Day 81, Mile 5700: Bogota – the wildest police-state city I’ve ever experienced

3 March 2017
Bogota, Colombia

I woke up this morning to a clear sky and plenty of sunshine.  I didn’t have much to travel today, only to Colombia’s capital, Bogota, which is about 150 miles away.  I’m planning on finding a good hostel through the iOverlander app and do a little exploring.  I kind of regret leaving Cartegena so quickly before and this is the first big city I’ve come to since then, so I plan on making up for it.

I started out back on Route 62 and with the nicer weather, it was even better than yesterday.  The first couple hours of my day were filled with waterfalls, beautify landscape, and scenic valleys.  I even stopped to say hi to some of the local wildlife.

On my way to Bogota, I made a slight detour to check out one of the two large lakes in central Colombia.  I haven’t been able to kiteboard in quite a while now, all the way since Costa Rica, so I was really itching to get back on the board.  Once I reached the Tomine reservoir, I was disappointed to find that it wasn’t going to be an option.  The weather was starting to turn pretty cold and there weren’t any spots for me to launch from and to top it off, there was no wind.  While I was sitting there in my disappointment, I did a little google searching which ended up brightening my day up some.  Apparently the next reservoir I was planning on checking out was known for kiteboarding, so I made a mental note to put that on my next stop and hit the road again.

The closer I got to Bogota, the busier the roads got.  It’s been quite awhile since I’ve had to deal with any traffic and it quickly got annoyed.  The view greatly helped though.  The road starts from above and works its way down to the city.   With Bogota’s red bricked buildings it was a really pretty site so I used the excuse to get out of the traffic to stop for pictures.

I wove my way through the city to the center to find my home for the night.  Earlier, I decided on The Cranky Croc Hostel and was anxious to get off the bike and start looking around.  Checking in was no problem but finding parking was another story.  I was amazed by how difficult it was for me to find a parking garage that had room for my motorcycle.  I ended up driving around for almost an hour but I finally found a lot that would take me.  After a couple quick pics on my phone to ensure I didn’t forget where I parked, I was done with all my duties and could get to the fun; discovering Bogota.

Bogota, Colombia’s capital city, is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is Colombia’s largest city.  You can also tell it’s Colombia’s main tourist spot because there were people everywhere.  On my way here, I couldn’t help myself from looking down but now that I’m in the city, I can’t help myself from looking up at the gorgeous mountain views.  It seems on every cliff side there is some statue or something to state at.

My first impression of the city is mixed.  I have never seen so many police officers.  I mean they are everywhere, on every corner, in every alley, and in cars and on motorcycles on every street.  The funny thing is though, that it doesn’t seem to help at all.  Everywhere there were peddlers and vendors selling stuff which you knew just wasn’t legal.

There is quite the hippy vibe here with little shops everywhere and most likely over a 100 different places where you could eat just in the central district.  It really was an experience walking through these small alleys checking out all the little shops.  Ironically, I chose a Mexican restaurant to eat at for the night, I just really like tacos.

A problem with driving all day and usually only spending the night to continue on the next day, is that it just tires you out.  So I’m sad to admit it, but I ended up turning in pretty early.  I really did enjoy checking out the old section of the city, and am overall very surprised by how beautify Bogota is.  It is on the must-do list for when I head back north with Melissa.

It looks like I’ve decided to move on tomorrow yet again.  For some reason I have this drive to keep going and really not stay anywhere for very long.  My next stop at Calima, I am planning on staying a couple days.  It has been too long since I’ve kiteboarded and I plan on fixing that next.  I am on a timeline to get to Brazil while my dad is still there visiting my sister, but it’s time to take a couple days of break and get off the bike and under a kite.

=Jason-