Painting the Town Red Bogotan Style

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My annual migration has begun. I’ve shed my drab winter feathers and headed for the hills. Or mountians I should say, since at more than 2600m of altitude, the mountains around Bogota are pure Andies and none of your puny rolling foothills.

After a hop and a skip and 17+ hours on planes and at airports, I duly landed last night at Bogota’s international airport Eldorado (I appreciate the touch of sarcasm in the name). Since we’re on the subject of airports and appreciation, my brief stop-over in Paris Charles de Gaulle had me trotting through several small and badly signposted terminals, one a rather stunning futuristic affair, which represented another memoreable moment in the history of concrete alien spaceship architecture.

Now back to terra firma and Bogota (though still at relatively high altitudes).

I’m staying in the old colonial centre, la Candelaria. After a grand total of six hours of being out and about, I don’t consider myself an expert on all things Bogotan. However, I am already ready to claim that this may well be the street art capital of the world! Whereas in some countries such as India, street art tends to be of a purely commercial nature (underwear and machine parts being strongly represented in the genre), here it’s more art and less marketing. 

There is street art on fences,

Painted on glass shop windows

On the outer walls of houses

And Inside cafeterias.

Pretty much everywhere, that is.

Though cities like Lima and La Paz also show promise on the street art front, I think they have a ways to go before catching up with Bogota. 

Now I think I will just chill out for the rest of the day drinking copious amounts of coffee. Another thing I learned today: cafe con leche (coffee with milk) here would be more aptly named lecce con cafe: a mug of warm milk with just enough coffee to turn it off-white. At least it’s not likely to keep me up at night.