Fingerprint Guide: Bogota, Colombia

By Andres Vasquez

We decided to do this guide because life is simple and so should travel guides. It is an on going guide that will be up date every year with the coolest places, plans and venues to stay in the city. It is a simple but complete guide to made by a fellow traveler for travelers. We included tips and other fun stuff! We hope you enjoy it, love from our team! Fingerprint guide!

We included the two or three day plan of must see things and other detailed information from restaurants, hostels and hotels. Although, this is our first edition of the guide, we are happy to receive comments and tips you consider we should include. Please contact us directly!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andres Vasquez
• Release date: Feb 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301885510

Andres Vasquez

Hi! I'm Andres, I've been working for the past year or so in the travel industry. One of my main findings was that travel guides are badly made or just plain rubbish. Therefore, I decided to do this guide about Bogota with the idea that I would provide a valuable solution to travelers who wanted to come and visit. Additionally, a few friends won't bother me! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did and please feel free to send me any comments to my email!

Book preview

Fingerprint Guide-Bogota, Columbia

By Andres Vasquez Obando

Copyright 2013 by Andres Vasquez Obando

Smashwords Edition 2013

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter I - Introduction

Chapter II - Things To Know Before You Get Here

Chapter III - Maps

Chapter IV - What You MUST Do In Bogotá

Chapter V - Food and Wine

Chapter VI - Partying

Chapter VII - Other Activities

Chapter VIII - Hotels & Hostels

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Chapter I

Introduction

Hi and welcome to Bogotá! Since this guide is made for the general public, I will try to adopt a scheme by which those who are in a hurry to get through the "must know" places can do so in the first pages of this guide; subsequently, the rest of the guide will be directed to those eclectic travelers who do their thorough research about cities and their key aspects. Sometimes traveling in a rush is necessary, so why not give both types of travellers a chance to use the same guide.

After carefully considering publishing this guide, I would like to mention that I’m not a professional author, nor my interest is to deceive you with this guide. Therefore, I have focused my efforts to recommend what I consider the best options of what you have to see in the city. It’s an inexpensive guide that I’ll be working on every year. The idea is to help you out in your travels so feel free to email me at http://[e-mail].

Hope you enjoy this guide as much as I did writing it.

Chapter II

Things To Know Before You Get Here

Location: Bogotá is the capital of Colombia, in South America. The city is located in a plateau and is one of the few cold cities in the country. Please note, it is cold or as Argentinians would say fresco.

Altitude: The city is located 2.630 meters above sea level, which makes it one of the most elevated cities in the world. Due to its altitude it is quite likely that people not used to such heights get mountain sickness or "soroche", as it is called in Spanish. It is advisable to have a bottle of water with you at all times. If you get altitude sickness and the headache persists after the first day, please try a Coca Leaf Tea (no guys, not that kind of Coca). You can find it in supermarkets or small tea and coffee shops around the city.

Temperature: It oscillates between 7 degrees Celsius to 19 degrees Celsius. Therefore, I recommend that you bring a jacket, a few pair of socks and a warm jumper. Flip-flops might not be an option for most people; although people from northern countries such as Ireland usually tell me that Bogotá is warm.

Currency: The Colombian Peso –known by the acronym COP– is the locally traded currency. US dollars are accepted in some venues but not everywhere. The exchange fluctuates daily as most foreign currencies do; an update at http://www.xe.com would be advisable before your land in the country. A good recommendation about exchange is not to do it at the airport. Additionally, its almost always best if you take money out of the ATM because you’ll get your cash changed at the official exchange rate which is usually higher than exchange houses.

Where to stay: Bogotá is a city of 8 million people and tourists are starting to arrive by the truckload. Therefore there are many places where you can stay. Nevertheless, if you are a backpacker or have no clue where to stay and would like somewhere clean and inexpensive, I would recommend you come stay at my favorite hostel: Explora Hostels. Visit their webpage http://www.explorahostels.com or email them to arrange your stay [e-mail]. Give them a call to 57-1-282-9320 or show up at Calle 12c No. 3 – 19 (old address Calle 14 No. 3 – 19).

You’ll find more information about hotels and other hostels later in thi guide.

City Layout: The city has two main types of streets: streets – in Spanish called "Calles"– and Carreras, which has no direct translation to English (other than the name of a famous supercar). A calle (Street) crosses the city from east to west and a Carrera goes from north to south. Streets start at 0 and go increasing in number until 240. If you are over 170 you’re probably lost, or going out of town. Additionally, they can go from 0 to 200 south, but most of the venues and sites on this guide won’t take you that way. Carreras, start from 0 on the east side of the city up to 200 on the west side of the city. This makes a grid of streets that resemble those old high-school notebooks with a bunch of small squares, which in the city are called blocks. Don’t imagine a perfect distribution of streets and carreras, lack of urban planning will allow you to find the outmost exotic things in terms of roads, diagonal streets among other rare findings.

Now for my first tip about the city: how in hell would one know where is east and where is west? Well, if you remember that old trick they probably taught you in school you should know your way around. If you don’t, allow me to invoke my youth with this childproof system. Mountains surround Bogotá and you will probably be spending most of your time in the northeastern