Bogotá

Day 182 – Expensive Gold and Cheap Haircuts

This morning we took a walk around the area where we were staying, Candelaria, an upmarket area in the CBD.  Our first task this morning was to visit the nearby Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold).

We entered and after consulting the map, were pretty sure we had underestimated the time needed to visit the extensive exhibits spread over three levels – underestimated because I had made an appointment with a hair dresser for a bit over an hour and a half later. 

Lucky for us they let us leave and come back on the same ticket, so after an hour I went round the corner to my appointment while Matt went back to the hostel to research which of a various shopping malls may satisfy his taste and desperate need for some new clothes.  After only 20 minutes I had had most of my hair cropped whilst concurrently receiving a manicure and all for about $15!  I spent another 20 minutes on the street waiting for Matt to come back, as we had both thought getting 5 inches of hair cropped would take at least an hour!  He was only coming back to see if I had any translation issues.  There was only one (the fringe, of which I am not sure I am a fan) but it was too late!  …it will grow.

So it was back to the Gold Museum.  Surprisingly we were allowed to take photos, so here are a few of the hundreds of artefacts that were hiding behind huge vaulted doors:

Most of the objects were ceremonial type artefacts or trinkets found in the tombs of kings dating back to before the Europeans arrived.  All of the exhibits where translated into English also, so it was a bit more interesting to read some stuff rather than just marvel at the intricacy, which is what its normally like if we bother to visit a museum. 

There was one exhibit that scared the crap out of us as without any signs or warnings about claustrophobia and the like, we walked into one small room and the sliding doors began to close behind us and all the lights switched off!  For about 30 seconds we were standing in the pitch dark, trapped with two others, wondering what had happened.  Then some lights lit up the exhibits in different sections in the cabinets in time to some very loud indigenous music and we relaxed a little.  It went on for about 5 minutes and then at the end, darkness again for another minute or so until the big doors began to slide back open and we could see light again!  Freaky!

 
The museum houses 50,000 pieces and as well as gold, there is also pottery, stonework, jewellery and other artefacts and information and maps of other precious metals found in Colombia.  Gold was by far the most prominent though.

After the museum we had a quick snack of banana chippies and we were on the bus to Matt’s chosen shopping mall for some clothes.  Unsurprisingly, the mall he had chosen was right opposite the Bogota Beer Company’s main bar and so we both tried their Red Ale (to ease the stress of shopping) before heading into the mall.  We emerged from the mall an hour or so later, successful.  Now they will let Matt on the Ocean Princess in three weeks time instead of telling him no derelicts allowed.

I had already eyed off a cheap deal on green curry near our hostel for dinner, so we headed to Yumi Yumi, with the help of directions from a friendly street urchin.  We had red curry, but it was still good and cheap.  What was even better though, was the fruit smoothies they made!

 

Day 183 – Warning: Every 18 year old Colombian male has an automatic weapon.

First stop today was a walk over to Donación Botero aka the Botero Museum.  Ferdinand Botero was actually born in Medellin (so we have already seen some of his stuff there ie those bronze sculptures in the park), but the main display of stuff is in Bogota and was donated to the city, together with some other International art and all shown for free in a beautiful restored mansion.  It’s easy to tell a Botero by the ‘proportionally exaggerated’ (aka fat) figures.

The Candelaria area of Bogota.

Botero’s take on the Mona Lisa.

A rather plump horsie.

A chubby bronze hand in the foyer.

Typical Colonial Spanish courtyard in the centre of the building.

A bronze gumby (by someone who was not Botero!)

Chumpy birdie – Botero.

In the building opposite the Botero Museum there was a small collection of old instruments that we couldn’t resist having a look at.  No clarinets or bassoons though.

After the Botero Museum we took a walk around some of the older parts of town and through one of the main squares where a protest was being held in relation workers rights outside the Capitol Building.  Then it was on to the Police Museum.

Griffins watch over the roof of the Capitol Building.

Capilla del Sagrario and Catedral Primada, also in the square.

The National Police Historical Museum was built between 1923 and 1926 and was the Police HQ before it was a museum.  The museum houses all kinds of memorabilia such as a 1800’s prisoner transport cart, an original printing press used to print the police news, hundreds of medals and badges from all different forces all over the world and examples of different uniforms both life size and in miniature.  There is also information and displays about the evolution of the police in Colombia and about the various high profile incidents they have dealt with over the years.  A large section of the museum is dedicated to the hunt for the infamous Pablo Escobar and the rest of his cronies in the Medellin Cartel and includes all their mug shots, a photo and life size model of Escobar just after the police shot him in 1993 and various other gory photos and bits and pieces of equipment that the police used to capture him.

 
The “Most Wanted” poster issued by police for Escobar’s capture.  The police had to issue four of these as Escobar received a number of plastic surgeries to change his appearance.

The police motto, coined by the oldest currently serving police officer:
“If you want to be happy for one day, get drunk.  If you want to be happy for one year, get married.  If you want to be happy for a lifetime, join the police.”

Miniature versions of uniforms of the World.  These were the most interesting:  Saudi Arabia, Chad and Bahamas.

Matt in the gun room.

The view over Bogota from the roof of the museum building.  The building is an example of Republican architecture with a French influence.

A cocaine press used by the Medellin Cartel with their symbol in-printed on each pack.

Our guide spoke decent English so we asked him a few questions about police in Colombia and finally found out why the police on the streets all look so young!  All 18 year old males in Colombia must serve in either the Army (for 1.5 years) or the Police (for only 1 year) and so many of them chose the police because it is less time!  Our guide was in this category and was waiting to finish his service so he could go to university and study electrical engineering.

After the museum we had a delicious satay noodle stir-fry before we hopped on the bus to Zipaquira.  We had a wonder around town when we got there and found some food, but nothing much else and we were the only gringos again! 

Medellín

Day 174 – Fat Cherubs and Hare Krishnas

Typically, given we didn’t need to be anywhere in a hurry and would have quite happily kept sleeping on the bus, our bus arrived into Medellín bang on time. Consequently we arrived at Hostal del Sol quite early, but they were prepared for us and gave us a bed straight away. Resisting the temptation to go back to bed we instead did a little research on the internet and then headed out to do some sightseeing.

There was no need for wall hangings at this hostel as it has just been painted straight onto the walls. Nearly every bit of wall space in the hostel common areas is decorated in a similar fashion.

Medellín is another South American city actively expanding its metro rain system (refer to previous rant), so we walked a couple of blocks to the nearest station and pretty soon we were arriving in the old city centre. Firstly we checked out the many bronze sculptures by Fernando Botero which are spread around Plazoleta de las Esculturas whilst woofing down some delicious smoothies from a nearby stand.

Erin naturally chose to pose with the dog sculpture.

Next we headed for lunch at the local Hare Krishna joint. With Erin not eating much meat the Hare Krishnas had fed us a number of times in the last six months. The food is always tasty, wholesome and cheap- thanks smiley people.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the streets and trying to do a little clothes shopping (I’m living in about 6 main items of clothing, some of which are nearly degenerated to the point of making me look like a destitute).

Then for the first time since Argentina we decided to cook for ourselves. More accurately Erin cooked me some vegie pasta while I published the behemoth Galapagos blog post.

Day 175 – Modern and mostly moved

After a slow start we headed for the modern art museum. Rather strangely it is located in an apartment building in the centre of a middle class residential district, this made it rather challenging to locate. When we did locate it, it was only to find that the opening hours had changed and we were an hour early. We decided to wait and when we were finally let in it was to find another surprise, they’ve relocated most of the exhibitions to a new building about three suburbs away. So we looked around the one remaining exhibit and moved on!

Our next stop was a ride up Medellín’s Metrocable, a cable car that is part of the city’s metro system. About five stops out of town is a combined railway/cable car station, where passengers can transfer from one service to another without leaving the public transport system. The cable car serves two purposes, the three stops on the way up service lower class barrios in an area too steep to be serviced by rail, the top stop connects to a tourist service with views over the city and connections to the Medellín public library and a nature reserve. It’s a very clever set-up.

Biblioteca Publica (Medellín Public Library)

The cable car heading through the nature reserve.

Downtown Meddelín with the hillside barrios in the foreground.

Back on the train we headed for El Poblado, the new posh bit of Medellín. We didn’t have a map so we stalked three other gringos from the train station (only the second set of foreigners we’d seen since leaving the Koreans at the border!). When we got into El Poblado proper we saw where all the tourists were hiding, western restaurants (more sushi, yum) and boutique clothing stores abound.

Having satisfied our sushi, beer and shopping requirements we headed for home via a massive Carrefour (supermarket, part of a French chain, the largest chain of supermarkets in the world, they seem to be everywhere but Australia) to pick up ingredients to cook for ourselves a second night running.

A Daphne puppy on a pet store billboard.