A little introduction

The capital of Colombia, bustling and thought to be the seat of government, is not a colonial jewel of the Caribbean like Cartagena or as touristy as Medellín, where Pablo Escobar lived. Instead, Bogotans seem to speak of their city the way Milanese sometimes speak of Milan: as a place where they love to live and work, but might be hesitant to recommend it to a foreigner to savor the wealth of their country.

Yet wealth abounds in Bogotá, from its street art portraying a history of armed conflict to the towering hills of the forest reserve along its eastern edge. In addition, it is an ideal place to understand Colombia. I came here because I'm on a one-year tour to go to each of The New York Times' 52 Places to Visit in 2018 destinations and Colombia ranks second. Last July, the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) surrendered their weapons to the government, thus marking the end of a struggle that had made it impossible to explore some parts of the country.

Eat something here

Andrés Carne de Res Before arriving in Bogotá, I heard two things: that I had to go to Andrés Carne de Res, as well as that it was a robbery and I would be a walking cliché if I did. Both sides seemed to agree that it would probably be the most extravagant restaurant I would ever see in my life; that, of course, meant he had to go.

Glowing red hearts, Catholic iconography, and wrought iron ceiling chandeliers with different colored spotlights are just part of the décor of this “more is more” restaurant chain. Monday through Friday, go to Andrés DC for steak and traditional food. His name is inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy; It has themed floors for hell, earth, purgatory, and heaven, and it is located a few minutes from the Click Clack Hotel, where I stayed for a few nights in the elegant and trendy neighborhood of El Chicó. In a nearby shopping center, there is a food court, La Plaza de Andrés, where the young Colombian professor of data journalism María Isabel Magaña took me one afternoon to enjoy arepas stuffed with cheese with corn, chicharrones and patacones (mashed green plantains and fried), while we were surrounded by objects like a life-size plastic cow with dark glasses. The main restaurant, Carne de Res, is in Chía, a municipality north of the city. It has a capacity for 2,100 people, but on the busiest nights it can accommodate up to 4,000 people and it is worth a visit on the weekend when that party fills up with salseros until three in the morning.

(For a night closer to home, try Gaira Café, which is owned by Colombian singer Carlos Vives, who has collaborated with Shakira.)

Historical Bogotá

The museum, which offers guided tours in Spanish and English, houses the largest collection of pre-Hispanic gold objects. You will learn about the spiritual lives of the Colombian indigenous tribes who believed that gold contained the energy of the sun and did not give it any monetary value. I have to confess that I got bored with seeing all those static and shiny objects, but after talking with Rodríguez, I was able to better understand the importance of the museum. "It is the story of how the Spanish went through the jungle looking for El Dorado, a city of gold - and to some extent there was some truth to it - but they went after silver and ended up with these highly evolved and spiritual people, "he said. “It is a story of greed. That is the story of how Bogotá became a Spanish town ”.