BIG Bogota Post

We´re going big with this blog post. Big pics that is. Accidently forgot to switch back to small after the last post but since Google so generously just upped the amount of photo storage I have for free I figured we´d see how it goes.

While I´m talking about big lets start off with the BIG win the Colts pulled off over the Pats. Gemma and I had a sweet flat screen in a fancy hotel all to ourselves to watch the game. And beers only cost us about 60cents. I definitely did not see us pulling that off but I´m so glad we did!

We stayed in a hostel in the La Candeleria district. Its an artsy district with lots of students, bars and restaurants. There were many walls covered in cool graffiti and most of the buildings are painted in bright colors which I loved.


The Freak Family - Just like Yours


We visited the Police Museum to see an exhibit on the 499 day manhunt to catch Pablo Escobar. The building itself was really beautiful and they were playing 1930´s music throughout so it felt very elegent inside. It reminded me of a really nice Disney Hotel.


It was pretty interesting seeing some of Pablo´s personal artifacts including the Harley Davidson he had made for himself. We also saw the beeper he used (apparently the first in Colombia) and some old school car phones he used in his last days. Most of the technology the Colombian government used to catch him was donated by the CIA.


Here is a wanted poster with Pablo´s picture and some of his associates.


This picture below is a cocaine press they used to package bricks of coke. The horses would be imprinted into the bricks so buyers could identify who was making it. Unfortunately, or fortunately if you´re into that kind of stuff, the cops spent all their time and money on capturing Pablo and while they had him in jail for a brief period (he escaped) and on the run, other cartels simply took over a majority of the trafficing.


Our favorite museum in Bogota had to be the Fernando Botero Museum. I´d never heard of this painter before but he´s from Colombia and really famous here. He paints mostly ¨fat figures¨as he once called them and they are delightfully hilarious. He makes everything fat, women, horses, presidents, even Jesus on the cross.



The museum also had some Monet´s, a Dali sculputre and a few Picasso´s including my favorite of the group below.


This is the courtyard of the museum and one of my favorite photos I´ve taken recently. This museum is a must see in my opinion.

Ah Bogota, city of museums apparently. We also went to the Museo de Oro or Gold Museum. It has ALOT of the shiny stuff and some really cool pieces found in ancient tombs.



This photo is taken from the top of Bogota´s tallest building. The weather was terrible that afternoon but we got to see the bull ring from the top and although I´m still waiting to see my first bull fight, I thought it was still cool just seeing the arena.

So do we like the big pics or should I go back to the small to fit more text on the screen??? Let me know!