December 27, 2015. Bogota

Feliz día después de que el día después de Navidad (December 27)

Last night we decided to eat close to the hotel; by the time we were ready to eat, it was pretty late and we were beat — trying to understand Bogota. So we walked to a place called Nazca (about 10 blocks from the hotel) — Peruvian food (which I know these days is very hip — having recently eaten at Lima in London), quite different from the marginal food we ate when we were actually in Peru in the 90s..  Nazca was quite chic and the food was good.. We decided we were well enough to venture back into the world of ceviche, tuna tartare, and spice.. as well as wine.

We started with a tuna tartare, then moved onto some kind of stuffed red peppers (which were the spiciest things I have ever eaten in my life — and I’ve had a lot of spicy food!)  The peppers were stuffed with some kind of spicy meat.. and on the side were onions that had marinated in vinegar.. Nearly died! I said something to the waiter about the peppers being really good.. but very “hot”.. and he said they were “mild” when compared to how they do them in Peru. OK I’m a wimp. The main course was some kind of super tender pork that had marinated for more than 8 hours. It was scrumptious. Given that the portions were sort of California Cuisine size, we decided to give the torte de limon a try. .It was delicious and tastefully small and delicate.

This morning, following breakfast, we set out for the Paloquemao Market.. As you can tell from previous posts over the years, we are suckers for markets… Decided to take a taxi as we were a little unsure of the bus routes.. and the hotel warned us that on Sundays about 1/3 of Bogota streets are closed for bicycles and walking.. so it was unclear which buses were running and where.

Probably was a good idea since the market was a lot further than we thought… Bogota is quite large with 8.5 million people (counted). I keep thinking about what I would advise if someone was coming to NYC for just 4 days.. Mike and I finally thought through what we’d tell them to do (beside “stay longer”).. Even “little” San Francisco.. what would you tell people to do if they had just 4 days.. And SF is about 1/15th the size.. So the NY analogy is closer.

On the way to the market, we passed several of the BRT stations (Bus Rapid Transit) which we are determined to try to take tomorrow if time permits…  We got to Paloquemao Market which unlike Bazuri Market sells only food stuff.. primarily fruits and vegetables.. It goes on for about 4 city blocks and is chock full of just fruits and vegetables in tiny stalls.. Seems as if there are two parts.. maybe one part is for commercial sales (restaurants) since those stalls specialize in just one item (avocados or corn or peas or oranges or whatever).. whereas in the other part the vendors have diverse products.  We saw some fruits we have never seen.. and are difficult to describe. Meat and fish and cheese and other stuff are also sold.

Paloquemao is located in a pretty dicey area that looks like it could use some big repair and infrastructure investment. When we told the hotel that was where we were headed, they offered lots of caution. But it was quite comfortable when we were there.

The drive to the market was interesting and several of the wide streets lined with tiny commercial ventures were just like Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn.. other parts felt like Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn… Low cost shops lining the streets, people mulling about.

Interspersed within the food stalls are tiny, tiny eateries that can feed about 6 people on stools.. In one, the cooking area was about 6′ x 10′ and four people were working behind the counter, cooking, serving, taking money. We stayed at Paloquemao for about two hours and then headed out.

We were going to see another neighborhood, but since I’ve been a bit worried about getting  all my work done before we head back on Saturday, we decided that we should deal with getting a few souvenirs (haven’t bought anything since we got here).. Checked into a few shops and decided that one of the artesenal craft stores sounded good and it was located next to the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de las Aguas.. Seemed pretty far from where we were, so we opted for our favorite “taxi amarillo”… The driver didn’t know where the church was, but said he’d figure it out.. Showed the picture and the address on the iPhone, and he said he was good..

Every few blocks he’d roll down the window and ask another taxi driver where this church was… each gave different directions (naturally), and he trudged on, always saying (as far as I could understand) that he knew where to go.. Eventually, he let us off in the Candelaria where we had been yesterday and pointed to a church. We knew from the get go that this was NOT the correct church.. but oh well.. he was very sweet.. and as he was driving I noticed what looked like a good, old, traditional restaurant.

When we got out of the cab we looked at the name on the church and it was nothing like what we were searching for. Then we saw a nun and figured she’d know all the churches in bogota (maybe it’s on the test)… Of course she knew.. and we were somewhere between 10 and nineteen blocks away… Kept changing her mind.. Anyway, we decided to walk.. and once we walked about 10 blocks, we asked again and then it was just a few blocks up hill…  As we walked we found ourselves in this amazing graffiti /mural area where every building was painted in great colors with huge depictions of various “statements” — some political, many just ornamental. So the unexpected walk was great. Then we came upon Iglesia de las Aguas.. the most delightfully wonderful church built in the 1600s; we peaked in and there was a lively mass going on… Naturally, we could not find the craft store, so we opted to walk to the restaurant I had seen from the taxi..

Casa Vieja turned out to be a quite good and charming old Colombian restaurant serving very traditional food. We had two appetizers that we shared and we were stuffed.

Tonight, we went for dinner in Usequin area of Bogota… Most restaurants were closed due to it being Sunday and still part of the holiday season. Indeed, we’re finding that many restaurants we’d like to try have been closed since before Christmas and are not opening until after New Years.. The ride from the hotel to Usequin neighborhood took about 30 minutes because traffic was horrendous… some streets were completely blocked.. Everyone was stopping to see the holiday lights. Like Medellin, Bogota is infatuated with holiday lights.. In this one park that everyone was stopping to view, the park was completely covered with lights.. It really was a spectacle.. After sitting in the taxi for a while, we did the NY thing of saying that we will walk the rest of the way.. And we did..

So we ate at La Mar — a very very chic, hip Peruvian fusion restaurant. Food was great, but we are now totally stuffed.. We were good and avoided the raw fish although it was tempting beyond belief… Started with some shrimp appetizer in an orange sauce, followed by what they called “Pastel de Choclo”… but it was their own version.. We think it was a shredded tenderloin with raisins and walnuts that had probably been marinating with the meat.. and then it was all covered with some kind of pureed sweet potatoes and herbs in a terra cotta pan and baked so that it had a very very thin “crust”..It was totally yummy and by then I was so full, but the main course had not yet appeared… snapper in a chorilla sauce (tomato and tamarind and other spices)… great but we are stuffed…

OK.. there’s my foodie report of the day.

Tomorrow we meet up with a woman (planner) who worked at Mike’s office a while ago.. She and her friend (architect we think) will show us how affordable housing is being tackled here in Bogota and then we will go for dinner. In the morning, I hope to finsh the first syllabus and then move onto the next one, as well as some budgets for new projects.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Best —

Fern