Northern South America Travel Diary

2012

Northern South America Travel Diary 2012

 

I woke this morning to a very different Quito to the one I have come to know and appreciate  over the past couple of days.  In contrast to the clear air and blue skies I have been enjoying, I looked out my window on a city skyline covered in a brownish-white haze of what was clearly (not a good choice of a word!) photochemical smog.  I’m guessing that a katabatic wind flow overnight has caused a temperature inversion in the valley where Quito is situated, trapping the pollutants close to the ground rather than allowing them to disperse.  It was not a pleasant sight, and my first thought was “it must be time to move on to Bogotá” – which is what I proceeded to do.

In one sense, it was good to be in Ecuador this year rather than next year.  It is expected that Quito’s Airport will be replaced in October by a new facility that is located many kilometres further north than the existing airport.  Given the traffic congestion during rush hours in Quito, that relocation will probably add an hour or two to the present journey between the airport and the city.

Although Quito’s Airport worked smoothly, efficiently and in a friendly manner this morning, I found it was one of those very few airports where it is impossible to see the plane you are about to board, not only while you are waiting, but even as you walk on to the plane.  It was therefore something of a surprise that I found myself on an AeroGal Airbus A320 – I was expecting a flight on an Avianca aircraft.  AeroGal (short for Aerolíneas Galápagos) is a small Ecuadorean airline that was recently acquired by Avianca, and my flight was a codeshare operation; I usually know about codeshares I am going to experience, but this one took me by pleasant surprise.  The flight lasted just over an hour, landing at a little after 12:30 pm.

After operating in Ecuador for the past few days using US dollars (Ecuador abolished its own separate currency just over a decade ago), one of the first things I had to do was to get back into the routine of exchanging money.  Colombia’s currency is the peso, and there are 1770 of them to the US dollar.  I immediately resolved to brush up on my 1770 times tables.

My taxi trip from the airport to the hotel did little to endear me to Bogotá , not that there was anything wrong with the city.  However, I was expecting another beautifully situated Andean city like Quito, and Bogotá suffers aesthetically when compared with Quito.  Perhaps the grey clouds overhead influenced my perceptions, but my initial impression of Bogotá was of a city that seemed somewhat characterless with uninspired architecture, often defaced with graffiti, and with lots of dust, litter and garbage lying around.

Acknowledging that initial impressions can often be misplaced, I resolved to spend the afternoon exploring Bogotá’s old city which, according to my guidebook, was the only part of Bogotá that was really worth exploring.  The centre of the old city is an open square called Plaza de Bolívar.  Although Plaza de Bolívar is situated only 2.5 kilometres from my hotel, the hotel staff were adamant that I must not walk there; the word “mugged” kept springing into the conversation.

Thus, following this advice based on local knowledge, I took a taxi for the short trip to Plaza de Bolívar.  Maybe it was just the streets along which we were driving, but given what I saw happening on the footpaths from time to time through the taxi’s windows, I was pleased and relived that I had decided to follow the advice not to walk.

Compared with other plazas and squares in city centres I have visited (including the Plaza Grande in Quito that I had explored just a few days ago), I found Plaza de Bolívar somewhat disappointing.  It is a large area of grey paving (under grey skies this afternoon), surrounded by four grey buildings (one on each side) with no architectural coherence whatsoever. 
Filling the large open paved area was not parkland or vegetation, but grey pigeons – hundreds and hundreds of them.  Those who know me will understand the absolute extremity of what I am about to say now – I suspect that the Plaza de Bolívar would benefit by having a few cats around the place.

On the southern side of the Plaza, a huge building in classical Greek style was the Capitolio Nacional, which is the meeting place of Colombia’s congress, or parliament.  At first I thought the building must be disused or closed for renovations because the entire front of the building was closed by low grey (of course) metal sheets covered in graffiti.  However, as I looked more closely, there was a constant stream of well dressed men in well cut suits entering and leaving the building, so I can only conclude that the metal barriers were a (fairly ugly) security measure.

On the opposite side of the Plaza, the Palacio de Justicia squarely faced the Capitolio Nacional.  The Palacio de Justicia was clearly a newer building than the Capitolio Nacional, but was similarly monumental, having been built in what I would call a brutal style of architecture.

The buildings on the western and eastern side of the Plaza de Bolívar were considerably more elegant than those to the north and south.  On the western side, the low Alcadía (Mayor’s Office) could be seen, a graceful and dignified building dating from the early 20th century.   On the eastern side was the Catedral Primada, completed in 1823 in neo-classical style.  This is Bogotá’s largest church, and compared with the baroque buildings I had seen recently in Quito, decidedly plain and surprisingly dark.  Next to the cathedral was the Plaza de Bolívar’s only building dating to Spanish colonial times, the Capilla del Sagrario.

Having explored the Plaza fairly thoroughly, I headed uphill to the east to explore the one part of Bogatá that I had heard and read was attractive.  Known as La Candelaria, this was Bogotá’s old colonial quarter, and it comprised a grid network of steep, narrow streets lined with old buildings with elegant balconies and brightly colored facades and doors.  I was glad that I had chosen to explore this pretty area as it helped to dispel some of my more negative preliminary impressions of Bogotá.

By the time I returned to the Plaza de Bolívar, the clouds had thinned a little and there was some filtered sunshine.  This certainly lifted the appearance of the Plaza, and highlighted how important the role of weather is in influencing visitors’ impressions of a city.

I easily found a taxi (a truly miniature yellow Hyundai) to return to my hotel, and by the time I arrived, steady rain had started.  I am hoping for fine weather tomorrow so that the lighting might be more conducive to appreciating Bogotá’s charm and its renowned qualities.  Unfortunately, I felt that today’s grey clouds inhibited my appreciation of this possibly fascinating city.




 

Day 11 - Quito to Bogotá

Wednesday

4 July 2012

Today’s extra bonus images