressive transportation concepts including a modern underground metro, a Bus Rapid Transit system ( BRT), pedestrian friendly corridors and bike lanes that rival many first world European cities. As and added bonus and complimentary component of this people friendly urban environment, the city is loaded with parks and smaller green spaces. The net result, a seamless and fluid connection of Modern Bogota with its historic roots at the center nearing the mountain base. Strangely, Bogota reminded me of my city of birth (Vancouver, British Columbia), minus the water. In the end, I enjoyed my stay in the Colombian capital. So much so that I plan on returning for another month on my route back north after tagging the southern end of the continent later this summer.

 

Bogota is also home to a robust and diverse display of graffiti/street art so it became a goldmine of images that I hope to incorporate in future artwork during the course of 2023. Next up, a return to Cuenca where it all began two years to the month.