It’s lovely when a 4 hour bus ride is considered short, but we’ve just calculated that Christmas will be a driving day, with 13 hours behind the wheel, and even worse on New Years Day with another 15 hours to travel.
Anyway, a relatively short 4 hour ride later we arrived back in Bogota and after checking back into the same hotel and being grateful that our luggage was still where we left it in storage enjoyed a huge lunch before setting off for the Gold Museum just round the corner.
45 minutes later and very lost we got a taxi to the Gold Museum.
The museum was actually very impressive and housed a huge collection of golden item from across the continent, but really didn’t take that long to walk round, so Jill and I finished up and left the others to it whilst seeking out a coffee shop. Suitably refreshed we returned to where we’d agreed to meet at 4.30 and sat outside in the cold until 5.15, when we gave up and just went for a wander round the streets at night. For all the warnings, Bogota didn’t feel at all threatening. It’s a very grey city, and quite densely populated in areas but no one seemed to bother us, or try to blow anything up.
On our way round we passed through a very hectic market area well known for being a haven for pickpockets judging by the way the locals held onto their bags. Just up the road was a huge square with a very trashy Christmas tree covered in red and yellow sunflowers and a large church with an equally trashy nativity scene constructed entirely from cheap plastic.
Arriving back outside the Gold museum just to check the others weren’t still waiting we saw an artist painting with spray cans and a lighter. A huge crowd had gathered but it really didn’t seem that good, so with the continued absence of the others went for another coffee and cake. It wasn’t until we passed the square again that we saw the finished result of the painting which was remarkable.
