Day 2.

Despite not getting to bed until after midnight I was wide awake by 5am due to jetlag, so headed out for an early morning walk through La Candelaria, the historic neighborhood in the city's downtown.


And back at Hotel Casa dela Vega enjoying a tasty first meal in Colombia.


I then headed out to explore the city some more. A very long TransMilenio bus.


At 10am I met up outside the Museo del Oro for the Beyond Colombia Bogotá free walking tour with our guide for today, Santiago.


At Santander Park beside a statue of Francisco de Paula Santander, a Colombian military and political leader. Santiago explained that after independence from Spain, Colombia was originally part of Gran Colombia, a northern state of South America that included the territories of present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, and parts of northern Peru, western Guyana and northwestern Brazil. The state then devolved into its sucessor states in 1831 and with Panama later separating from Colombia in 1903.


Outside the graffiti-ridden 16th century Iglesia de San Francisco.