As I said, this is one of the better cities I've been in in S.A. People are courteous and the place is clean. They also speak at thte speed of machine guns. No pun intended.
Day 1 was a trek to all the different museums and historical sites in town.
* Museum of art Botera(?). Pieces of art donated and diplayed by a famous Colombian artist. Pieces from Renoir, Picasso, and other artists I've never heard of are here. I'm not a fine art connoisseur, but it's good to see and appreciate the various pieces.
* Gondola up Monserrate. There's a church up there and a view of the city below. Somewhat touristy, but mainly tourists from Colombia.
* Senate building. The history behind this restored government office is quite violent. A few years back, guerillas took over this building, holding the people, a lot were high-ranking officials, hostage. The president at the time took a "no-negotiation" policy and ordered troops in to eliminate the terrorists, resulting in the deaths of many officials and terrorists. A notable pictures is of a tank rolling through the front doors.
* Gold museum. There was gold. Lots of it. Even though a huge chunk was gifted to the Spanish government shortly after Colombia gained its independence. This collection of gold art, jewellery and ceremonial items was quite impressive. There were basic flat circular pieces to highly intricate chain-linked fan-shaped earrings. The 3 stories of displays were topped off by an enclosed mini display show.
The doors enclose you in a circular pitch-black room. Pan flute music starts playing in the background. A cirle in the middle of the room lights up, shining light onto the ceiling. Inside are about 50 pieces of gold jewellery like the ones in the exhibit. The music changes. The walls start to glow. As it gets brighter, you see covering 15 feet long and 7 feet high wall, gold pieces arranged in a fish shaped pattern. If I was in an Indiana Jones movie, I'd be dead with greed.
* Clubbing. There's an area downtown that fills up after dark with beautiful people of all ages. Everyone is primped and pimped, ready to take on the night life. Bibi took me to this nightclub with her (young) friends and danced to everything from Latin Rock , cumbia, salsa to reggaeton. I was mostly amused by one of her friends. She was stick thin and spent most of her time being goofy, imitating other dancers with energy like if she had 5 cottton candies in a row. Good times.
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