“You’re going to Colombia? Why are you going to Colombia? Colombia is very dangerous, you’ll be kidnapped. What’s in Colombia? Don’t forget to get me some drugs”! This is what I was met with when I told friends we were going to Colombia. And I must say, I did check the State Dept. travel warning site, just to be sure! But as I told myself, the good old US of A is as dangerous a place as just about anywhere!
Why did we choose Colombia? Well, the only Caribbean island we like is Jamaica and we’ve been there a lot; we were in Mexico last year and Roy just returned from Playa Del Carmen; we didn’t want to ski and couldn’t if we wanted to because of Roy’s ruptured bicep so I said to Roy “let’s go to Cartagena”. It’s hip and happening now; maybe we should check it out. So that’s what we did. But because of flights we combined it with Bogota. 3 nights Bogota, 4 nights Cartagena is what we planned.
And, I’m here to tell you that it was one of our more awesome trips. No muggings, no kidnappings, just extremely friendly people, amazing food and shopping, two magical cities with some culture mixed in.
Some interesting facts about Colombia: it is home to 25 varieties of mango along with fruits I’ve never heard of and avocados as big as my head. Bogota is 8,600 feet, higher than Mexico City. There are 300,000 taxis in Bogota! It is the 3rd largest city in South America and has the newest airport. It’s the second biggest producer of roses in the world after the Netherlands. And, of course, the coffee! There are no Starbucks; their version is Juan Valdez coffee shops which harvests coffee from farming cooperatives.
So here’s how our trip started. Who’s this you ask? This is the golf cart that shuttles people between United in Terminal C at Logan Airport and the United flights out of Terminal A going to Newark, which is where we were supposed to be! Who knew they split things up? I live with a travel professional! He’s supposed to know these things! You know how the shoemaker’s family has no shoes? Well, that’s us sometimes in the travel department. But I have more on that later.
Flight to Newark and five hours later we’re landing in Bogota, Colombia.
BOGOTA
Looks pretty daunting, right? It is. But with Edgar, our guide on day 1 from Explore Bogota, we got a great overview of the city along with some good local cuisine. I’ll talk more about Edgar and our tour in another post.
It’s not particularly a pretty city. Not in the way that Mexico City, Rio and Buenos Aires are. But it’s a big, busy city with a lot of neighborhoods and lots to keep you busy.
Our hotel, The Hotel Charleston, is a 20 room boutique hotel in the neighborhood called Zona T, an upscale neighborhood full of shops, malls and restaurants. All the hotel services which are usually compiled in a guest services book in your room are controlled via an ipad. Pretty cool. So was the hotel. Especially nice to come back to after a day of touring. Elegant in an understated way, a fabulous staff and in a neighborhood full of what we love, shopping and restaurants! And, flowers everywhere!
After we checked in we went across the street to a restaurant called La Brasserie. French, excellent and a great way to start our vacation.
So, in my following blog posts, I’ll take you on our trip to Colombia.
See you at the bar….
Cannot wait to hear more! When Roy told me you were going to Bogota and Cartegena I thought hmmm they can’t be going to Columbia can they, I thought it was dangerous for Americans? Then I googled Cartegena and there is a city in Spain by the same name so I thought maybe you were going back. Cannot wait to hear more about the country and your experiences!