At this time of the year, Bogota is cold and rainy, but we recieved a warm welcome from old friend Dani and his girlfriend Adriana. Dani played Ulitmate on the original Cadillacs and has since then moved back to Bogota where he works and lives with Adriana. We were lucky enough to get picked up in a car again and we drove through the darkened sprawling streets of Medellin towards their apartment. The apartment has one other resident worth noting, and that is their toe biting, cutest pug ever dog named Rolo.
The next morning, with Rolo´s help, we made breakfast and then got a tour of the center and down town from Adriana who is kinda on vacay. We checked out the Candelaria, the oldest neighborhood in Bogota which is now very trendy but still run down enough to feel authentic, and walked to lots of museums that were all closed. We did however get into the Botero museum where we took a tour and learned a lot more about this famous artist who I never need to see again, and ate a soup called ajiaco which is a local specialty and delish. It consists of broth, meat, corn and potato when it gets to you, but then you can add the rice, avocado and capers that comes on the side. It also comes with a banana for later.
That night, Adriana made arepas (with Josh´s help) and some filling that comes from where´s she´s from near the Venezuelan border (my vagueness is due to its totally non-kosherness). Dinner was great, but we were soon in bed, all exhausted from our various days.
The next day we headed out on our own and went to the Gold Museum. This was supposed to be the mother of all gold museums, and who ever said that was underestimating! The place has so much gold in it that some of the doors are vaulted, and everything has an explanation in Spanish and English. Our eyes were red spirals of exhaustion by the time we finished but I learned so much!!! An unlike Peru, there is so much to go with the explanations. None of this, well, this drawing is what things used to look like until those Spanish idiots melted it all down...No way. The Spanish did melt a lot of Colombian gold down, but since so much of it was buried (much of the civilizations that were once dominant in Colombia had already faded away and been buried by the time the Spanish arrived) that there are hundreds of gold figures, gold sticks to get the lime out of gold containers to activate coca leaves with, gold breast plates, thousands of gold nose and ear rings, ect. There is also endless information about the different tribes, what things were used for and how they were made. It's a must see.
That night we made dinner for our hosts and we stayed up drinking aguardiente since Dani was taking the next day off to hang out with us! When I left the boys they were waiting for a coke delivery so they could make Fernet and Cokes and relive the old BA days...
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