We wake up this morning and decide to walk to the Museo
Nacional, which is about 20 blocks away from our hostel. The reason we decide to walk this distance
and not take a taxi was because on Sunday’s Bogota closes the main streets throughout
the city (and beyond, 120 kilometres is closed to traffic) for cyclists, the
rule the road! I was keen to get amongst it but we couldn’t find a bike rental
place and our hostel did not rent bikes either.
We were still keen to check it out though. Walking through the city was incredible, the
streets were full of cyclists, locals really make the most of this
opportunity. I’m assuming the more
serious cyclists ply their trade of the open highway which is closed as we did
not see many of these rider’s, it was more the casual cyclists on mountain
bikes. Pretty incredible to see though,
and the footpaths were full of pedestrians and the music was pumping, the
dancing in full force, quite a sight!
When we finally arrived at Museo Nacional (we had taken our time walking
through the city), we walked through security and began our trek. The museum was free to enter (this museum was
free for the whole year, while other museums throughout the city are free on
the last Sunday of the month, which it was today). We however made a slight donation at the
door. This museum is set in an old
prison and you can tell but it has been renovated very well. The museum gives an insight into Colombian
history, from way back in the day to modern times. There are heaps of exhibits through this
museum which is three floors high. We
are in this museum for about three hours, and like yesterday time flew by! We
had some snacks in our day pack so we sat down for half an hour after our
museum visit to have a wee bite to eat.
We then made our way to Mirado Torre Colpatria, which is the
tallest building in Bogota (48 stories).
Here we were to get a 360 degree view of the city. Well the Lonely Planet let us down this time,
we couldn’t get into the building, the security guard was having none of it! I
think the viewing platform has finished operating now.
We were just about finished with Bogota, but had a bit of
time in the afternoon so decided to go into the Donacion Botero, which is an
art museum dedicated to a Colombian artist called Botero. This museum was on the way back to our hostel
so it was conveniently located. The
reason we stopped at this museum was because it also displayed artwork by other
artists including Picasso and Monet. So
now I can say I have seen some of their art!
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