We spent the next few days exploring Bogota. First we went on a bike tour with Bogota Bike Tours where we learned a bit more about Bogota's history and  saw both the good and the really bad parts of the city.  Right before we were about to leave, it started raining so we had to wear panchos while riding the bikes. 

Compulsory Military Service:
Our tour began in La Candelaria and we first rode uphill to the oldest part of Bogota, the     Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo.  Here our tour guide, Jaime, explained that the reason you see so many young police officers all over the city is that all Colombian men must serve two years of compulsory military or police service.  Joining the army invariably means eventual run-ins with the FARC, which is very dangerous, so most people choose to join the police force.  We next rode our bikes to Bolivar Plaza, the political center of present-day Bogota.

Violent Political History:
Bolivar Plaza is surrounded by a major cathedral, the justice department and the capitol building, where congress meets.  Jaime spent a bit of time discussing the more recent political history of Colombia including the origins of the current political parties and the FARC.  This all dates back to the late 1940's.  Colombia experienced a period of strong economic growth during World War II, and coming out of the war, there were various political groups vying for control of the government.  The leader of the Populist movement, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated during his presidential campaign in 1948, setting off a period of significant political unrest in Colombia, essentially a decade long civil war between the conservatives and liberals known as La Violencia, during which time around 300,000 people were killed.  Following the war, the two parties agreed to share power, alternating control of government.  The post-Violencia conservative government pursued a policy of commercializing most of the agriculture in the country in order to boost productivity, essentially favoring large corporate agribusiness over local farmers and, in effect, causing many independent farmers to join one of the larger corporate entities.  Amidst this climate, the environment was ripe for the communist sympathizers to gain more support from these displaced local farmers in the countryside, and in the early 1960's, the FARC was born.  

Since that time, there has been constant fighting between the FARC and the Colombian government, with the FARC vying for control of Colombia'a government, as well as periodically proclaiming certain regions of the country under independent rule of the FARC.  Its activities are funded primarily by illegal activities, including taxes on the illicit drug trade and kidnappings/ransoms of hostages.  They also commandeer land from local farmers for use in the illicit drug trade, and frequently kill those who don't comply.  For this reason, most political entities both inside and outside of Colombia view FARC as a terrorist organization rather than a legitimate political entity.  Over the years, FARC's real political objectives have become less clear, and many people now join the FARC simply as a way to make money.

Today, there remain the liberal and conservative parties active in Colombian government, with the liberal party represented by red and the conservatives by blue (opposite of the US).  Each party even has its own national soccer team!  The FARC, representing an extremist left-wing organization, remains active in certain remote areas of the country, and from time to time, launches attacks against more developed areas including Bogota.  There is currently an ongoing negotiation between the government and FARC, with talks being held in Cuba.  There is still the perception among many in Colombia that the government is controlled by a small group of elite, wealthy people, and corruption remains a major problem.  As an example, Jaime referenced a small bridge in Bogota that took three years to build, rather than three months, as the official in charge of the project is suspected to have pocketed most of the allocated funds for himself.  This, he says, is representative of the way things work in Colombia.

Pablo Escobar:
At this point, Jaime also talked about Colombia's struggles with the illicit drug trade, and in particular, the period of time when Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel dominated cocaine trafficking.  Escobar was, at one point, one of the wealthiest people in the world.  For a brief period, he also had political ambitions and was seeking a seat in Congress, going so far as to offer to repay Colombia's national debt using his personal checkbook.  Escobar was also one of the first drug lords to import a personal zoo, bringing in exotic animals from Africa.  The zoo served two purposes - as a personal amusement park, and also as a means to dispose of his enemies, whom he would reportedly feed to his zoo animals.  Despite the many horrible activities and violence Escobar was responsible for, many of Medellin's poor still view him as something of a local hero, as he would frequently give them houses and cash.  Our guide did not see it that way. He described Escobar's death as the day that the nightmare of Colombia ended. 

Graffiti or Street Art?
And back to the Plaza...Jaime mentioned that most of the graffiti seen in the photo is related to the frequent political rallies and protests that take place here.  Graffiti is present throughout Bogota - much of it viewed as art - and there are even Graffiti tours operating in the city.

Bountiful Market:
From here, we took our bikes to a large, traditional market.  This is a huge, covered marketplace full of vendors selling a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, eggs and meats.  We wandered through the market for about 15 minutes and probably saw less than half of it!  I think that we would definitely be frequent visitors here if we lived in Bogota!!

The Bad (and Sad) of Bogota:
Sorry friends, but this next part is going to be a downer.  After the market, we rode through an area called Santa Fe, which is the red light district of Bogota.  It's the intersection of addiction, poverty and desperation. This was the only time I was really scared - not just because of the men yelling at scantily clad women and transvestites selling themselves outside of dilapidated apartment buildings, or even the the drug addicts and alcoholics nodding off on the dirty sidewalk. I was scared because I didn't see one police officer from the moment we turned down the street that led to this area.  Everywhere else in Bogota, you see officers clad in bright yellow vests on every single street corner.  Not here.  It was as if Bogota decided it wasn't worth sending their officers into this wasteland.  In Santa Fe, we were told not take pictures and after seeing it, you would never want to. These are images you want to forget.  This part of the tour was incredibly sad, and what made it worse is knowing we only saw two streets of the better part of the slums. While we were only here for 5-10 minutes, it stuck with us and  we felt very helpless knowing that it's such a widespread problem that can't easily be fixed. 

Bullfighting Controversy:
Bullfighting is popular in Colombia and Bogota has a ring where they hosted fights up until last year.  The current mayor banned bullfighting in Bogota because he considers it animal cruelty.  Jaime found this very ironic, because it the mayor used to be a member of the terrorist group 19th of April (now called M-19) and apparently didn't have any issues with cruelty as a young man.  Jaime said that many support the ban, many are opposed because they enjoy this Spanish tradition, and others oppose because it puts them out of a job.  Jaime didn't seem to lean one way or the other, but having studied abroad in Spain, I know this issue is a sensitive one, regardless of which side you are on. 

Our 4 hour bike tour brought us to many other places including one of the national parks and a cute neighborhood that looked like a wealthy suburb from the UK. Turns out that BP developed an entire neighborhood for its employees in the 1950's that resembled home! 

After the tour we were famished so we stopped at Rositas in Plazoleta del Chorro for a delicious meal! It was an odd time so we were the only people there and therefore had the top floor to ourselves, which made for some neat views of La Candelaria.

Overlooking Bogota:
Since we were in the area, we decided to go to Montserate - the tall mountain that overlooks Bogota. You get there by cable car or funicular located near La Candelaria.  The views were spectacular! 

Our last couple of days in Bogota were very relaxing. We wandered around Parque 93 and this cute neighborhood to the north called Usaquen. We stopped every now and then to sample the local coffee and pastries, my favorite of which was this one from Michel Patisserie:

Good Times at Dinner
One night we met up with our Boston College acquaintance Gary, and his wife Kathleen.  We hadn't seen Gary in over 10 years, but luckily he hasn't changed much so it was easy to recognize him!  We went to a great little pub near our hotel called the Red Lion. Both Gary and Kathleen have been teaching English in Bogota for about 2 years and the Red Lion is owned by one of the Kathleen's students.  We had such a great time catching up and hearing about their lives and experiences in Bogota! 

On our last night, we splurged and went to the famous Andres Carne de Res. Although everyone recommended going to the one in Chia, we opted for the one in Bogota which was in walking distance to the hotel.  We were going on a Tuesday night and I don't think the one in Chia was open.  Everyone one was right - it was a really fun experience! And we got there at 7pm on a Tuesday. I can't even imagine what it's like on a Saturday night! We were welcomed at our table by a band and dancer that resembled some sort of fabulous bird (pictured below).  He had both of us dancing within seconds!  We now refer to him as the human peacock.

We ordered two different steak dishes. Chris' was really good, mine was a bit gristly. The tres leches dessert, however, was to die for!  It wasn't as good as Macky's tres leches in Puerto Rico, but it came very close! 

All in all, good times were had in Bogota.  By the time day 5 rolled around were ready to go and were VERY excited to see our family and friends in Puerto Rico!!!

We spent our first day in Bogota sightseeing in La Candelaria - the old part of town.   Our hotel, Casa Real, was located in a neighborhood north of the city center called Parque 93. This part of Bogota is considered safer and it's full of nice restaurants and cafes.   We highly recommend this hotel for its location, delicious breakfast and large rooms that come with a kitchenette, living room and massive bathroom. Bogota has a pretty efficient bus system called Transmilenio that got us to La Candelaria in 30 minutes. 

We first stopped in Bolivar Square to see the primary cathedral of Bogota, the nation's Capital Building and the Justice Palace.  It is named for  Simon Bolivar, who is considered to be the most influential leader during Latin America's fight for independence from Spain.  

We spent most of the day visiting museums. Our first stop was the Botero Museum. Botero is one of Colombia's most famous artists, known for his rotund sculptures and paintings. He is still alive today, and built this museum to showcase his artwork, as well as his private collection which includes pieces from Picasso, Chagall, Degas, Dali, Miro, Renoir and many others.  Can you imagine if this was your private collection?!  I was thrilled.  The cherry on top is that the museum is free to locals and tourists alike!  

If you'd like to see more of the collection, check out The Google Art Project's page for the Botero Museum. 

The Botero museum is connected to two other museums - the Casa de Moneda (Money House) and the Museo de Arte Banco de la Republica.  The former is all about the history of money in Latin America. The building  was built in the early 1600's and was the first mint in what was then called the New Kingdom of Granada.  The museum features coins from many eras as well as the machinery used to develop the coins.  They also had a replica of a map from shortly after the Americas were discovered. Very interesting!

The Museo de Arte Banco de la Republica had two interesting collections of modern art - Urban Mutants and  The Forgotten. One was about this tumultuous history of Peru and the other was a collection of photographs from all over Latin America. My favorite was Vicky Ospina's La Gallada.

After these museums we hit up the Juan Valdez cafe for a cup of the famous Colombian coffee. Then we walked around la Candelaria a bit. 

After walking around a bit, we went to the Museo de Oro or Gold Museum which happend to be free because it was Sunday.  This museum has the biggest collection of pre-hispanic gold in the world. It's impressive! 

We headed back to Parque 93 on the Transmilenio around 5pm and then went  out to a great restaurant called Central Cevicheria for what else...ceviche!  

Disclaimer - some of the following may be a bit scary for young children.  

On our third day in Cartagena, we visited a number of places in the old city including the Gold Museum and the church of  San Pedro Claver.  One place that stood out in a frightening way was the Palace of the Inquisition. 

We had a wonderful guide named Victor who is a history professor at one of the local universities. He began our tour with a brief history of the Inquisition in Europe.  In the old days, various monarchs throughout Europe used religion as a way to justify and maintain their control over their subjects.  I remember learning about the Spanish Inquisition which started in the 15th century but there were various Inquisitions, the first of which began in the 12th century in France and spread across Europe.   As the years passed and the Inquisition became more violent, it lost popularity among both commoners and princes. However, when Spain united through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella - both Catholic monarchs - they were in desperate need of money.  At the time, many Jews lived in Spain and the King and Queen declared them to be the biggest enemy of the Catholic church because the Jews only considered Jesus Christ as another prophet, but denied him as their messiah.  The Spanish Jews were also successful merchants & businessmen.  So began the Spanish Inquisition.  Thus the Jews were expelled (or worse) from the country and Ferdinand and Isabella claimed their property and wealth.  The monarchs continued to use the Inquisition as an instrument of control and became extremely wealthy and powerful (Note: The Inquisition was not just against Jews but other religions including non-Catholic Christians).  

When America was discovered, Spain was the most powerful empire in Europe. They brought the Inquisition to the new world in 3 locations - Cartagena being one of them.  But in 1610, there were no other religions in Cartagena to persecute! Yes, there were natives but the Jesuits were there to convert them to Catholicism. So whom did they put on trial? Witches, of course.

Witches:
Our guide Victor told us that witchcraft did not originate in Colombia, it came from Europe. The Palace of the Inquisition was used for witch trials and forced confessions.  It was not unlike what happened in Salem, MA however more gruesome and violent. Here is how it supposedly went down:

-Someone accuses someone else of being a witch and reports it to the Inquisition. 

-The Inquisition hires someone to follow the alleged witch in order to gather proof of witchcraft. Proof could be as simple as having some dried leaves or grass in the house. 

-Next the accused is arrested and weighed (see picture below). There was a magic number that a person should weigh back then, based upon a certain ratio to their height.  If the accused's weight did not fall in that range, they were put on trial.  For example, if a woman was too light, then she was definitely a witch because that meant she could fly (obviously!).  If she was too heavy, then she was still likely a witch because she committed gluttony wich is one of the seven deadly sins.  If she weighed the right amount, they would still put her on trial because they had a lot of proof from the accuser and investigator. So while it was the first step in the process, it was completely pointless. If you were accused, you were going to trial. 

Confession (AKA Torture):
This is where it gets really gruesome. They forced the accused to confess using unimaginable instruments. After seeing these devices, it's clear that nobody could stand the pain inflicted by these methods for more than a few seconds which is why most immediately confessed and accused others of being witches.  Why did they torture these people?  They thought they would become closer to God through suffering. Here are some of the devices they used:

Once accused, it was very difficult to be released and even if you were released it was often worse than death because the entire town shunned you.   

So how do weddings fit into all this?

Well behind the Palace is a courtyard typical of most colonial Spanish homes. In this courtyard they have a guillotine and a gallows - both of which were NOT used at this Palace but were put in the museum courtyard for show.  They were not used during the Inquisition at this Palace because the Inquisition did not execute people - they only convicted people as witches.  The police were responsible for execution.  If the accused died during confession (ahem torture) it was deemed an accident. 

Anyway back to weddings.  Victor told us that this courtyard was a popular place for weddings these days. He said that the bride and groom take pictures on the fake gallows and with the guillotine.  I couldn't beleive it! I Googled it and sure enough there are pictures!

This city is full of whimsical, emotional, and playful artwork. I especially enjoyed the metal sculptures scattered around the old city. Here are a few of my favorites:

After a good night's sleep we started our second day in Cartagena with a delicious breakfast at our hotel including a giant arepa filled with egg and meat. We also enjoyed fresh kiwi juice and strong Colombian coffee. 

In the morning we walked to the marina to inquire about boat trips to Playa Blanca - a beach on a small island about 40 minutes away. At the time we weren't completely sure we wanted to spend and entire day on the beach so we held off on purchasing a ticket. It was a good thing we did because we decided not to go to the beach for a couple reasons: 1) We later read reviews of the beaches and most of them were not favorable. According to the reviews the beach is OK but you get hassled by vendors every second. 2) We just didn't have enough time - there was more to see in the city center! 

After the marina, we walked to Castillo de San Felipe de Burujas. In order to get there, you have to walk out of the old city and through a neighborhood called Getsemani which is a little sketchy. We walked down calle Media Luna which was full of hostels. At the Castillo, we hired a guide named Gustavo which was very helpful. His English was OK and he had a little stutter but he was very passionate about the fort's history and pointed out lots of small details that we would have otherwise missed.  Read more about our visit to the Castillo here. 

We cabbed it back to the hotel for a little siesta. We then hit up Cafe del Mar to watch the sunset. This place is touristy but so worth it. It's situated on top of the old wall and has a stunning view of the sun setting over the sea in one direction,  as well as a golden view of the old city in the other direction.  It's a great place to kick off the night. 

For dinner we tried La Cevicheria - a restaurant recommended to us by several people. We sat outside which was lovely for about 5 minutes, then the vendors came selling everything under the sun. Had we done it again we would have sat indoors.  The ceviche was very good and very traditional - mixed seafood in a ton of lime juice. However, we preferred the meal we had the night before at El Boliche because it was a little more interesting.  After dinner we strolled down to Plaza de la Aduana to listen to some salsa music at Donde Fidel.  This area is great for people watching! We read that people dance salsa in the plaza later at night but we couldn't stay awake and were back at the hotel by 10pm.

Yesterday we toured Cartagena's fortress of San Felipe de Burajas, named after King Philip the IV of Spain. This fortress was designed by the Spanish and is regarded as one of the strongest defense complexes built during colonial times.  The Spanish began building the fortress in 1536, then expanded it in 1657.  Cartagena quickly became a very wealthy port city which attracted many attacks from various enemies, so the Spanish invested a lot of resources to protect this city. 

The fortress was built on a giant hill so the guards could see intruders coming from miles away - by land or sea.  Enemies that attacked by water came through the bay because they were less likely to hit sand bars. Cartagena's first line of defense was a giant underwater chain that stretched from one side of the canal to the other. When they spotted an enemy ship approaching, they lifted the chain so the ships could not pass. 

When enemies attacked by land, they had to get by the fortress first. The fortress is massive - wide at the bottom and full of dark tunnels. There are many secret tunnels that soldiers used to escape from the fortress if necessary.  Some tunnels led to a dead end in order to confuse & capture the enemies. Each tunnel has small inlets off the side where soldiers could hide if the enemy was able to get past the canons & through the giant wall. The inlets were staggered so if the soldier attacked the enemy, they wouldn't hurt their fellow soldiers across the tunnel.  

It was a very impressive structure and we recommend visiting if you are ever in Cartagena!

Question for Mrs. Barbier's class 2A:  Who were the earliest enemies to attack colonial Cartagena?  Hint: They traveled by sea in search of gold, often burying the gold in hidden places throughout the Caribbean.

Googlers, this one is for you!  We street-viewed the Streetview car in Cartagena.  Upon spotting the car, I ran to it and took a picture. The driver saw me and drove by with a huge smile and waved at us. I think a lot of people were perplexed by the car judging by their confused expressions.  In a few months, we'll have to check street view in Plaza Santo Domingo, Cartagena to see if we made it into the picture!

We had a long, but fun trip down to Cartagena, Colombia. We left on a 6am flight from Boston, connecting at JFK airport.  On our flight to JFK there was a gaggle of 50-something ladies leaving for a girls vacation two rows in front of us. They were so excited they started dancing and singing Bob Marley's Jammin.   They had serious Boston accents which made it very entertaining, especially when they started gossiping (Oh my gawd, I could nevah vacation with Baaahbarah....nev-ah). So we started off the day with a good laugh! 

Our flight to Cartagena was comprised of two groups of people: a giant wedding party and dudes. The group going to the wedding were already in party mode and very excited for the lucky couple getting married this weekend. It brought back memories of our wedding in San Juan- so many people you love on vacation together. Chris and I wish we could have another destination wedding!  The majority of the flight was filled with 20-30 something guys,  probably going down for a long weekend to party. The last time I saw a plane comprised of this many guys was on my flight to Vegas for CES. 

We arrived in Cartagena around noon to sunny 90 degree weather. We took a cab to our hotel and spent the afternoon walking around the city. They old city is beautiful. It's entirely Spanish colonial architecture and the buildings are different colors, many with climbing vines that produce cascading flowers over the windows & balconies. It reminded us of San Juan except with fewer hills, wider buildings,  more people out and about, massive churches and more bold colors than the pastel colors of the Caribbean.

We made a few interesting observations on our walk:

-Everyone sips the local drink Aguardiente (or guaro) out of little plastic cups, purchased from street vendors.  It's a clear, anise-flavored alcohol.

-Every now and then you'd pass by a llamadas sign - meaning phone calls. It's not a phone booth - it's literally a person sitting on the side of the road with a credit card machine hooked up to a couple of old cell phones.  These vendors are usually on every other street. 

-ATMs are really hard to find and when you find them they often don't have money. People wait in line to use an ATM.  

At night the city transforms.  All the cafes and bars are full and the locals gather in the plaza to catch up with friends over a bottle of beer.  You can hear music in the street and the temperature drops to near perfect.  While this town is vibrant and colorful during the day, it's magical and very romantic at night. I loved strolling through the streets of el centro around twilight (6:30pm) under a sky that was a rich cobalt blue color.  

We ate dinner at El Boliche Cebicheria which was very good. It's a little hole in the wall place that seats around 15 people.  The ambiance left a little to be desired but the food & service made up for it.  Our waiter was wonderful and his recommendations did not disappoint! 

Here are  a few snapshots from our first day: