Before Cat left we had a few days in the Bog - aka Bogota - and managed to catch up with some exBeehivers - more than we'd planned to! Hana, Vince, Elissa and Yvonne had all aimed for the same dates, mainly to wave Cat and Yvonne off, and we ran into Fiona whilst looking for someone else's friend!
Obviously this level of reunion required hard liquor and the bar at Musicology hostel was happy to provide. Being us, Cat and I imported some red wine too. Then we got stuck into the happy hour cocktails and the national spirit - Aguardiente - which is like watered down sambuca (the one we had was less than 30%)
Then we also had to visit the BBC to sample their ales - including the classic, rojo and honey (no one was in the mood for the porter) - we discovered happy hour was from 12.30 to 5pm with a great discount on jugs and a beer pizza combo - happy backpackers :)
We also managed some sightseeing between the drinking...
We visited a coffee 'factory' Cafe Fonda. When we arrived it was full of gringos - which was reassuring as the area was very dodgy (got a cab there). Little did we realise they were all on the bike tour! When they disappeared around the back to collect their bikes we thought a tour of the factory was starting - but turns out you can just wander in and one of the staff will explain how they roast the beans etc..
So we had a wander - they turned on the roasting machine for us and we had a cup of coffee - yum! Better than the Nescafé we'd been drinking recently!
We then headed back to the historic centre to check out the main road which had been pedestrianised - we think for Holy Week, but it could have just been because... There were lots of shops, so we shopped of course! Then we made it to the gold museum which pretty much does as it says on the tin - lots of gold artefacts from different eras of Colombia's history.
It was stunning in the sheer amount of gold on show - there were also huge vault doors on the way into some of the rooms
The museum was good in trying to explain the symbolism behind the breast plates, nose rings and head dresses, and how the different regions had different influences and styles. We had learnt some of this from the gold museum in Cartagena - but this was much more in depth. All in all worth it for only £1! (Especially to escape the rain outside!)
A quick stop for some chocolate santafereño - basically hot chocolate with cheese helped us escape the rain.
We also managed a trip up to one of the hills, Cerro de Monserrate, to see the view over Bogota. Although it wasn't raining the view wasn't so great with either cloud/smog over the city.
We enjoyed the telepherique up and the funicular back down!
We also hit up some of the free art museums in the historic centre - the Donacion Botero is all paintings donated by Botero - some are his and some are from his personal collection which includes everything from impressionist through to surrealist.
Probably the best free tour we got was our personal tour around the national police museum. As we were the only 5 gringos we got a private English tour from Ana. This included a drink - I was very impressed! The national police museum gives a lot of information about the history and structure of Colombia's police force (set up by a Frenchman who was running the French force), but is notorious for the information on the drug cartels that they've brought down (Pablo Escobar being just one of many).
We saw a lot of guns
Then it was time to say goodbye to Cat - we separated at Bogota El Dorado Airport with her headed to New Zealand via Chile and me to Medellin for some finca fun for Easter.
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