Day 84 - Quito, Ecuador to Bogota, Colombia

Not a nice start to the day today. We have a 6am flight to Bogota which means leaving the hotel at 3am. People were still drinking in the bars of Foch Plaza when we left! The hotel gave us a lovely little packed breakfast though which was nice. 

We have a good and pretty short flight. It is weird flying into Bogota. It is like a city in the sky that springs up from nowhere. When the captain said prepare for landing it looked like we were still far to high then a huge mountain rises up out of nowhere to almost catch us instead of us descending to land. The pic below is the edge of the mountain and you can see the clouds below it. 

We arrive at the hotel by 8am and we are so lucky as we emailed ahead and asked them for an early check in and they said no problem. So nice of them as we usually have to walk around like tired zombies waiting until 2-3pm for check in. The hotel we are staying in is called Casa Real 93 and it's great. It's like an old apartment block in a gorgeous part of the city that has been converted into a hotel. 

http://casareal.com.co/english/

Nice big room with a sofa which I soon find myself on watching Liverpool's demolition of Arsenal. 

After a nap we grad out at about 1pm. My old uni mate Mark Firth now lives in Bogota so we arrange to meet up with him. He picks us up from the hotel and we walk down the road to Park 93, a lovey little square with lots of bars and restaurants around it. We have a delicious lunch at Crepes and Waffles then have a wander around the area as we head towards Zona Rosa and the 'zona T' area which is the main area to go out in with also some high end shopping. 

We are amazed at how lovely and modern Bogota is. It's a gorgeous place and wouldn't look out of place in the US. Park 93 in particular is like a little piece of the US in Colombia. 

Mark shows us an amazing restaurant called Andres Carnes de Res. Nat had found the original restaurant of this out of town and we didn't know they had one in town too. It's an amazing, sprawling place. We don't even go into the main restaurant and club but just walk through the lunch / day time area. Such a cool place and great atmosphere with a band playing. 

It takes up this whole block. 

Obviously we had to nip into Hard Rock for a beer and a pint glass as it was knlg next door. 

We then go to the Bogota Brewing Company (BBC) which is a great chain of cool bars that are all around Bogota. They also brew some gorgeous beer in particular the Roja. It's got great music and actually has quite a British feel to the place. 

Traditional dance in the square. 

Random man walking around with giant flowers. Not quite sure what it's in aid of. Maybe he is a straggler from the group of dancers. 

As we want to eat at Andreas tonight we need to go early as this place gets booked out months in advance. We decide not to go back to the hotel but go for a few more beers. We arrange to meet Mark and his girlfriend later on and head to Colombia bar. All the waitresses in here have Columbia football shirts on and naturally they have a dodgy looking statue of Carlos Valderrama to pay homage to. 

We then head for dinner at Andres Carnes de Res which is one of the coolest restaurants we have ever been too. It is amazing. This one is actually an outpost of the original one which is set 30km outside of town. They are huge places with a fantastic party atmosphere and a theme that I would struggle to describe. The one outside of town is a whopping 2.7 square miles! 

http://www.andrescarnederes.com/es/

The menu is enormous and food is out of this world. 

Loving the huge red wine glasses. 

Nat bitten off more than she can chew with her order of trout. It may not look it but this dish is absolutely jam packed full of trout and shrimp. 

Settling down to my 420g steak with my bib on. I do hate a sizzling skillet though! They are not very conducive to keeping a steak blue. 

So have to make a quick transfer to a smaller plate. 

Crazy dancers and a band running around the place. They do well to capture the Colombian spirit in this place. Such a fun place. 

Big explosion of ticker tape. 

When we pay the bill the band come over and play a tune to us putting a crown on Nat and a Colombian sash on me. 

We have a little explore of other floors before we head off to meet Mark again. You could get lost in this place. It's got six floors!

Mark then takes us for a walk around the area. It is absolutely heaving by now and a great atmosphere. It is jam packed with bars, restaurants, clubs and casinos. 

After an explore they drive us to see another part of the city called Usaquen. There is a great little square there and we go for a drink in a nice little Irish bar. 

It has been great being shown around by a local - so nice not to have to constantly get a map out and research where we can (and more importantly can't) go. A fantastic first day in Bogota. We love this place and are really impressed by what we have seen so far.