After dropping the camper off for loading at port in Colon, Panama we caught a flight to Bogota. We had some time to kill before the camper arrived at port in Cartagena and we decided to spend it there, in Colombia’s biggest city. We found accommodation in La Candelaria (Bogota’s old town) at the beautiful brand spanking new Fernweh Photography Hostel, run by Andy and his wife. Fernweh features great mattresses, luxurious duvets, evening campfires out back, and the nicest kitchen I’ve ever seen at a hostel. Andy is also a wealth of information on Bogota and the surrounding area. We spent our time exploring the many great museums of Bogota, including the amazing and free Botero museum and the Gold museum. If you visit the latter I recommend going on one of the free english language tours offered on the hour to get the most out of the experience. We also enjoyed wandering the streets of old town and the lively Carrera 7.

One of the best ways to explore Bogota is by Bicycle. Bogota Bike tours offers a highly recommended bicycle day tour. You see a lot of the city, try Colombia’s “National Sport” throwing discs at firecrackers embedded in clay, try local fruits, and get some history and information about the city.

Perhaps even more awesome is that on Sundays over 100 kms of road in Bogota are closed to traffic and opened up to cyclists. It’s a great time to ride around the city, and a good opportunity to see neighbourhoods that would not otherwise be safe for tourists.

Also worth while is the graffiti tour. In Bogota one cannot be criminally charged for graffitiing walls, so there is a wealth of outstanding street art by artists from around the world.

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