Friday December 8th - Bogota

 This morning we were introduced to our traveling companions. We found out on arrival that there would only be two others on the tour with us so it was with some trepidation that we met the other couple. In the event we could not have been more delighted with Mike and Krista from the Tampa area who proved to be the most congenial company for the whole trip. Recently married they were amusing and fun partners on our adventure.

We met Armando at about 8 a.m. for the start of our tour of Bogota the capital for Colombia.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, this is the description of the city of Bogota

"Bogotá officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá  lit. 'Holy Faith of Bogotá') during the Spanish Colonial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest cities in the world. The city is administered as the Capital District, as well as the capital of, though not part of, the surrounding department of Cundinamarca. Bogotá is a territorial entity of the first order, with the same administrative status as the departments of Colombia. It is the main political, economic, administrative, industrial, cultural, airport, technological, scientific, healthcare and educational center of the country and northern South America.

Bogotá was founded as the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada on 6 August 1538 by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada after a harsh expedition into the Andes conquering the Muisca, the indigenous inhabitants of the Altiplano. Santafé (its name after 1540) became the seat of the government of the Spanish Royal Audiencia of the New Kingdom of Granada (created in 1550), and then after 1717 it was the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. After the Battle of Boyacá on 7 August 1819, Bogotá became the capital of the independent nation of Gran Colombia. It was Simón Bolívar who rebaptized the city with the name of Bogotá, as a way of honoring the Muisca people and as an emancipation act towards the Spanish crown. Hence, since the Viceroyalty of New Granada's independence from the Spanish Empire and during the formation of present-day Colombia, Bogotá has remained the capital of this territory.

The city is located in the center of Colombia, on a high plateau known as the Bogotá savanna, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes. Bogotá is the third-highest capital in South America and in the world after Quito and La Paz, at an average of 2,640 meters (8,660 ft) above sea level. Subdivided into 20 localities, Bogotá has an area of 1,587 square kilometers (613 square miles) and a cool climate that is constant through the year.

The city is home to central offices of the executive branch (Office of the President), the legislative branch (Congress of Colombia) and the judicial branch (Supreme Court of Justice, Constitutional Court, Council of State and the Superior Council of Judicature) of the Colombian government. Bogotá stands out for its economic strength and associated financial maturity, its attractiveness to global companies and the quality of human capital. It is the financial and commercial heart of Colombia, with the most business activity of any city in the country The capital hosts the main financial market in Colombia and the Andean natural region, and is the leading destination for new foreign direct investment projects coming into Latin America and Colombia. It has the highest nominal GDP in the country, responsible for almost a quarter of the nation's total (24.7%).

The city's airport, El Dorado International Airport, named after the mythical El Dorado, handles the largest cargo volume in Latin America, and is third in number of passengers. Bogotá is home to the largest number of universities and research centers in the country, and is an important cultural center, with many theaters, libraries and museums. Bogotá ranks 52nd on the Global Cities Index 2014, and is considered a global city type "Beta +" by GaWC."

We left the hotel early to avoid the crowds at the funicular to ascend Monserrate the mountain on the outskirts of the city. We rode the funicular to just below the top and then walked up to the chapel at the top where a Mass was in progress. The chapel has a black Madonna and a statue of the fallen Christ which has real hair.

After admiring the view of the sprawling metropolis, we descended and drove to the city's main flower and fruit market which is a riot of color. this, alone was enough to justify the title of the whole tour 'Colorful Colombia'.

From the flower and fruit market we drove to the Gold Museum which Wikipedia describes thus:

The Museum of Gold (Spanish: Museo del Oro) is an archaeology museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the most visited touristic highlights in the country. The museum receives around 500,000 tourists per year.^[2]

The museum displays a selection of pre-Columbian gold and other metal alloys, such as Tumbaga, and contains the largest collection of gold artifacts in the world in its exhibition rooms on the second and third floors. Together with pottery, stone, shell, wood and textile objects, these items, made of a– to indigenous cultures – sacred metal, testify to the life and thought of the different societies which lived in present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

In 1934, the Bank of the Republic began helping to protect the archaeological patrimony of Colombia. The object known as Poporo Quimbaya was the first one in a collection. It has been on exhibition for 70 years. The museum is today administered by Banrepcultural.

The museum houses the famous Muisca golden raft found in Pasca in 1969, that represents the ceremony of the new zipa (ruler) of Muyquytá, the basis for the El Dorado myth. The heir to the chieftaincy assumed power with a great offering to the gods. In this representation he is seen standing at the centre of a raft, surrounded by the principal chieftains, all of them adorned with gold and feathers.

After a decade of work, the museum was expanded and renovated in October 2008. With the renovation, the museum organized the permanent exhibition in five rooms with archaeological objects and an interactive room. It also added an auditorium, some temporary exhibitions rooms, a cafe, a restaurant, and a souvenir store.

The museum has a collection of 55,000 pieces, 6,000 of which are on display in their expanded building. There are bilingual descriptions of almost all exhibits. On the first floor houses the museum's main entrance, a shop, and a restaurant.

Exhibitions begin on the second floor. The main room is called "People and Gold in pre-Hispanic Colombia". In glass vitrines display goldsmiths' work from the different cultures which inhabited Colombia before the Spanish colonists arrived. The permanent exhibition is divided into different halls for every culture: Calima, Quimbaya, Muisca, Zenú, Tierradentro, San Agustín, Tolima, Tairona, and Urabá, and a special room called "After Columbus" (Después de Colón).

The exposition continues on the third floor, with "The Flying Chamanic" and "The Offering." The first shows the process of a shamanic ceremony with its different gold pieces, the second is divided into three parts: the "Offering Room", the "Offering Boat", and the "Lake".

At the end of the exposition, there is a "Profunditation Room" with artistic videos about the most important gold pieces of the museum."

From the Gold Museum, after a walk through the downtown area, we had lunch in a charming restaurant where we also celebrated Mike's birthday with an elaborate cake.

Then it was on to the Botero Museum which is described this way in Wikipedia:

The Museo Botero, also known as the Botero Museum, is an art museum located in La Candelaria neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia. It houses mostly works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, however it also includes artwork by other international artist that were of Botero's own private art collection.

The museum sees over 500,000 visitors annually, including 2,000 students per month. The museum is managed by the cultural branch of the Bank of the Republic and is part of La Candelaria cultural complex along with the Gold Museum, the Luis Ángel Arango Library, the Miguel Urrutia Art Museum, and the Museo Casa de Moneda.

Since the late 1960s, Colombian artist Fernando Botero had been a noted art collector, initially of pre-Columbian pieces, later of colonial art and more recently of drawing, painting and universal modern sculpture. Until 1999, all of his collections were scattered throughout his properties in New York, Paris, Monte Carlo and Pietrasanta, as well as in a Swiss bank deposit in Bogotá.

Since the mid-1990s, Botero had raised the possibility of donating his entire art collection to the Museum of Antioquia in Medellín. However, the slowness in making decisions by the Antioquia authorities led him to accept the proposal of the then mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, to donate his collection to the nation via its central bank.

In the year of 2000, the Colombian artist Fernando Botero donated 208 art pieces, 123 of his own making and 85 of other international artists, to the Bank of the Republic. The museum is administered by Banrepcultural. With this collection, the Botero Museum was founded in the neighborhood of La Candelaria, the historic center of Bogotá, in a colonial mansion that was acquired by the Bank of the Republic and made suitable to house the art collection by Fernando Botero himself. Since November 1, 2000, the museum has been open to the public free of charge.

In the same year, Botero's collection arrived in Colombia after an exhibition at the Fundación Santander Central Hispano in Madrid (Spain). After donating these works to Bogotá, at the request of the Antioquia authorities, the artist also decided to donate a significant set of pieces of his authorship to the Museum of Antioquia, in addition to a set of sculptures for the Botero Plaza (in front of said Museum), in Medellin. Although most of the collection of international artists had been donated by Botero to Bogotá, he decided to put together a new set of about 21 pieces (Matta, Lam, Stella, Rodin, among others), to donate to the Museum of Antioquia.

Per the Ministry of Culture Resolution 565, of 16 April 2012, the entirety of the collection donated by Fernando Botero was voted on by the National Council of Cultural Heritage of Colombia as an asset of cultural interest for the nation.

During the funeral ceremonies of Fernando Botero in Colombia, the coffin of the artist laid in repose in the courtyard of the museum.

The museum consists 123 works of Fernando Botero and 85 of other artists for a total of 208 works of art. Highlights of the permanent collection include works by Balthus, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse.

Then it was back to the hotel.