Given the intense sightseeing and serious walking we did during our first few days in Bogota, we decided to take it easy on our last day. We had planned to walk an hour or so to Usaquen, a nearby colonial town surrounded by the city proper, but it rained most of the day so we opted to stay closer to the hotel instead.
We got a fairly late start so headed straight to an area known as Parque 93 for lunch. The small park there is surrounded by many coffee shops, bars and restaurants, most of which have outdoor patio seating. We chose La Xarchuteria, known for their sausages and burgers, and were not disappointed. We had a pretty American-themed meal, opting for a bacon cheeseburger and Rueben sandwich - Alex agreed to a rare 50/50 share so I was pretty happy before the food even arrived.
The "New York Rueben," complete with kale Caesar salad. We were pretty happy.
Love eating outside when the patio looks like this.
After lunch the weather still looked pretty ominous so we popped into a few nearby shops. I have been trying to find a new bathing suit, which is, in my opinion, the perfect souvenir as it is both useful and compact for traveling. After all of Alex’s hemming and hawing over how a) I didn’t really need anything and b) we are traveling light, of course he bought an awesome new bathing suit while I ended the day empty handed. I’m sort of surprised he didn’t just tell me he liked the first suit I found because now he has to continue to look at them with me in Colombia…
We made our way back to the hotel right before it started pouring and spent a couple hours resting and catching up on the news. Once the sky cleared up a bit, we went back to Zona Rosa and lazily strolled around one last time. Instead of having dinner in the area we walked a bit further south to Zona G (for Gourmet), known for its concentration of nice restaurants. By the time we got there it was nearly 8pm on a Saturday so we were surprised that most places were nearly empty. The scene picked up a bit but we definitely felt like Zona G had a more residential feel as compared to the Soho-like Zone Rosa.
I had heard about a New Orleans-themed restaurant that played live jazz called Bourbon Bistro so it seemed like a natural spot for our last meal in Bogota (not really, but I can’t pass up a NOLA themed spot when we are on a completely different continent).
Even the menu reminds me of NOLA (except maybe the Spanish).
We struggled pretty heavily with the language barrier until our patient server got an English-speaking chef to come to our table. I’m really happy he was able to help because I almost ordered seared octopus tentacles, which was not exactly what I had in mind.
Seafood bouillabaisse (the picture really doesn't do it justice). Alex had the "Kentucky Pork, so we really had an all-American day of eating!
After dinner we headed home to pack and get some sleep before our flight to Cartagena. In the morning we grabbed breakfast and checked out at the hotel. We had asked to have some laundry done so I expected our bill to be a bit higher (laundry in San Jose was roughly $3 per kilogram), but not COP$100,000 (~USD$55) higher! Turns out they had individually dry cleaned every single item (including underwear), which is of course more expensive than wash and fold. We blamed the experience on our lack of Spanish skills but now we know we need to be a bit more careful with what we ask for!
In a couple of hours we will land in Cartagena, where it is supposed to be sunny and 90 degrees - good thing Alex got that new swimsuit!