If I didn't mention it earlier, we moved hotels away from the airport to a nice area called Usaquén. Our hotel is quite nice and only $50 per night, including breakfast. This is similar to a newer Holiday Inn Express or Hilton Garden Inn. Like most things in Bogotá, this same hotel would be at least 3x more expensive in the US.
We had a late lunch at a top-notch Italian restaurant called Café Amarti near the Parque de Usaquén. This is the same area as the flea market is held on the weekends. Sergio proclaimed this restaurant to be as good as any you would find in Italy. That is high praise from an Italian. Between the three of us we had 5 drinks, 2 entrees, 2 appetizers, 1 coffee and 1 desert. Total price COL$310,000 - just $68. And this is a super fancy restaurant. I almost forgot to mention that Shuli and I had a delicious traditional Columbian breakfast of caldo de costilla.
From my perspective Bogotá is a city of haves and have-nots. The streets are jammed packed with cars, buses, motorcycles and scooters. Personal cars alternate days between add and even days based on their license plate number. The streets have potholes, some of them giant and dangerous. Nonetheless, everything seems to work just fine. You can eat a meal here for only a couple of dollars. Then there are the very nice places which certainly only the "haves" can enjoy. From my American perspective even the nicest restaurants are very inexpensive. Oh, no one wears shorts here...except for me, clearly identifying my gringo status.
Hopefully we get some good news today!
 |
| Parque de Usaquén |
 |
| Caldo de costilla |
 |
| Café Amarti |
WOW!! seems like a great deal, with great food - Miles
ReplyDelete