Part 1: Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia
Day two was a scheduled day of adventure. First up was visiting the Paloquemao market to taste all the fruits we could find!
Paloquemao Mercado, Bogotá
Here at the market we met a very nice man who offered to let us try various fruits. (We tried to ask his name but he kept thinking we were asking for the names of the fruits).
L- Turns out, while writing this, we realized I was asking the wrong question. I said "Como se llamas?" - an informal way to ask what's your name. But it also means "What's this called?". Son. Of. A. No amount of "nombres" and pointing at him could solve the error of my ways. "Como te llamas?" for the record.
So there are two fruits that are currently our favorites of Colombia:
#1 Pitaya
Pitaya
This dragon fruit of South America is sweet with a kiwi like texture and our all time favorite. It's a cactus native to the Americas.
Cross section of Pitaya
If you're trying to stay tasty and low on calories, snack on this sweet yellow beauty!
#2 Granadilla
Granadilla
The most interesting, and a close second to our number one pick on the delicious meter, is Granadilla. This is probably the weirdest fruit to eat, as it has an egg like shell that you can crack open to get to the sweet, gelatinous and gooey centre.
Cross section Granadilla
A nice addition to the texture is a satisfying crunch with each bite of the seeds as you eat it. Also, bonus points for an easy to hold popsicle stick at the top of the fruit!
We tried a variety of other fruits like Curuba, Tomate, and Pera. We wanted to try many others, like Lulo, Gulupa, Guayaba, Guanábana, but they weren't available. Luckily in the afternoon, we got to try some of the ones we missed out on!
Paloquemao Mercado, Bogota
Up next in our day was a bike tour of Bogota!
This was a great tour that gave us some history on the city, including the town square and church, the fires and riots of 1948 and 1985, and much more.
Bogota is a beautiful and bustling city of over 9 million people, with a mild and cool climate and arrangement of colorful houses and cobblestone streets in the downtown area. There are six levels of neighborhoods in the city, with 1 being the poorest and 6 being the richest; we toured through 4 levels.
Plaza de Bolívar de Bogotá
The first place we visited was the town square, Plaza de Bolívar de Bogotá, where we had been a few times before to sit on the steps. Here we learned about the different architecture of the government buildings, as well as the history of the political climate of Bogota, and the indigenous people, churches, and the monasteries up on the hill.
Up next we rode through the Level 2 neighbourhood to visit a Colombian coffee factory. On the way we passed by some cool graffiti by local artists.
We got a nice tour of the factory, and afterwards we got to try a delicious cappacino and mocha at Cafe de la Fonda.
Cappacino at Café de la Fonda
Once we had a bit of caffeine and liqor in us, we rode off towards the Level 6 area of the city, passing more elaborate graffiti on the way.
After learning about the national museum that was a former prison, we rode off towards the "parque de nacional" to try some different fruit juices.
Parque de Nacional, Bogota
Guanábana (left), Borojo (right), 4 fruit juices.
Here we got try Guanábana, Borojo, and two different kinds of pina, banana and papaya mixtures. We're definitely fans of Guanábana, with it's sweet, yogurt-like taste and texture!
After a short ride from the national park, we arrived in the Level 5 neighbourhood to try a few different ice cream flavors.
We sampled a variety of gelato flavors like Lulo, Guanábana, Passionfruit, and some more we can't quite remember. The Lulo gelato was the winner though, so ordered a cup to eat.
That was our last stop for the bike tour, and so we headed back to hostel with new knowledge in our brains, new tastes on our tongues and a shiny new sunburn on Laura's forehead.
Some of the new phrases and slang we learned were:
Chevere - means "cool/good" - you can use it for everything! Kinda like "dope".
Ten un buen dia - "Have a good day"
Rico - means both "rich" in money, and in flavor!
And a pro tip for getting out money in main cities: BBVAs are a great place to withdraw money if you want to avoid any extra foreign transaction fees!
Lastly, we topped off the day with a nice dinner at Andante with our Israeli hostel mates. What a good day in Bogota!