A bit like we did from SF to Mexico, we changed our initial idea to travel all the way by bus, to a leap by plane directly from Guatemala to Colombia. Mostly for lack of time -because, yes, even when you’re traveling for a year, you end up running after time! – and also because some routes we weren’t sure of, especially to enter Colombia from Panama where there doesn’t seem to be any route except for narcos infested jungle tracks.

Another reason is that we (Mary) managed to find plane tickets from Santiago Chili to Easter Island end of February, so between now and then we’ll have to focus on the main places we want to visit: Colombia, Peru (hmm, let’s talk of this one later) and Bolivia.

The cheap version of what could be a 2 hours direct flight from Guatemala City to Bogota, took a first flight to Costa Rica, a second to Panama, and a third to Bogota. So in a very superficial way, we did travel a bit across Central America in the end 😛

It’s hard to explain why but, without knowing what to expect, we immediately liked the vibe of Bogota. Everyone seemed very nice and attentive, the old neighbourhood of the Candelaria is vibrant with students and art and museums and bars and music…

Of course, when I say Bogota, I mean mostly La Candelaria, which is the historical, political and touristic center of this huge city spanning over 2000km2 (about 20 times Paris!). But not only; we took a bicycle tour of the city with Leo, which took us to various other pleasant neighbourhoods.

In Bogota we reviewed the deeds and history of famous Simon Bolivar and Santander whose collaboration lead to the independence of Colombia (on the easy to remember date of 7/8/1819!) and soon after of all of South America.

We learned about the terrible riots of “Bogotaza” in 1948, following the assassination of political leader Gaitan, and the heavy mystery and many theories behind his death.

We learned about the sickening “6402 false positive” reported cases. When, between 2002 and 2008, the army was given incentives for every guerrilla member they could kill, they started murdering innocent civilians to dress them up as guerrilla members and get the money! (So much for management by KPIs)

We learned about the indigenous people who took down the statue of a colonial spaniard during the covid protests and then buried it with traditional ceremony, to make peace with the past!

We learned about the assault of the palace of justice in 1985 by the M19 first and then by the army, and again the media censorship and the many questions around the dead magistrates.

Colombia has such a tumultuous and violent recent history that it’s hard to get around any of this.

On a brighter note, we visited the Botero museum with his paintings and sculptures completely out of proportions, and the gold museum of course, since, as everyone knows, pre-hispanic civilisations used to build whole cities out of gold! (Or not)

Like many latin american cities, Bogota also has fantastic street art. We also learned how until recently you could actually get killed by the police for painting on walls, but after Justin Bieber came to the city and painted a big canadian flag in 2013 under police escort, the controversy opened the gates for many street artists!

One evening, after Leo and Mary went to bed, I thought I’d stroll around a bit more in the neighbourhood. Walking next to a bar, I heard a familiar tune, I entered and there, in the heart of Bogota, a local band was playing the music of Django Reinhardt! That’s how I met the Hot Club de la Candelaria! I went back to fetch my guitar and we jammed together ❤️