THE WAY TO BOGOTA

We’re up at 5am getting ready for the taxi booked for 6am. The ride to the airport is swift, as is the flight to São Paulo. Oswaldo sleeps while I watch Paquetá, Itaoquinha, Marambaia, Ilha Grande and Gipoia glide past in the flat blue sea under a cloudless sunny sky. 

The island is the little dot top left in the photo

The wait, in São Paulo, however - determined by my ticket on miles - is long and tedious, as is the 6hr cramped flight to Bogota with really bad food (overcooked pasta with sliced blanquet anyone?).


Our Hotel de la Opera in the older Candelária part of town is wonderful. We have a 7th floor ample room with a view across the old rooftops and the hills beyond.

Casal by Botero

We drop our stuff and walk around the area, finding the Botero museum nearby, which we walk through to conclude that between the paintings and the lovely old building there are so many treasures we have to return in daylight. 

Busto Retrospectivo de Mujer by Salvador Dali

Then we find the Centro Cultural de Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and stop there for an excellent coffee in the Juan Valdez coffee shop – somewhat reminiscent of Starbuck’s. We go home to showers and putting our legs up and end the evening with dinner at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, where we’re surprised when a person looking a lot like John Malkovich in a pink shirt, turns out to be the Cuban crooner. He turns on his computerized back-up music and launches into a series of Latin songs, many of which we can hum along with. Then we collapse in our room – it’s been a looong day. 


Here are the rest of the pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/siric/sets/72157629190883025/