Photos
Background
I’m lucky enough to get a week in August off for our company shutdown (at least for this year). For our family trip this year, we headed to New Mexico in May (check out that trip report and photos) and we booked a 7-day cruise for Suzanne and me in October. I still wanted to do something for my break but Suzanne didn’t have enough vacation time to take another week off so it looked like I’d be on my own. It made sense to go somewhere Suzanne wasn’t that interested in. I had originally spent some time starting to plan for North and South Dakota, mainly to see Badlands NP. However, speaking with a colleague at a conference in May who travels to Colombia regularly sparked an interest. I have wanted to go to South America for a long time, particularly Buenos Aires, but flights there were kind of pricey. I started some research and found that flights to Colombia were reasonable and it’s a shorter trip than I would have expected at only 5 1/2 hours or so from Newark.
Of course, as a kid of the 80s, Colombia has a reputation for violence. I spent time researching and talking to my colleague, and eventually other colleagues who had also been there, and it really isn’t like that anymore, at least outside of the very rural areas. Of course, like any big city, parts of the city are not good but with some research as to where to stay and where to stay away from, I felt fine.
Colombia is a big country so I started looking at where specifically to go. Bogotá came to the top as a cosmopolitan city that’s less touristed and, importantly as it was August, milder in climate as it’s very high up at around 8200 feet. (Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast, and Medellín are the two places most tourists go.) However, nine days seemed to be too much for just Bogotá. When looking at adding Cartagena or Medellín, I noted many flights connected in Panama City so I started looking at that. It turns out that there’s a company that does Panama Canal transits but they only do a full transit, that is from the Pacific to the Caribbean/Atlantic, once per month. That day for August happened to be one of the weekends of my trip. That was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up so I set my trip for a few days in Panama City and then a few days in Bogotá.
Most of my research for the trip was via Youtube. I watched many videos from local guides at Zebra Fisgona for Bogotá. These were excellent and I ended up using them for a couple of days in Bogotá. (More on that below.) I did some pre-trip reading including The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself about the history of Colombia (and Panama as it was part of Colombia until 1903), One Hundred Years of Solitude by Nobel-prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, Killing Pablo about the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar and the Narcos in general, and The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the building of the Panama Canal (which I had read before).
Itinerary
- Thu 14-Aug: Morning flight to Panama City, visit around Casco Viejo (“Old Town”)
- Fri 15-Aug: Morning tour to Monkey Island in Lake Gatun and jungle hike, afternoon open
- Sat 16-Aug: All day tour/transit of the Panama Canal
- Sun 17-Aug: Old Panama and open
- Mon 18-Aug: Morning flight to Bogotá, visit hotel’s neighborhood
- Tue 19-Aug: Private tour day #1
- Wed 20-Aug: Group tour to Lake Guatavita and the Salt Cathedral
- Thu 21-Aug: Private tour day #2
- Fri 22-Aug: On my own, Monserrate and Gold Museum
- Sat 23-Aug: Early morning flight home
Thu Aug 14 – Flying to Panama City
My flight was scheduled for 9:35 so I had booked an Uber for 6:00. It ended up coming just a bit early which was fine. All together, I made it to the airport, through security and was in the United lounge at 6:35. My flight left on time and was fine with a little turbulence here and there but nothing too bad. We arrived right on time around 2:00. Getting through the Panama City airport was super quick. Immigration/passport control was literally 3 minutes and I was walking to the car with my driver, booked through my hotel, 20 minutes after getting off the plane. My driver was great to talk to as he had been an Army brat and spent a good chunk of his life in the US before returning to Panama about 20 years ago. The drive to my hotel was about 30 minutes and it was cool to get a first look at Panama City.
My hotel was the wonderful Central Hotel in Casco Viejo (“Old Town”). This is an old historic hotel in the very heart of the Old Town. It was the first hotel in Panama, has hosted Teddy Roosevelt and Ferdinand de Lesseps, and, I believe, was where the announced the independence of Panama from Colombia. I spent the afternoon wandering around Casco Viejo and visiting some churches along the way. The weather was nice, muggy but not super hot. After some okay beer and a burger (late lunch/early dinner) at La Rana Dorada, I did some more wandering before grabbing another beer at La Pupería (not great). I did more wandering as it was now dark which was quite cool. I ended up back at my hotel on the earlier side as I had been up quite early and had an early morning on Friday. It was a very nice first day in Panama City
Fri Aug 15 – Monkeys and Rainforest
For today, I booked a morning group tour, Monkey and Sloth Jungle Habitat Panama Tour on Viator, that included a boat ride to Monkey Island and then a hike in the rainforest. This started with a 6:15 (ended up being 6:25) pickup at my hotel and an hour or so ride outside of Panama City up to Gamboa. On our way into the national park, we stopped to see a sloth in the wild which was cool. In Gamboa, we hopped a boat for the ride starting on the Chagres River and going into Gatun Lake to Monkey Island, really a series of many small islands. While out there, we saw capuchin monkeys and titi monkeys, both of which even walked along the boat. (The titi monkeys even came down to eat bananas). It was really cool to see monkeys in the wild. We also saw an iguana which was very cool as we had one as a pet for many years a long time ago. We then headed back to Gamboa, had a great snack of an empanada and some other treats before driving up past the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and taking a short hike into the rainforest. We didn’t see a ton of animals but did hear a group of howler monkeys close by. It was also a great experience just to walk along, especially as we spread out and I ended up mostly by myself for a short time. This was really nice tour and definitely would recommend it. I ended up back at my hotel right around noon.
Lunch was an okay cheesy burrito at Mahalo Snack Shack. I spent some more time in Casco Veijo, visiting the wonderful I Love Panama Chocolate shop before hitting up the Panama Canal museum. While the exhibit about building the canal was closed, it was cool to see the exhibits about Panama before and Panama after the construction of the canal. Especially interesting was the exhibit on the community that was built up in the Canal Zone. I then had an excellent coffee and hazelnut pastry at Sisu Coffee Studio which is a shop owned by a coffee estate family with single source coffee. It was very good coffee.
I then hopped an Uber, very easy in Panama City, out of Casco Viejo and more into the city for some beer at Central Cervecería (okay) and then down the street at Cervecería Diablo Sucio (seems to be closed now) (better beer). After some gelato back in Casco Viejo, I called it a night back at the hotel.
Sat Aug 16 – Panama Canal
Today was one of the main reasons I decided to visit Panama City, my transit of the Panama Canal. I booked my tour directly through PMA Tours who actually runs the boat though other companies book with them as well. As it starts early in the morning, I had a 5:15am pickup about a 10 minute walk from my hotel. It’s a good thing I’m a morning person. We made it to the dock around 6:00 and boarded our boat for the day, the Pacific Queen. It was pretty full but most people only did a half transit so it did clear out later. Our boat left the dock at 6:30 to start the trip. It was really cool to sail under the Bridge of the Americas, the first fixed bridge crossing the canal, and into the first lock, the famous Miraflores Locks. As we were small, we shared the trip with a larger container vessel and another tour boat. It was really something to be so close to a ship that large, though it was a smaller ship than the newer ones that only fit in the newer, larger locks, and see the workings of the canal. This ship would be our “partner” for the other locks throughout the day. This is also the location of the main visitors’ center so it was cool to be on the other side and have people watching us. The weather was also perfect, sunny and not too warm, at least at the start. (More on that below.)
We continued on, having a nice breakfast of eggs, sausage and yogurt, going through the Pedro Miguel locks and sailing into the famous Culubre/Gaillard Cut. This is the deepest cut of the canal and the largest engineering challenge of the canal construction. After this, we headed into Gamboa, passing by the Chagres River, where I was the day before. As most people only do a partial transit, probably 75-80% of the people disembarked in Gamboa. This was cool as it made the rest of the trip feel a little more special.
After leaving Gamboa, we had lunch (pasta salad with chicken) and continued through Gatun Lake, the main part of the canal and 85ft above sea level. Unfortunately, the weather turned from the sun we had before, giving us a taste of tropical, torrential downpours. As this was a relatively quiet part of the trip, it was kind of cool to see what real tropical rain was like. The boat had indoor spaces and some outside covered spaces so I could certainly stay dry. As the day wore on, we came up to the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic/Caribbean side of the canal. Our guide said we got lucky as sometimes they have to wait even up to two hours but the canal authority let us go in before our “partner” from the morning so we got right into the lock. The other ship showed up around 30 mins later and we took the three locks back down to sea level. The weather did improve a bit as well so I could spent a bit of time out on the deck. We sailed out into the Caribbean, under the Atlantic Bridge, third bridge over the canal and the only one on this side of the country, and docked at a marina in Colón for the bus ride back to Panama City. This should have taken around an hour but the rains from earlier had caused flooding around the marina in Panama City we had left from and where I was supposed to meet for a ride back to my hotel. This delayed us by a lot and most people got off the bus and took an Uber back into the city. The bus ended up going a different way, basically passing by Casco Viejo so I was able to get off there and walk the 15 mins back to my hotel. Overall, it was an incredible experience to do the canal. As I’m always interested in science, engineering and history, doing the complete transit was definitely worth it but I can see some people getting bored after the first lock or two.
After dropping stuff at my hotel, I hit up the Restaurante El Nacional Sabores de Panamá (basically next to my hotel) for dinner. While it is kind of touristy, it was great to have some more traditional food. I had a very nice soup (Sancocho) to start and then a very nice whole fish. It was pricey for the area but I felt it was a very good value for that food plus a beer for $40. (Panama uses the US dollar as their currency making it very easy.) After dinner, I grabbed some more gelato, wandered a small supermarket and had a drink at the rooftop bar. It was another early night but it had been an early morning and a long day.
Sun Aug 17 – Around Panama City
As I had no plans for the morning, I finally got to have breakfast at the hotel. This turned out to be a wonderful buffet and it’s too bad I only got a chance to have it two of my four days. For the morning, I grabbed an Uber and headed over to Old Panama (“Panama Viejo”), historic site of the first Spanish settlement in the area. This is ruins now as it was destroyed by Henry Morgan in 1671 and the residents rebuilt in what is now Casco Viejo. It turned out this was the day for the yearly celebration of the founding of the city so there was a giant parade in the area. This made it a little difficult to actual find where to enter the park and I ended up walking a ways before realizing I needed to be back where I had started. At least it was a nice day. This was a cool spot to visit, with some impressive ruins and some nice views from the cathedral tower. It was interesting to see the dichotomy of the ruins with the modern skyscrapers in the background. After visiting for a bit over two hours, including the nice museum, I grabbed lunch of pork belly, plantains, and a Casa Bruja beer (decent) at Coco Market before Ubering back to my hotel.
The rest of the day was spent in Casco Viejo with some beer at Cervecería PBC (so-so) (near the edge of CV where it started getting a little rough looking) and pizza and beer back at La Rana Dorada. I did another run to the supermarket for some random so-so pastry for dessert but did manage to find a Nicaraguan beer (decent) before heading back to the hotel to pack for the morning.
Mon Aug 18 – Flying to Bogotá
After breakfast at the wonderful buffet again, I finished packing up and met my driver to head back to the airport around 7:30. I did have to wait a bit to check luggage but at least security was quick. The Copa lounge was very large but very limited in food. (I did get an Untappd checkin at the airport though despite it being early.) The flight down was fine and on the empty side. I had thought I picked an extra legroom seat but it definitely wasn’t. We left just a little bit late and arrived, after some bumps on the way in, around 10 mins late. The immigration line was long but moved steadily enough and took about 30 mins. My bag was waiting for me after a quick trip to the restroom. I hit up the ATM for some Colombian pesos. It took me a bit to get used to the fact that everything is a lot of pesos as it’s around COP 4000 to USD 1. Getting 800,000 of anything from the ATM seemed insane but it wasn’t that much. (It did also show our bank balance in COP which made it massive.) I ended up meeting my driver around 1:45 and we headed into the city. The areas we drove through were quite nice. We made it to the hotel, The Click Clack Hotel Bogotá, right around 2:30. While my room wasn’t quite ready, they offered my a coffee which I didn’t even have time to sip before the room was ready. The hotel was quite nice with some “hip” vibes (reminded me of a Citizen M a bit for those who have stayed there). The immediate area, Parque 93, was also really nice. (When they picked me up for my tour on Wed, the guide told the others that this was the area where all the rich people lived and pointed out the school the president’s son attends.)
After checking in and doing some unpacking, I wandered down to Zona T (about 20 minutes), which is basically an open-air mall like area. The walk down was really nice. It was a great first impression of being in Bogotá. I grabbed a few beers (so-so) and a great arepa at Bruder Brewing. I then walked back up to Parque 93 for a burger and beer at Bogotá Brewing Company (BBC) and hit up a supermarket for a few things before heading back to the hotel. I was in early but did some trip stuff and photos before bed. It was a great first day in Bogotá. (Making it to Colombia also meant I have now been to 30 foreign countries.)
Tue Aug 19 – Around Bogotá
As I wasn’t sure about finding my own way around Bogotá, I decided to hire a guide for a couple of days. I came across the Zebra Fisgona company via their excellent YouTube videos and decided to use their Rent A Friend program. I sent some information about what I was interested in and things I liked and they planned everything out. This turned out to be amazing. After a great breakfast at the hotel, I met my guide for the day. I was lucky enough to have Aleja, one of the founders and a Bogotá native, guide me around both days. It was very cool to meet her in person after watching their videos. We Ubered down to Paloquemao market, starting to wander through the flower market and grabbing some pan de bono cheese bread. We then wandered around the market buying a whole bunch of exotic, at least to someone from the US, fruits to try. Being in the market with Aleja was amazing because she seemed to know everyone. We even met a couple of tourists who knew her from YouTube. It was also interesting to learn that the market really is for locals and many people, including Aleja, do their regular shopping here. We also grabbed a wonderful coffee at Balance Coffee by Arte & Pasión before trying all 22 fruits we had gotten. I wish I could remember what they all were but do remember really liking the guanabana and the lulo (related to tomato). (For a flavor of what we did, check out their YouTube video on the market.)
After grabbing some delicious lechona, roast pork, we Ubered over to the historic district of La Candelaria. This is the historic heart of the city. We visited a couple of churches, stopped by the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Memorial, and grabbed a sugercane lemonade before making to Plaza Bolivar. We did some more walking through the district, saw the grave of Policarpa Salavarriete at Templo de San Agustin, visited the powerful Fragmentos exhibit (memorial to the victims of the paramilitary violence) before grabbing a coca tea (yes, tea made from the leaves of the coca plant but it’s only a mild stimulant like caffeine and does not contain cocaine) before having a wonderful Milhojas pastry at Bon Bon Cafe. More wandering with some graffiti/murals to Plazoleta Chorro de Quevedo, site of the founding of the site. We then walked down through Funnel Street (Calle del Embudo) and grabbed a chicha, a traditional indigenous fermented corn drink, at Cafe Galeria. I didn’t expect to like the chicha and it smelled quite sour but I ended up drinking nearly all of it. We then hopped an Uber back toward the hotel. Now traffic in Bogotá is notoriously bad but this was extreme. It took 90 minutes to go 12 kms/7.5 miles. Aleja ended up getting out early and walking a ways home. She said this was really some of the worst that she had seen. After a quick stop at the hotel, I had dinner nearby at Beer Lovers (spicy sausage) and a final beer at Birrerria Macha (so-so). It was a great first day.
Wed Aug 20 – Lake Guatavita and Salt Cathedral
For this day, I elected to book a group tour out of the city to Lake Guatavita and the Salt Cathedral. This ended up working out well overall and was much less expensive than a private tour for the day. The small bus picked me up at my hotel at 9:05 and we drove north out of the city. It was cool to see some of the countryside. We made it to our first stop, a hike to Lake Guatavita, around 11:30. After a quick coca tea, we started our hike with a stop in a traditional indigenous ceremonial house (kusmuy) before hiking up to the lake. The hike overall was a nice little walk at about 1.5 miles. The views of the lake with the mountains (the Andes) in the background was quite something. The lake itself was sacred to the local indigenous people, the Muisca, and played a key role in their coming of age and leader ceremonies. Many of the artifacts in the Gold Museum were found in the lake. At the end of the hike we hit up a small spot where I had an amazing arepa with hand ground corn and a very nice local beer.
After finished at Lake Guatavita, we drove into Zipaquirá for a late lunch of roast meats, including capybara. Next up was the short drive to visit the famous Salt Cathedral, one of the most famous sites in Colombia. This is a cathedral carved from an old salt mine and was very impressive. We had a couple of hours to visit. We then hopped back in the bus for the drive back to Bogotá, getting back to my hotel around 8:00. I hit up the nearby British Pub for so-so fish and chips before heading back to the hotel where I drank my coca infused beer (Coca Pola), bought at the market on Tuesday. I knew I had to drink this in Colombia as it wouldn’t be allowed back into the US. I expected this to be a gimmick but it wasn’t a bad beer, kind of earthy due to the herbs.
Thu Aug 21 – Another day with Aleja in Bogotá
This was my second day with my guide Aleja. We met later at 10:00 and Ubered over to the Santa Fe area. We grabbed a delicious egg and pork arepa on the street before getting a tamal (meat inside corn meal cooked in a banana leaf, kind of like a tamale) and hot chocolate with cheese at the historic Cafe Florida. We then walked up the hill through some historic streets before getting some wonderful Ajiaco, traditional corn and chicken soup, at the La Perserverancia market. (This was another place Aleja knew everyone.) After our soup, we did a good walk over to the Casa de Paz (House of Peace) which a community center dedicated to reconciliation between former FARC (paramilitary group) and their victims and a place to get beer brewed by former FARC members. (There was actually a former member working there which was kind of cool to know.) We then walked to another brewery from former paramilitary members which was unfortunately closed.
Next up was an hour or so having an absolute blast playing Tejo. This is kind of like cornhole but involves gun powder. I’d love to do this again and there is a place in Long Island City I might try and hit up at some point. (I think it would be a great team building event.) We then did a coffee tasting at Casa Café Cultor, grabbed a beer at El Irish Pub Quinta Camacho, some of the better beer of the trip, and did a chocolate tasting at Chuculat before heading back to my hotel. Dinner was pizza and beer a nearby Irish pub, same chain as the one earlier, before a drink at the hotel’s rooftop bar.
Fri Aug 22 – On my own
For my last day in Bogotá, I elected to tour around on my own. After another great breakfast, I grabbed an Uber to the base of Monserrate, perhaps the most popular tourist spot in all of Bogotá. I had thought about walking up but it normally takes a couple of hours, going up about 1800 feet, and I decided I didn’t want to take the time. Instead I grabbed the funicular for the 10 or so minute ride to the top. I wandered around the site, visiting the shrine at the peak, walking through the market and just taking in the views. After an hour or so, I headed back down the mountain.
Next up I took 15-20 minutes to walk to walk along the park with, what I think, is the Rio San Francisco, one of the two rivers that bounded Bogotá at its founding. This lead me to the Museo del Oro (Gold Musuem). This is another of the most popular tourist spots in Bogotá and was named one of the best museums in the world by National Geographic in 2018. While focusing on indigenous gold objects, it uses these objects and others to tell the story of the indigenous peoples of Colombia. It was well worth the visit, especially at the equivalent of only $1.25 admission. After spending a little over an hour there, I walked back toward Plaza Bolivar but it was closed for some event. I next headed over to the Botero Musuem. This is a museum of the late artist Fernando Botero, known for his style of rotund people. It also included works by some other famous artists that he had collected. It was really cool that he donated the building and works to the country on the stipulation that the museum remains free to visit. I quickly visited the Mint (as in money) Museum next door as well. Lunch was another plate of roast meats at Carbón d leña Parrilla.
After lunch, I wandered some more, especially up along Carrera 7 with many, many vendors selling all sorts of things. I grabbed an Uber to the second paramilitary museum from yesterday which was, unfortunately, closed again/still. I grabbed another Uber over to ADÚO Cervecería (so-so, only two beers on tap), before walking over to Vikinga Beer Factory, perhaps, the best beer of the trip. Dinner was another burger and beer at BBC by the hotel, making it an earlier night back at the hotel as I had to pack before my 3:30 am car the next morning.
Sat Aug 23 – Flying Home
As my flight was scheduled to leave at 7:20 am and the airport can take some time, I had a car booked from the hotel at 3:30 so it was a very early morning. The drive there was fine. (Funnily, the car had manually roll up windows despite it being somewhat new. I hadn’t seen those in years.) Check in went smoothly as did passport control (facial recognition) and security. I was in the Avianca lounge around 4:45 and able to grab some breakfast. Boarding was close to on time and I even got upgraded to first class which was nice for the six hour flight home. The flight itself was fine and we ended up being around 20 minutes late. Immigration was quick, maybe 5 minutes (yay for Global Entry) as were getting my bag and customs (the latter non-existent). From plane to curb was around 15 minutes. As it was a Saturday, Suzanne was able to pick my up and I was back at home around 3:45.
Summary
I thoroughly enjoyed my trip. I had wanted to visit South America for some time and was thrilled to finally get there. Seeing the Panama Canal was great. Bogotá was a wonderful place to visit. I actually felt Panama City was a little rougher around the edges, though I did specifically avoid any rough parts of Bogotá of course. In the areas I was in, I never felt unsafe (though I’m reasonably city savvy). While we normally travel quite independently, I did end up doing a lot of tours this trip. It was the only real way to get to the jungle in Panama and to see the Salt Cathedral outside of Bogotá. The real difference was having my private guide in Bogotá which worked out amazingly well. I saw so much more with her than I could have done on my own and didn’t have to deal with the frustrations of being with a large group. (It seemed to take forever to get everyone coordinated during my Wed tour.) I think Bogotá was a great place to visit with enough tourist stuff to see without it being overrun (as I’ve heard is the case with Cartagena and Medellín). Even the weather, which looked like it was going to be poor, was great as I had very little rain in either place (aside from the few hours on the canal).
