Bogota, Colombia
It’s very nice of Vernon to drop me to JFK airport this morning at 5am. Only slept for an hour yesterday night since got back home late. I am flying with Avianca which is a Colombian airline.
My flight is at 8am and will arrive at 1pm Bogota time which is one hour later than eastern time. 6 hours flight in total. It took a while to get my boarding pass since the person at the airport front counter seems a little suspicious that I only have one way ticket to Bogota. Since I have
another one way ticket from Bogota to Santiago, they wanna make sure if I require a visa to enter the country.
Bogota is on a high elevation, around 2500 meters above sea levels and the weather is pretty cool. The city is spread out and the population is around 8 millions, similar to new york city. There are mountains on the east side and all streets are numbered. Carreras(avenue, east to west) and Calles (street, south-north, parallels to the mountain). Northern Bogota is rich and southern bogota is pretty poor.
Andres and Luisa picked me up from the airport and brought me to a Colombian food street fair. I was pretty lucky to arrive on Sunday because the street fair is a once a year event.
Andres, Luisa and their friends
Tried some Colombian food then managed to get cash from HSBC ($2 fees). Andres and Luisa showed me around the city
View of Bogota
went to Platypus hostel at La candelaria neighborhood
which is a pretty artsy/bohemian place. However, the place is very sketchy at night and someone mentioned a guy in the hostel just got mugged yesterday.
Ate sandwich with a bunch of travelers from London and US. A sandwich and a beer just cost me $3700 colombian pesos which is less than $2.
