Athens of South America

On Friday 22 December, at 7 o'clock sharp the Overland Embassy representative came to pick us up at the hotel and by 8 we were at the airport.

A couple of "back and forth" between Customs and the Airline and by 11 the motorbike was already in our hands.

Bogota, with its 2,625 meters above sea level, is the third highest capital in the world (after La Paz and Quito) and is also the city in Colombia with the largest number of universities (114) and research centres ( 37). I read that thanks to the large selection of museums, theatres and libraries, they have given it the nickname "Athens of South America."

For the moment we appreciate the average 14℃ degrees of temperature, a pleasure for those like us living above 30℃ degrees all year round with humidity above 90%!

We also had to make some small purchases, urgently wash the bike and do a general and tightening check after the first 3000 kilometres.

However, despite not particularly loving megacities (over 8 million inhabitants) and their infernal traffic, we absolutely wanted to visit the Botero Museum and the historic center: the Candelaria.

Unfortunately, despite the nickname affiliated with the city, the Botero Museum was closed for the Christmas holidays (!!) so we ended up touring the Candelaria far and wide.

Like all historic centres in the world, I imagine that even in Bogota' La Candelaria has been abandoned for some time in favour of modern neighbourhoods equipped with better infrastructure.

However, the recovery seems to have begun and, in addition to museums and public buildings, in the evening the Candelaria offers a vast series of restaurants and entertainment venues and we saw several small hotels and B&Bs.

To reach southern Argentina we have around 13,000 kilometres ahead of us, with a myriad of places we want to see in between.

If we want to reach the south in the summer we have to get moving quickly.

Colombia deserves at least a couple of weeks. If we have time we will do it on the way back, but now we have to go south.

On Monday 25th, we began the descent towards the border with Ecuador.

Approximately 1000 kilometres between the mountains and temperatures that drop further.

But now it is time leave the stage to the images of Bogota through the eyes of my wife.