Bogotá, The Capital - Oct 3, 2009 - Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia

So from Manizales we took a longish bus trip to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. We stayed in La Candelaria, where all the tourists stay. It was a ok. Lots of old colonial buildings, a little worse for wear with lots of graffiti....some with pro Nazi stuff written...go figure,and lots of communist stuff as well. It's a good way to gauge the political climate in South America....often they write very thoughtful statements. The first thing we did was go to the gold museum. This one is reputed to be the best pre-Columbian gold museum in S.A. It was indeed an excellent museum and on Sundays it turned out that you get in free....so anybody can go. It is laid out really well. It takes you through an explanation of how indigenous societies were set up, their beliefs, the technology and harvests they had. Their gold mining techniques. They had a floor dedicated to works of art in ceramic and other materials and explained the use of each thing or what it represented. They made sure to point out which culture they belonged to and which regions and periods they occupied. Their gold collection was a really prodigious one. They had sections to explain everything. They would have a gold figure of a shaman for example wearing various items and they would explain everything about what he was wearing and why. They had a section of gold jewellery which would have belonged to a leader. They had another section where they explained gold mining techniques and jewellery making techniques of various cultures and explain what was particularly amazing about certain pieces. I for one was really impressed. One day we went to the Botero museum he is one of Colombia's most famous artists. He paints everything fat, sometimes disproportionate, and all people seem to have absolutely no expression on their faces. We thought his stuff was pretty funny. He is now Brad's favourite artist in S.A. I'm sure he'll be posting pictures on facebook. It was a huge museum and included a collection of Botero's art works by international artists, including the likes of Picasso. My new favourite artist I discovered is Max Ernst. Before this I'm sure I had no clue about him. This museum also included a section on Colombian artists and also a numismatics museum, since this series of museums was owned by the National Bank of Colombia, it only makes cents (ha! ha!). It was kind of boring, but kind of interesting to learn about Colombia's history of money. Lots of events such as civil war and the down fall of the Spanish colonial rule had a lot of impact on what currencies were used, ect. Since we discovered that the Bogotá international film festival was going on while we were there, we decided we ought to see some of it. So off we went to the library one morning and Brad figured they were showing some kind of documentary at 10 am. Unfortunately it turned out to be some kind of lecture on how Colombian film makers might find themselves in a position to make movies in conjunction with France. When the guest speaker started talking in French about how it was going to be one big question and answer period.....well...we kind of just walked out. And went straight to the main desk to ask for a proper program. The next thing we went to was apparently supposed to be a series of short animations. When we got there the fellow told us it was meant for children, luckily he said adults might find enjoyment in them as well. It turned out that these "cartoons" were not really meant for children. We were two of 3 people in there...and only Brad and I laughed at the funny ones. Luckily there were no children, they would not have been amused. The final thing we went to see was a Mexican film...which we didn't understand very well. I dint know if it's because they sound different or what...and we were unexpectedly expected to stay for a discussion with the film maker afterwards....They wouldn't let us sneak out that time. One day we went up the cable car to a church called Monserrate which is of course high on a hill top overlooking the city. They had the most beautiful garden at the bottom, with lights that they light at night and man made waterfalls. The church at the top was equally beautiful...and the view of the city was great too. If one wants to appreciate how enormous the city is, that is the place to go. One day we went to look for a Nintendo DS...a small portable Nintendo, because the new one has wifi internet. We thought it might be a worthwhile investment. We were told we had to go to a certain mall to find these things. We got there only to find western stores for the exclusive use of rich Colombians ( the 15% that have all the wealth). It was just horrible. Their prices were beyond ridiculous. They wanted 700,000 pesos or $350 US for the thing. At home it is $180 Canadian. The price went up if you wanted it in an exclusive colour like pink or fluorescent green. Yes, you are probably all thinking exactly what we thought...Bloody ridiculous! Needless to say we decided to do without. One day we decided to go to Zipaquira, a small town north of Bogotá, to visit the all famous salt cathedral...a cathedral built inside of a working salt mine. On the way we noticed an awful lot of army checkpoints...and I became a little bit worried. When we got to the town itself we saw an army helicopter flying overhead. And when we got to the road going up to the salt mine we were told we couldn't go in until 2pm. So we went to visit the little archaeological museum nearby, eat lunch, look around the town...it was a pretty little colonial town. Came back....Army troops, army tank, police officers and a big crowd of people waiting to go into this church. Apparently the president was in town and we were waiting for him to leave. What a relief...it wasn't preparation for some kind of civil war. Finally we got to go to see this church. It was pretty neat. Giant crosses carved out of salt in the empty chambers that had already been mined. Some fancy carvings and a cafe....all 600m under ground. AND they even had an emerald shop...to Brad's infinite amusement. And at the end a complimentary 3D movie all about how the salt mine works....which we could understand...being as it wasn't in Mexican. And finally we moved on to Medellín. Where we stayed for over a month.