Bogota day 3

 Good morning!

Last night while deciding on an itineray for today. I noticed that on Wednesdays from 3 to 5 pm there is free admission to the National Museum of Columbia. So that will be my afternoon destination. I just have to figure out what to do this morning. I do know it will include bike riding.

I extended my stay here at the hostel until Monday. This is a bit flexible because I will be flying out of Bogota to Mexico City on my Volaris Annual Pass. Being an internation flight, I can only book 3 days in advance on a space available basis. Like standby.  But with my annual pass that will expire on Aug 4, I only pay the taxes on my Volaris flights. The annual pass is what made this whole adventure possible. Starting Thursday this week, I will start monitoring flights, but it looks pretty good  that I will be able to fly on Monday.

I will also be flying out of Mexico City to Oakland California and the return flight back to Mexico City with the Annual Pass before it expires.

Yea! I  think I am caught up with my journaling.

After breakfast, I picked up a bike and headed in the opposite directions  that I have ridden before.  I headed out to Parque 93 a couple miles from the hostel.

I had to wind my way around major road and infrastructure projects the whole way.

I found the bike station at the park and docked my bike. 

Parque 93 is a new park in a wealthier neighborhood, surrounded by upscale stores and restaurants. The lawns and gardens less mature than other parks I have visited. My first impression was, why was this mentioned as a top place to visit in Bogota information websites.

I looked around for a sidewalk cafe to sit and have a cup of coffee and a pastry. I checked out one place, Juan Valdez Parque 93. It was similar layout and pricing of a Starbucks (which there was also one of bordering the park). Too pricey for me on my travel budget. I ended up getting a McCafe at McDonalds and a small pastry for less than half of the other options.

After hanging out for  awhile, watching a crew setting up a stage for a later event, I headed back towards the hostel. Fortunely I found a direct route back that bypassed all the construction.

I had time for a very short siesta back at the hostel before it was time to head out to Museo Nacional de Colombia. There is usually an entrance fee at the Museum but is free on Wednesdays from 3 to 5. I had pre arrange to meet another guy, Dave, at the museum.

I arrived at the museum almost exactly at 3. Slightly winded, this bike ride being my 3rd for the day. I had a chance to sit and eat a small bag of nut mix before going in. 

I met Dave and we wandered through the 3 floors of the museum. It was not my favorite museum. Near the entry they had a meteorite on dislpay that was kind of cool. You can read on the plaque. The meteorite was originally 750 kg, but he piece on display is 411 kg, about 900 lbs

Being the National Museum, it focused on the history, culture and art of Colombia. All the information plaques displaying detailed information were in Spanish. A couple that I wanted to know more about, I was able to do a screenshot from google translate to English. 

There was  one very graphic painting of a politician in the colonial times of Colombia. His body was dismembered and parts distributed to discourage further dissidence. 

Even in the museum there was a good number of paintings and sculptures by Fernando Bolero. 

There was a collection of news clippings, photographs and painting documenting more modern politics.

I didn't take any pictures in the area documenting in chronological order the economies of cattle, rubber and bananas in Colombia. All of these industries have a history of exploitation in Colombia.

After we finished at the Museum, Dave suggested a nearby restaurant to eat at. Unfortunate for me it was all uphill streets to the restaurant. Unfortunate for both of us, it ended up being over our budgets and we left without eating.

It is close to 5pm by now and rush hour. Taking the bus to go back to the hostel was not  an option for that reason, the bus would be stuck in traffic. Taking a taxi, not an option for the same reason.

We walked back down the hill where I got an "Electric" bike to go back to the hostel.  My energy was pretty drained from biking and riding today. Dave moved to a different nearby hostel, so he walked one way and was off on the electric bike in the opposite direction.

This is the first time I rode and electric bike. You still have to pedal, the electric is just an assist. From this ride, I can image getting an electric bike in the future.

The bike path was also very busy. At every light at least 20 or more bikes accumulated wating for the green light. Passing was like passing on a busy 2 lane highway, you had to wait for an opening in oncoming bikes to move into the left lane to pass. This is a bad picture, the cars got in the way. But, if you zoom in you can see the collection of bikes on the other side of the road.

 

The ride was so effortless, that I overpassed my turn to the hostel and ended up going a few kilometers too far. When I realized this I had to reverse course to get to the hostel. This caused my to run overtime on the bike. Regular bikes can be checked our for an hour, the electric have a 30 minute time limit. I was over by about 15 minutes resulting in an additional fee. The electric bikes cost an additional .25 usd per use plus cost per minute. Even running overby 15 minutes my total additional  fee was only about $1.25 usd. Such a deal.  

I was supper hungry and tired by now. The closet and easiest place to grab food was OXXO. I picked up a sandwich and drink there and headed back to the hostel for the evening. I have included a picture of this OXXO. It is more typical looking than the OXXO picture posted earlier.