Bogotá, like every other cirty in Colombia has street numbers instead of street names. A system that is not always working too well for us and the taxi drivers, so when going from the airport to our hostel we gave my cell phone to the taxi driver to help him find the way with my GPS app. When we got there he hurried us out and left, and just a few seconds afterwards we realized that the taxi driver had stolen my phone!
We went straight to the airport and ended up spending the whole Friday there, looking at the taxi companys security tape and trying to get in touch with the driver through radio. Magically enough, after several hours of waiting we saw the taxi drive by and ran into the street to stop him. The driver was quick to give back the phone and excuse himself, and afterwards I got a lesson from the taxi company about the papaya rule (see this post for explanation), stating that it was my own fault that the phone got stolen and that in the future I should take more care of my stuff.
So we got a few extra taxi rides to the airport, and even though it was quite time consuming we enjoyed the ride to the airport watching all the grafitti along the roads. We enjoyed the art enough to sign up for a free graffiti tour the next day, where we were walking through streets of Bogotá listening to an insider talk about how the graffiti was made, who had made the different art pieces and why it was made. The two hour tour was like walking through a live art gallery. We paid the guide 10US tips, just to make the tour keep going for others, and promised that we would reccomend it to other travellers going to Bogotá.
After the tour we went straight to the tram going up to Monserrate, in order to get a good view of the city. It was not before we came out of the tunnel at the top that we realized how big the city really was, stretching as far as the eye could see. We took the cable car on the way down, bringing us almost to our hostel Colonial La Quinta in the Candelaria area: the historic bohemian neighbourhood, filled with young people drinking in the streets already at noon, while watching the stand up comedians, live bands and djs performing for free. If you are looking for a place to go out, get your creativity pulsing or just experiencing a lively city, then Bogotá is the place to go.
