Bogotá to Panama City

Today we got up early to catch an 8:30am flight from Bogotá to Panama City. It is kind of nice to be down at sea level where there is a lot of air!! It also much more hot and humid here.

Panama City has a lot more high rises than I expected. This is the view from our hotel.

We ate a good dinner at an outside cafe not far from the hotel.

Bogotá Day 2

Today we visited the Columbia National Museum. The museum is located in a former prison.

They had many interesting exhibits including about the history of Columbia and the recent peace process.

After touring the museum we had coffee in the courtyard.

For our last dinner in South America we had a wonderful meal on the top floor of a nearby hotel. The restaurant is called Carpaccio. First we shared a fried mozzarella appetizer then we had squash soup with blue cheese. For the main course we had pasta and for desert chocolate. It was all wonderful.

It is Saturday night and there were two big parties at nearby tables. One was a Birthday. We assumed it was for this princess

The other party was bigger and more formal. It was an elegant quincenera. In the picture below you can see the family getting ready to make their entrance.

There was also live music. The people watching was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we fly to Panama.

Bogotá

Today we took a cab into central Bogotá and visited El Museo de Oro ( the museum of Gold). The museum presents the history of metallurgy throughout the world and has exhibits of metal work from all the different regions of Columbia. The descriptions are in English and Spanish and we also had an English audio guide. It was fascinating and there were some beautiful pieces.

Next we walked around the streets a bit.

And then finally went to the Emerald Museum. They mine a lot of emeralds in Columbia. Although we couldn’t take pictures the young guide was very good. The museum is on the 23rd floor of a bank building.

Neiva to Bogotá

This morning we were on the bus from Neiva to Bogotá by 7:30. It was a double decker very comfortable bus and we were in Bogotá at 1:00.

In Bogotá in the cab to the hotel the first thing the driver asked us was about Trump. Then for the whole drive he talked non stop about how wonderful and smart Trump is. He said among lots of other things how immigrants are the problem. Just look at the Venezuelans!! It was surreal!

We are staying at a great hotel in a very upscale part of Bogotá. The altitude here is 8,440 feet so the temperature is much cooler than Neiva. It all feels very European. We walked to dinner at a great restaurant nearby. Both of us had steak.

And a warm brownie and ice cream for desert.