Tag: Sights

Manizales Town and Termales

After a fantastic night’s sleep at the finca, yesterday’s plan was to explore the nearby town of Manizales and local hot springs, or termales. We had a great day and are so glad we visited Manizales town and termales.

Manizales Landscape

Manizales is part of a beautiful landscape but I could never live here. The driving up and down and around winding mountains is too much for my motion sickness! I have taken gravol before every single drive into and out of this coffee farm and I am still feeling it!

visit to the town

We took the Hacienda Venecia van to the highway and the lovely Angela from the hotel accompanied us into town. We hitched a ride with a collectivo jeep for a 15 minute journey that cost 5000 COP for the two of us (about $2.20 Canadian). Cool trip – the views along the mountains are lovely. I just would be addicted to Gravol if I lived here.

We walked around the town a bit, visited some plazas and a cathedral.

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A Bogota Bike Tour And the Food to Fuel It

Today was a beautiful day in Bogota, so we experienced the city on two wheels with a Bogota bike tour.

Biking in Bogota

Sunday is a big day for cyclists in Bogota Colombia because they close the streets to cars. You heard me right! A big chunk of main streets in Bogota are shut down for pedestrians and cyclists for Ciclovia, and we wanted to be part of it! Since we don’t travel with bikes, we participated in a bike tour with Bogota Bike Tours. For 35,000 COP (less than $16 Canadian), we got a 5 hour ride around the city with a lot of facts and fun!

Fuel for the Bike Tour

The best way to get ready for a bike tour is to eat! Since we didn’t eat dinner last night because of our massive lunch, we stopped at a street with lots of Colombian restaurants. We wanted an authentic breakfast and got it at La Puerta de La Tradicion. We consumed coffee, a milk soup called changua (which was delicious) and chorizo. The food was good, the service was too, and from there it was a quick walk to the bike shop.

Bogota Bike Tour

The English language bike tour left around 10:40am from Bogotá Bike Tours and took us approximately 8KM around the city, with a lot of stops along the way.

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Busy First Day in Bogotá

We had a whirlwind three day tour of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and biggest city with a population of 6.7 million! With so much to do and little time, we enjoyed a busy first day in Bogotá, visiting museums, salsa clubs and meeting new people.

Where We Stayed

We had an easy flight from Cartagena, and took a taxi to our lodgings in Bogotá. We’re couchsurfing with a friendly, interesting and generous guy named Robin, who was a big part of making our first day here so much fun. He has a roommate who is on crutches, Anna Maria, and 3 cats. His apartment takes up the 2nd floor of a building in the heart of a great neighborhood called Chapinero. We chose a place in Chapinero, a barrio north of the city centre which has good nightlife and lots of restaurants, because we like the convenience of walking at night.

Despite arriving to Bogotá in the middle of the afternoon, we saw some of the city and started to get acclimated, but I think it will take a bit longer because the elevation of Bogotá is over 2,6000 meters above sea level.

Bogota Map
Bogota Barrio Map

After traveling and settling in, we didn’t get into the city until 2pm but we still managed to see and do a bit to get acclimated. We enjoyed a rewarding first day in Bogotá.

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