The second half of our journey started with a 24 hour stop over in Bogotá, this time accompanied by the younger members of the family. Our flight from London was on one of Avianca’s modern Boeing 787s and to get us in the mood for our return to South America, Colombia were playing to rescue their position in the World Cup after surprisingly loosing their first game. Colombia beat Poland in the match, which just finished before our plane took off. Some of the cabin crew even wore Colombia football shirts over their uniform and were all in a good mood after their team’s victory.
Arriving in Bogotá’s modern airport at 3am, the formalities of immigration were quickly and efficiently completed, and we were quickly on our way to our hotel. The city and the whole country was gripped with World Cup fever, with the Colombian tricolour on display everywhere and many people wearing the bright yellow shirt of the national team.
We only had a day in the capital, and it being a Monday, the world famous Museo de Oro was closed. However Bogotá’s other premier site, the Botero Museum was open. The Botero Museum has to be one of the best, and also most accessible Art Museums in the world, and as an added bonus, is also free to enter. The museum contains many of the artist’s most famous works and also has an impressive collection of other works, including the French Impressionists, Henry Moore, Picasso, Salvador Dali and many more. However it is Botero’s works that take centre stage with his distinctive style of painting fat people and also animals in fruit in the same style. In addition there are many bronze sculptures in a similar style. It is a collection that brings a real smile to ones face.
In one of the squally rainstorms, we popped into one of the central bars, which being around lunchtime was full of locals watching the World Cup. However rather than drinking beer despite it being readily available, everyone was drinking coffee. Bogotá’s main square Plaza Bolivar is typical of most Latin American cities with a large imposing Catholic cathedral and also a smaller church from the Jesuit’s and other Catholic sects. It is the focal point of the city and is a large meeting place for locals, also complete with the usual array of hawkers and pigeons.
In the afternoon we picked up one of the street art and graffiti tours of La Candelaria, Bogotá’s colonial district. Like most street tours in Latin America, the tour is free and is conducted by students who want to share their knowledge and through tips make a bit of money on the side. Our guide, Anna was very knowledgeable of the art and also the individual artists and made a very enjoyable tour of this colourful area of the city. The street art comments on much of both Bogotá’s and Colombia’s political and economic history. Some of the art is of a quality that stands comparison with some of the best in Latin America.
In particular the pop art picture of the Liberal Presidential Candidate Gaitán, who was assassinated by individuals linked to the right wing Conservatives in 1948 that unleashed La Violencia, whereby the people associated with or assumed to be associated with both the Right and Left were systematically killed. Furthermore with Colombia being a very urban country and at the time the writ of the ruling Conservatives in the cities was unable to control the countryside and as a result many left wing guerrilla movements grew up in the countryside, with the consequent continuing violence undermining the security of the state, and only very recently is beginning to recede with the recent peace accords. Many of the underlying social and economic tensions that caused these problems remain, though today Colombia is a much more peaceful country and the economy has become one of Latin America’s recent success stories. Indeed the country feels much more prosperous than the Andean countries immediately to the South. Much of the street art reflects this history and provides a fascinating insight into this most interesting country.
Date: 25/06/2018 & 26/06/2018