Bogota, Colombia

I've got lots of photos for you so lets keep this short.  Bogota is a beautiful city, by far the most advanced we've been to so far.  Everywhere we turned, the city was decorated with Christmas lights, Juan Valdez was tempting us with aroma's of premium Colombian coffee, narrow cobble stone streets with Colonial buildings splashed with various bright colors were drawing us in for, "just one more stroll", the people were so friendly they would often respond to a, "Thank you" with, "With great pleasure", and the one thing that had us both continualy saying, "We could live here", bike lanes on nearly every major road.  Colombia has a great saying in their tourism advertising; "Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay".  We'll be back.  Check it out:       

Catedral Primada in Plaza de Bolivar was built in the 1500's.

Plaza de Boliver burning brightly for the Holiday's.

Parque 93 was extravagently decorated and was showing off both, during the day and at night.

Don't mess with Colombia and oh, yeah, "Merry Christmas!"

Here is the view from the balcony of our hotel.

The Presidential Palace.  When asked if we could take a tour, the guard said, "Well, that's complicated".  Enough said.    

Here I am making some new friends.

The Gold Musuem in Bogota is often refered to as the best in the world.  It was certainly very impressive and a memorable part of the trip.   

We were able to take a funicular train to Cerro de Monserrate on one of the mountain peaks that looks over the city.  It is also hikeable but how often do you get to say, "I rode a funicular train today"?  Funicular, just the word alone is awesome.

Here we have the oldest restuarant in Colombia.  It has been serving bread, cheese and hot chocolate since 1816.  Belive it or not, the bread was not stale.

Just outside of Bogota is the worlds largest underground salt mine.  A salt cathedral has been carved out and is open for tours and weddings.  The tunnels are endless and the neon colors against the white salt walls are fascinating.  

A floating angel in the salt mine.

No, this in not our, "scared to be in Colombia" expression, it's our, "Colombia is so exciting" expression.  Though, we certainly missed friends and family, Colombia made for a very special Christmas.  We hope you all had a wonderfull Holiday's and wish for you, great adventures in 2009.