I’m a Spanish speaker who has been all over Spain, North and central Latin America, but visiting Bogota this was my first time in South America. Bogota was pretty gritty. It isn’t a travel paradise and I think less seasoned travelers might not like it. I would definitely go back.
Bogota is a massive city. You feel it. It’s a megacity. It’s very dense and the streets can feel pretty packed. The bus system is massive and is currently a stand in for a metro. Of the places I’ve visited I feel this was the most frequent and comprehensive bus system next to London mainly out of necessity. They are currently building a metro system and the streets are blown up.
The central plaza is large. It shows importance, like Mexico City. La Candelaria, the old city center, has homes dating back to the 1500’s. There are some incredible museums. Gabriel Garcia Marquez house is there, museo botero, museo de la moneda, museo nacional and museo de oro are all certainly worth it. On Sundays museo de oro is free but the others I believe are just free period. I even went to casa de Betty la fea.
It’s a megacity but it feels insular in some ways. It’s such a large city but it doesn’t feel international. There’s not many tourists as it’s not Cali, Medellin or Cartagena. It doesn’t feel globally connected or as important as other places in LATAM that I’ve been in terms of international business. I hung out with several Mexican guys there and a lot of people made fun of all of us for our foreign accents. The mountains hem you in on one side and they are steep and very green. There’s not much park space in the city itself but the mountains are there at all times like Monterrey.
The city is very Andean. The climate is gray, drizzly, and chilly most of the time. There’s obviously the elevation. There are people with llamas (for tourists) and people dressed in traditional indigenous clothing. The food is interesting. It’s either extremely sweet, or very bland. There’s a lot of very sweet fruit and sugar cane drinks like aguapanela, and aromatic drinks. There’s a ton of breads like empanadas, pan de bono, and a lot of soups like ajiaco and changua. It’s a unique cuisine. Not my favorite, but I tried like 30 different things and I would eat them again. There’s not really any spice no matter what people there say. A lot of espresso shots being drank and coca leaves being sold due to the elevation.
The city is impressive from most angles due to the geography, but I wouldn’t say it felt particularly safe. Part of the reason I chose bogota is the lack of social media tourism I see for it compared to other Colombian cities and because I heard of the drugging and robbing in Medellin. 4 people in my hostal got separately drugged and robbed in Medellin, but 2 of the Mexican guys got separately jumped and robbed in broad daylight. The homeless are omnipresent and very aggressive and insistent. The police shooed us away from the central plazas early, stopped me and patted me down several times, and everything seems to shut down very early compared to my experiences in Spain and Mexico. This is weird because things still open late like Spain and Mexico. It feels like crime and safety are a factor. Many locals told us to avoid certain streets and neighborhoods and at night there were times we had to be very aware and not go certain places. Everyone seems to wears black clothing and be less open than other places in Latin America and I suspect climate and crime are a factor. I never was robbed but I felt less safe here I suppose.
Everyone I did speak with was very kind, was very open, was very proud of bogota and the opportunities it afforded them, and they were especially proud of their food - while it wasn’t my favorite it was still good in my opinion. Very heavy bread in the mornings seems common with the coffee of course. The culture and history are fascinating but I think the view from monserrate and the museums are what stood out the most to me as a tourist.