Day 1 -- Bogota

After two pretty smooth flights, we arrived in Bogota at 5 am. Because people on the plane were wearing a range of clothing starting from shorts and flip flops and ending with winter coats, boots, wool scarves and hats, we really didn’t know what to expect temperature-wise. Once we got through immigration and customs (very efficient and quick), we got outside where the hotel driver was waiting for us with a big sign. It wasn’t cold… The drive to the hotel took about 20 minutes. The hotel is located in the northeast part of Bogota, an upscale neighborhood close to the hills. We were told that the historical zone/downtown called la Candelaria is not as nice and quite dangerous. Who knows. Since we didn’t sleep much at night, we took it easy and explored our neighborhood. A walking distance from our hotel is a lovely old neighborhood called Usaquen. It must be the most popular place in Bogota on Sundays because the whole Usaquen becomes a big artisan market. The narrow streets are full of stalls, people selling, buying, families walking with kids and dogs. There are lots of very quaint restaurants and bars, also full of families eating and drinking and enjoying themselves. We also went to a couple of neighborhood malls, which were pretty crowded too. Prices here are similar to prices in the US (one $1 Is about 1,800 Colombian pesos so we are dealing with big numbers here). An interesting thing about the malls is that they don’t have escalators. Instead they have flat surfaces moving up so people with with baby strollers or wheelchairs can use them too. Not a bad idea. People are generally very nice and helpful, smile a lot and look happy. Lots of good looking girls, too. More tomorrow.