Day 27 Sunday 21st October: No El Dorado here

John writes: Zona Rosa was ready for our onslaught last night with plenty of police on hand to ensure our safety – or that we behaved!

So many choices and if it all became too much you could jump on the party bus to go round in circles hanging from poles!

Despite all this security and opportunity, our 3rd big night in a row didn’t materialise – be it no stamina or the effects of altitude, we were back in the hotel by 10pm listening to the pumping music outside until it shut down at 3am.

Being the 4th highest capital city in the world, Bogota’s morning was cooler than UK temperatures and required the first warm clothes of our trip. I also felt quite breathless, although no other altitude effects and this cleared during the day. Security is on everyone’s mind and we were again strongly advised by the hotel not too hail a street taxi so ordered through the concierge.

Our first stop was Bogota’s main square Plaza Bolivar which dates back to the year after Colombia was founded in 1538. It was teeming with police, strollers, cyclists (which is a major Sunday pastime), sellers, pigeons and the odd llama for joy rides.

Bogota Cathedral is an impressive building on the east side of the square.

Other buildings on the square include the Bogota Mayor’s palace, the Palace of Justice and the National Capitol with its impressive columns.

Plaza Bolivar is surrounded for a few blocks in each direction by La Candelaria, the old city of Bogota with narrow streets and old architecture similar to Cartagena but without the colour or atmosphere.

We wandered around for a few blocks, Mike taking another few hundred pictures, but conscious of the advice that 2 blocks wrong takes you in to bad neighbourhoods.

With the shanty towns just at the top of the street, you were never far from the security services although not sure if the dogs were official, belonged to the soldiers or were just being man’s best friend!

Having exhausted our interest in the old town we went searching for our own El Dorado at the Museo del Oro, with extensive displays of the Muisca people’s gold and silver artefacts across 6 floors!

Not being interested students of the Muisca we made it through 3 floors then retired to the safety of the 5 star Opera Hotel for a couple of beers to plan our next move. Museo del Oro is number 1 on Trip Advisor attractions and Cerro de Monserrate, the mountain overlooking the city is number 2, perhaps because there is not much else to do in this city of 8 million people!

Sadly we didn’t make it up the mountain today due to failed Uber rides and then lengthy queues for the cable car and funicular railway so returned to our oasis in Zone Rosa.

We haven’t found our El Dorado in Bogota but will keep looking between now and our departure back to Cartagena tomorrow afternoon, ironically from Bogota’s ‘El Dorado International Airport’! I’m sure Maria and Chris’s Salsa lessons are going better than our reggaeton quest and look forward to hearing about it in Chris’s blog tomorrow.