Bogota

We made  a fairly  impromptu plan to visit Colombia ( not Columbia). Came to  Bogota, Colombia….Located high in the Andes at 8646 ft above sea level, Bogota is the capital of Colombia and it’s largest financial center. Most companies in Colombia have their headquarters in Bogota and it is home to most foreign companies doing business in Colombia as well as Colombia’s main stock market. It’s population is approximately 8,000,000. Bogota, or Colombia for that matter has a reputation as being a relatively dangerous place with kidnappings. bombings and gunfights being regular occurrence…in the past this may have been true, but now a days, the government has “cleaned up” it’s major cities and tourist areas and it has become as safe as any other large South American city….You should still be on your guard, as you should be as a tourist in any big city, but safety concerns should not dominate your thoughts in such a fun city where people are, on the whole, very nice and willing to help. 

General picture of Bogota :  Monserrate,   Plaza Bolivar, La Candelaria and downtown,  Zapaqueiria,  Usaquen , La Rosa Zona 

 We had three  unique experience at Bogota.


1)  Meeting   young people in their  late teen  and early twenties .
George, Agnleuc theior firend ChuChu and Angleica at . They 
went out of their way to  Andres Carne de Res  restaurant  by escorting us from Zapaqueiria  to Chia ( Chia, 40 kilometers north of Bogota).  See their pictures at
Colombia_friends
2) Mass Public protest with heavy presence of police on May 1 when the city got  virtually  closed . See pictures . We ended  up going to Usaquen as Bogota was closed. 
3) TransMileno  the  bus  rapid Transi. I see  it as  asocail integrator which transports the poor people  from  the south of city to  affluent  suburbs in North like  La Rosa Zona. Similar bus system name BART at my hometown at Ahmedabad is modelled after TransMileno.  Coincidently  tehre as  picture of my sister at Ahmedaabd with the ex-mayor of Bogota when he visited Ahmedabad in  Nov. 2009 in local newspapers.