Bogotá to Salento

We had a lovely morning doing a walking tour of central Bogotá - the Candelaria district. 

We took a taxi which went the "scenic route" through the hills overlooking the city to avoid the main roads which are closed on Sundays until 2 p.m. to all but cyclists, joggers, skateboarders and walkers - yay! Unfortunately, the taxi driver was an idiot and drove like a Formula One driver but without the expertise.

A visit to the churches reminds you that, at one time, Spain controlled a vast and prosperous territory when civil and religious power were closely interlinked. Bogotá was the capital city of "Nueva Granada", one of the overseas provinces controlled by the Spanish crown.

El Carmen Church (Iglesia del Carmen) is one of the most beautiful churches in La Candelaria and honours "La Virgen del Carmen". The church was built in 1927 and is characterised by its gothic style and the red and white stripes of its façade. In its interior there are paintings from the colonial era.

Templo de San Agustin was built in 1637 and is one of the oldest colonial churches in Bogotá. Its impressive architecture was recently restored. The style is similar to other colonial churches but what makes this building stand out is its fine Baroque altarpieces and the figure of the "Virgen de Alta Gracia".

The Church of La Candelaria has a distinctive pastel yellow colour and is the oldest church in the city.

The Archivo General de la Nacion building contains historical documents that date from 1541 to 1991. These documents include constitutional policies, notarized documents, judicial documents from colonial times, letters from famous historical figures such as Simón Bolívar, and historical maps of the New Kingdom of Granada. It is an unprepossessing brick building which hides some architectural gems. It was designed by the architect Rogelio Salmona who was known for his extensive use of red brick in his buildings and for using natural shapes like spirals, radial geometry and curves in his designs.

We walked by the vast and splendid Presidential Palace, La Casa de Nariño - guarded at the gates and we weren't allowed to walk along the pavements alongside either and if you forgot you were quickly approached by a guard with a rifle. This brought us to the Plaza Bolívar with its beautiful colonial buildings (this is where we ended our sightseeing day on Thursday but we saw it today in broad daylight, crowded with people from all walks of life, rather than in the dwindling light at the end of the day). The photo below has our guide Ana in the foreground pointing out things of interest.

We continued our walk back past the Museo Botero which we visited on Thursday and along narrow streets with multi-coloured buildings - quite a sight!

We tried some chicha from a hole-in-the-wall bar in the amazingly colourful graffitied alleyway, Callejón del Embudo. Chicha is a traditional fermented maize-based alcoholic drink of not too unpleasant a taste.

Back to the hotel by taxi to collect our bags, then by minibus to the airport to catch a 1:30 p.m. flight to Armenia which all went smoothly despite the concerns of the tour guide regarding the reliability of the airlines; and then finally by another minibus to Salento where we have been put up in a very nice hotel. While we waited to be checked in, we were offered some canelazo which some people liked, others didn't. I quite liked it; canelazo is a popular Colombian hot spiced drink spiked with rum or aguardiente (Colombia's national spirit).

Salento was established in 1842 as a penal colony; families of the prisoners arrived and built their houses in Boquía and established farms upstream in the Cocora valley.

Arriving on a Sunday, we were treated to a brilliant market which stretched along the main street, around the main square and up a very steep hill with views over the town. The street was crowded with shops and stalls and cafes and families out wandering and eating and shopping. We were offered by one vendor, from a white foam box he was carrying, a delicious battered plátano, guava paste and cheese fritter (aborrajados de plátano). Yum!

After we had walked around the town, we took some time out before dinner with a Bogotá beer (My Friend) and a lovely red wine for me in a bar where a man played some pleasant music - he came and had a chat and introduced himself as Francisco and welcomed us to Colombia.

We all went out to dinner as a group and had delicious trout (trucha) which is a specialty of this area. It was yummy and came accompanied by a salad and patacon (crushed and fried plátano).