A fast glance at Bogota

Posted by Javier on 2 August 2009

We had only one afternoon to enjoy Bogota, since on Saturday 25th we had to start pedalling to meet the deepeei crew on route, so they would film us from a van. Having only about 3-4 hours of light to visit the city we decided to go to the hill and santuary of Montserrate, which can be accessed by cable car. We expected to have a nice view of the metropolis, but we did not count with the beautiful light that we enjoyed that day.

First the light came through great tunnels between the clouds, which was great for some pictures. However it was later, when the light went down, that it became trully spectacular. The clouds turned darkish and wherever the light managed to go through them it was unbelieveable colourful. Claudio and Angelica were very nice showing us the place and having pacience while I was photographing. Up there we met the deepeei crew, so Milan (the cameraman of deepeei) enjoyed also a great light and view point. It will be nice footage for the first episode of the documentary.

The next day we went out of Bogota using a path for cyclists (ciclovia), with claudio guiding us out of Bogota. We expected some more difficulties to exist such a huge city, but it was easy and smooth, at least as much as a big city can be. Nothing compared to Cairo, Delhi or Mexico DF. The Colombian drivers seemed to me quite respectful with the cyclists, which is not strange since they are very familiar with the sport. I grew up watching the victories of Lucho Herrera, and later of Cacaito Rodriguez or Santiago Botero. We crossed with many training cyclists, it is pretty impressive how many cycling fans there are here, many congratulate me as spaniard for the new victory of Contador.

After an afternoon of interviews and good byes with deepeei we started pedalling completely on our own. We just reached Zipaquira and its salt cathedral, but that is another story..

12 comments. Tags: Claudio, Angelica, photos, javier. Location: San Gil, Colombia