It wasn't a big surprise when we woke up disgustingly early on Sunday morning.
We weren't one hundred percent clear on the plan for the day since we had already hit up most of the major landmarks in Bogota the day before. We talked about hiring a car for the day to visit the nearby town of Zipaquira, but the thought of riding in a car in traffic was a bit off-putting. Instead, we decided to stay local and check out the flea market in Usaquen, one of the historic neighbourhoods of Bogota.
Unfortunately, the market doesn't really get going until later in the day, so we had more than a few hours to kill beforehand. Everything was still closed, but it looked like the mall may be open so we decided to walk over to check it out.
It turned out that the mall itself was open, but none of the stores were! Lucky for us, Juan Valdez (the local Starbucks equivalent) was open for business so we coffeed up and hung out on the open air terrace for a while.
We mall walked a little to stretch our legs, and we were both surprised to find so many American brands, along with a cute umbrella installation that reminded me of London.
We were finally able to grab a taxi and head over to the flea market. Our taxi driver was kind enough to tell us a bit about the neighbourhood as we made our way over to Usaquen, and we were more than excited to be dropped off in the middle of it all.
The flea market takes place on Sundays, and there are a ton of stalls selling all sorts of things. There's a lot of jewellery and other handicrafts, along with the occasional food stall.
We even saw some people carrying around puppies for sale!
The festive ambience of the entire market was enhanced by the musicians scattered around everywhere.
This guy was my favourite, he was playing a Beatles song (And I Love Her, in case you're wondering) on the harp.
It did feel a bit crowded at times since the place was positively heaving with people.
We made our way toward Hacienda Santa Barbara, which is a former home of a super rich guy that has been converted to a shopping centre. Along the way, the streets became more residential, and some of the more enterprising inhabitants were selling snacks and things out of the back of their home. I thought that was pretty clever!
The mall itself turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - it was just a mall, nothing more. I guess I was expecting it to retain more of its former grandiose residential qualities. In any case, I suggested just walking around town, but J was pretty tired from the heat and ducking around the crowd so we headed back to the hotel.
We washed up and made the decision to actually go out for dinner that night. Granted, it was only three doors down from the hotel, but the restaurant had gotten some pretty good reviews so we walked over to Di Lucca.
It's an Italian restaurant, and imagine our surprise when we discovered that it has THE best lasagna in the world. Seriously, you must go and eat this. I think J may have been considering delaying our departure from Bogota so we could eat at this restaurant for one more day. We could tell it was a pretty popular restaurant from how quickly it filled up and the waiters were constantly on the run.
It was a terrific end to our time in Bogota and getting to pet the hotel watchdog on the way back was just cherry on the icing.
We weren't one hundred percent clear on the plan for the day since we had already hit up most of the major landmarks in Bogota the day before. We talked about hiring a car for the day to visit the nearby town of Zipaquira, but the thought of riding in a car in traffic was a bit off-putting. Instead, we decided to stay local and check out the flea market in Usaquen, one of the historic neighbourhoods of Bogota.
Unfortunately, the market doesn't really get going until later in the day, so we had more than a few hours to kill beforehand. Everything was still closed, but it looked like the mall may be open so we decided to walk over to check it out.
It turned out that the mall itself was open, but none of the stores were! Lucky for us, Juan Valdez (the local Starbucks equivalent) was open for business so we coffeed up and hung out on the open air terrace for a while.
We mall walked a little to stretch our legs, and we were both surprised to find so many American brands, along with a cute umbrella installation that reminded me of London.
We were finally able to grab a taxi and head over to the flea market. Our taxi driver was kind enough to tell us a bit about the neighbourhood as we made our way over to Usaquen, and we were more than excited to be dropped off in the middle of it all.
The flea market takes place on Sundays, and there are a ton of stalls selling all sorts of things. There's a lot of jewellery and other handicrafts, along with the occasional food stall.
We even saw some people carrying around puppies for sale!
The festive ambience of the entire market was enhanced by the musicians scattered around everywhere.
This guy was my favourite, he was playing a Beatles song (And I Love Her, in case you're wondering) on the harp.
It did feel a bit crowded at times since the place was positively heaving with people.
We made our way toward Hacienda Santa Barbara, which is a former home of a super rich guy that has been converted to a shopping centre. Along the way, the streets became more residential, and some of the more enterprising inhabitants were selling snacks and things out of the back of their home. I thought that was pretty clever!
The mall itself turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - it was just a mall, nothing more. I guess I was expecting it to retain more of its former grandiose residential qualities. In any case, I suggested just walking around town, but J was pretty tired from the heat and ducking around the crowd so we headed back to the hotel.
We washed up and made the decision to actually go out for dinner that night. Granted, it was only three doors down from the hotel, but the restaurant had gotten some pretty good reviews so we walked over to Di Lucca.
It's an Italian restaurant, and imagine our surprise when we discovered that it has THE best lasagna in the world. Seriously, you must go and eat this. I think J may have been considering delaying our departure from Bogota so we could eat at this restaurant for one more day. We could tell it was a pretty popular restaurant from how quickly it filled up and the waiters were constantly on the run.
It was a terrific end to our time in Bogota and getting to pet the hotel watchdog on the way back was just cherry on the icing.
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