The view from the top – Bogota; Monserrate and The Gold Museum

The first stop in our 5 week trip through Colombia began in Bogota. We opted for the $115, 1.5hr flight over the 30 hours of buses. We definitely could have done it cheaper, but as we both hate buses, and I generally end up wanting to puke, we didn’t want to waste yet another day of our lives on one when there was a cheapish alternative.

We got in at 10pm and grabbed a taxi to our hostel, Bakano Hostal. It was Ok, nothing special but had all the necessities, and the location was perfect for exploring La Candelaria.

The next day we woke up and headed into the streets for an explore. We came across the Gold Museum, Museo Del Oro, and paid the 3000 peso entrance fee (roughly $1.50 AUD) to explore for a couple of hours. We were both really pleasantly surprised by the museum and couldn’t believe the intricate detail in the gold pieces that have been recovered from centuries and centuries ago. Unfortunately we only took the GoPro with us and resultantly didn’t get any good, close up photos.

After the museum we grabbed lunch and headed up to Monserrate. Monserrate is a church on top of a mountain overlooking Bogota city. On a clear day the views are insane (see below), and on a not so clear day I’m sure they’d be more than alright too.

To get up to Monserrate there is a funicular (train kind of thing), a telerifico (a cable car) or you can walk. We’ve heard the walk should only take an hour or so but there have been multiple muggings along the path. As we were headed up with the camera we opted for the funicular that cost $14000 pesos pp (about $7AUS).