Introducing Bogota!

The 13 hour unplanned layover in Houston left me feeling grimey, numb and as though 'Merica squeezed its final drops of culture on me before escaping to the south. You can imagine my elation to greet Kate's smiling face as I sailed through customs and officially entered Bogota, Colombia!

As the most populous city in Colombia (~9 million) you might think the New Years celebration might be as bangin as Times Square. Wrong. Because only 2 million of Bogota's residents were born in the city, nearly everyone flees to their hometowns around the country to celebrate Christmas week & el año nuevo. Kate picked me up from the airport at 10pm, we took a taxi to her apartment downtown, then ventured into empty, quiet streets, only to head back to the apartment just in time to pop a bottle of champagne and catch some fireworks out the window. 

Our first day of 2015 was glorious. We embarked on a bike adventure across the city to a park on par with New York's Central Park. We owned the streets of empty Bogota and I my eyes were as wide as saucers. Enough words. Here's some imagery!

A beautiful-blue day of city seeing on bikes! 

Kate's apartment is shared with a couple roommates and two adorable kitties, Methcas and Lulu:

On the second day of 2015 we set out to markets with stacks of vegetables, fruits, herbs, meat, and dozens of smells. We delighted in buying plums, uchuvas (small orange berries), mangosteen, suaces, and more - all cheap, local and fresh:

Our dinner tonight shall be excellent.

Dinner was excellent.

The third day in Bogota we hiked to the top of Monserrate, a mountain with a 3km trail to the top and a view of the entire city. We panted most of the way up but the reward was spectacular. Afterwards we ate a light lunch of ceviche and platanos (fried plantain cakes).

I absolutely overestimated my Spanish speaking abilities, and am grateful for Kate as my incredible travel companion, hostess, and tour guide. She's fluent, street savvy, knows fabulous places to dine and drink, and has shining charisma!  With just a taste of what this city has to offer, I can't wait to return in February!

I'm finishing this blog post in the Lima airport at 3:00 am. Meghan and I successfully reunited and are about to cross the security threshold for our flight to Cusco!