Bogota Restaurants

1st Article

Do you know where to eat in your City?

Bogota, Colombia has lots of restaurants, bars and coffee shops. It can be said that not all of them are good in the hygiene. You have got to be careful to choose the restaurant where you are eating. You may want a healthy and clean food. Don’t put your family in risk of intoxication. If I have to recommend you restaurants I would tell you to go to some places I will call Restaurant Districts.

This is the expression I use to refer to a specific location were there are many different restaurant, near each other. In the list of the Restaurant Districts are places as:

·         Zona Rosa

·         Zona T

·         Usaquen

·         La 93

·         Centro Internacional

·         Zona G

·         And many others

In these Restaurant Districts you can find food from different places in the world such as China, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Japan, Peru, Argentina, France, USA, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Colombia. You can find cheap and expensive restaurants where prices for any budget.

Some restaurants are attended by their owner and some are chains of theme restaurant such as Hard Rock Café, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Some of them are fancy and elegant. So choose your preferences.

2^nd Article

What do you want for meal tonight?

If you want to eat something expensive, rare and delicious, in an elegant place you might rather restaurants as La Fragata or San Isidro. 

If you want something expensive, rare and delicious but not elegant you may go to La Pesquera Jaramillo or Andres Carne de Res.

If you want something not too expensive, rare and delicious then go to Crepes and Waffles, Hard Rock Cafe or El Corral Gourmet.

Or maybe you want something cheap, normal and delicious you must go to Pizza Hut, Mc Donald’s, KFC or Kokoriko.

I am sure you will find a perfect restaurant to have a wonderful dinner where you can pay by cash, credit card, debit card or checks.  You might to pay in Colombian Currency or dollars.

If you are not sure of your specific conditions or selections I recommend you to go walking by one Restaurant District, you can go the nearest one, watch out for special one that attracts you. Look carefully the menu (take in count allergies and food restrictions) and decide if that’s The Place.

NOTE:  Usually the tip in Colombia is 10% of the total price, it is included in the ticket but it is voluntary.

3^rd Article

Last week I visited Usaquen Restaurant District in order to make a selection of some restaurants which have good taste and service.  The prices are most of the cases are  more moderated, not too cheap but not too expensive.

First I went to Patagonia.  It is a delicious place to eat Argentina´s Food.  The meat selection and quality is excellent.  The decoration makes you feel like if you where in Argentina with Soccer and Tango stuff all around you.   I recommend “Bife de Chorizo”.

Then I visited Alfredo Bistro. Although this is a French restaurant where you can find a delicious “Fillet Mignon”, there are dishes that are considered a mix of Italian and French cuisine.  The decoration is simple and modern.

The next one I visited was La Biferia.  It is also Argentina’s food but with an elegant and light decoration.  Any traditional cut of meat is prepared in the grill with your terms of cooking. I took a Churrasco with Chimichurri.  I loved it.

On Wednesday, I went to The Irish Pub. Obviously I was not going to have an alcoholic drink but I enjoyed the place and food.  The decoration was full of clovers; there were pictures and logos many traditional industries and beers.

On Thursday I visited 80 Sillas.  It is a fusion Restaurant.  The main dishes are Ceviche Peruano and Cocktails.   The decoration is simple and modern and I liked the gas chimneys heating the whole place.

On Friday I went to favorite restaurant in this district, Mi Calle. Maybe is because the spicy and hot food or because its decoration that makes allegory to a typical and traditional “Pueblo” in Mexico.  The decoration has lots details and painting of Frida Kahlo.  There is a representative market and other places. I love the Fajitas and Burritos.

This is just a little bit of the restaurants found in the nearest district I have. You can watch out for many different foods but better than reading this blog, go to and explore yourself the restaurants in Bogotá.  Make your own list and recommend your partner and friends to do the same and enjoy.




By: Alejandro Ramos

3rd Article About Neighborhoods

When I went to Boyaca Avenue I could see it was not so full, and thanks to its size, it is easy to go fast on it. Also, you can see the buildings near it and malls, they are easy to locate.
Unicentro Neighborhhod is often full because it has the famous Fontana hotel and Unicentro Mall and Bolos Place and Imax cinema.But it is amazing, if you wanna enjoy a weekend here in Bogota you had better go to Unicentro.

San cipriano is a small neighboorhood, in street 167 you can find anything. Even if you need an extrange disguise of and indian then you can get it there. It is very close to Abraham Lincoln Primary School, which is located on street 170. 

Street 170 is large and it has Abraham Lincoln 2 sections, Primary and High School. You can also see Carrefour, Alkosto, Julio Mario Santo Domingo Library, Kia Motors Cars, Chevrolets Cars, and more in street 170.

Niza Antigua has old houses and buildings, and what identifies it is Bulevar Mall. It is very beautiful because it has full vegetation, if you take a general view you can see it almost green.

Cedritos Neighborhood is never full, in fact, sometimes I see it very abandoned. But the houses and buildings it has are very pretty, in general this neighborhood is beautiful. Versalles is also big and organized, it is very closed to boyaca avenue. You can see Exito from there. Versalles has parks with enough space to play basket, volleyball, soccer and more. Houses and building in it are pretty too. Very beautiful.

About my personal experience, what I saw was that sometimes, Boyaca avenue can help you to get faster to a place than street 170, and than El Dorado avenue. There are schools and colleges near street 170, such as San Tarcicio school, ABRAHAM LINCOLN SCHOOL. Mazuren has in his majority long buildings, it has houses too, but in its majority there are buildins. In Bella Suiza neighboorhoods, i could see it is near Unicentro, and it has very large buildings. I speci

boyaca avenue

boyaca avenue

boyaca avenue

arturo calle building

arturo calle building

buildings at boyaca avenue

boyaca avenue

boyaca avenue

buildings at boyaca avenue

houses at boyaca avenue

san cipriano

san cipriano

san cipriano

san cipriano

san cipriano

san cipriano

san cipriano

building at san cipriano

san cipriano

san cipriano

street 167

street 167

street 167

street 167

street 167

street 167

 

Bogota's History

Bogota's History.

Article 1 Bogota Now Days

Bogota is the capital city of Colombia, it is also known as Santa Fe of Bogota. Bogota is also the city with more habitants in Colombia, with  7,304,384 habitants since 2009. Surrounding Bogota, there are located some municipalities like Chia, Cota and Soacha. Bogota is one of the 30th largest city in the world. Bogota counts with an altitude of 2,640 masl. Bogota is known because it has a lot of libraries and universities, it is known as the Athens of South America.  Bogota is also named the capital of the books. Bogota is also one of the most largest cities of the world but it is far away of the first one, Bogota is the 30th largest or biggest city in all the world.


The biggest moorland in the world is in Bogota. Bogota's mayor is Samuel Moreno. It has a very cold weather. Bogota counts with a transport system known as the ''Transmilenio'', it also has taxis and buses, the public transports are very important in this city, even with the ''Pico y Plata'', the city is always fill with cars, and is very hard to get home early. In turism, Bogota has a lot of things, including different locations, sport places, thematic parks and malls. One of the places most visited places of Bogota is Monserrate, it is at a high altitude, people likes to go there to see the beautiful landscape. Malls like Unicentro, that has the most secure parking lot in South America, Santa Fe, Gran Estacion and others are also very good malls in Bogota with variety of shops. Each one is located in different parts of the city. Bogota has a stadium call '' El Campin'' which is home of Santa Fe and Millonarios the most known football teams in Colombia and possibly the world.


 The ecological turism includes the plateau of Bogota and the moorland of Sumapaz. Botanic Garden and the Simon Bolivar park are also very famous. Bogota has two thematic parks, and an aquatic park, they are all located in the North part of the city. This ones are ''Mundo Aventura'' and ''Salitre Magico'', the aquatic is called ''Cici Aquapark''. Each one is located in different parts, Salitre Magico is next to Cici Aquapark and Mundo Aventura os located a little away from them, Each has each parking lot, food centers and attractions, like the roller coasters in Salitre Magico, the ''Tronquitos'' in Mundo Aventura and other very fun. Cici Aquapak has a lot of  slides, with water, they are very high and dissy. There is also some slides and pools for little children and a Pool with waves.



Article 2: The Muiscas and the Colonization

The Muiscas were the first people that habit in Bogota. They called it Bacata. They were part of the Chibcha's linguistic family. It is said that they reach to be 500,000 poeple until the Spanish arrival.


Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada was a Spanish conqueror staying in Santa Marta in that times. He heard that the ''Rio Grande'' was a way to reach el Dorado. In 1536 he left Santa Marta and went with 500 men, heading to the center of Colombia in that times, where the Muiscas were living. His expedition was divided in 2. Quesada went by land, and Diego de Urbino, went by river, so they could explore more territory. When they meet again, they heard about indians who made salt cakes to trade for fish and other things. Quesada decided to stop his search to Peru and find this indians. They crossed the mountains and they found crops of corn, beans, salt cakes and other food. When they found the first town of indians only 70 men where left of the expidition since he left Santa Marta. They took gold and capture the Zaque leader, to show their authority, they burned the sun temple. In 1537 they crossed Zipaquira and Nemocon, they continued passing by Lenguazaque and Suesca and they reached Suba. They reached Bacata and fought the Zipa leaders who wanted to prevent their entrance to the town.


After beating the Zipa and the Zaque, leaders of the Muiscas, Quesada decided to settle an urban town. He settled a town and introduce different things like a population made up of different people, education centers, religion places and other things. He changed the name to Bogota.

Artcile 3: The Independence and the Colombian Republic.


In the year of 1810 to 1811, some citizens defeated the Spanish rule in Bogota, they won, and put a government by their own. But they lost power in 1816, when more Spanish military forces arrived and settle their rule again. In 1819 the liberator Simon Bolivar, defeated the Spanish in Boyaca, he renamed Bogota as the capital of the Gran Colombia, that, in that times, was a territory conformed by the actually Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama and Peru. Later in 1830, Gran Colombia was disolved, Bogota remained as the capital of New Granade that will later transformed into the United States of  Colombia in 1863. In 1886, it's name was changed to the Republic of Colombia, with Bogota as it capital. An internal conflict formed, two political parties arose, the conservatives, who followed Bolivar visions for the country, and the liberals, who followed in Francisco de Paula Santader, the teammate of Bolivar during the indepence visions about the country. The conservative party took control of the government and settled an strong alliance with the Catholic Church, the church took control of education and civil matters. Liberals wanted a descentralized goverment without the church as head of education and civil matters.


This moral conflicts let to a war named as the war of the thousand days, fought by the Conservatives against the Liberals. When this war finished another conflict rise up known as ''El Bogotazo'' that started after the murder of the Liberal Party Candidate Gorge Eliecer Gaitan. United States intervention during the Panama canal contruction and control end in a conflict that finished in the separation of Panama and the foundation as it as a nation. A military revolt toppled Laureano Gomez, the right wing of the Conservative government and bring Gustavo Rojas to power. Rojas greatest achievement was to reduce ''El Bogotazo''. He was overthrown by a military movement and it was stablished a provisional government because Rojas couldn't settle democratic rule. Laureano Gomez and Alberto Lleras, presidents of the Conservative and Liberal stablished a new law that was about a change of President from Liberal to Conservative and Conservative to Liberal each 4 years. This ended ''El Bogotazo''. But his National Front System started to be critized by people, specially after the tricks played in the campaign of Misael Pastrana and result in the defeat of Gustavo Rojas in that elections. In answer to this, the M-19 was founded in answer to this. The M-19 will later dissapeared.


Bogota has suffered a lot of changes from the last listed events, like the Bogotazo and other, the creation of different guerrillas until nowdays.

Sports Places

Article # 1:

 

Do you like soccer? In Bogota, there are multiple public and private sport fields where you can practice this sport, whether professional, amateur or just for recreation.To enjoy professional soccer games, you can go to the Stadium "Nemesio Camacho El Campin".The sports stadium, with a capacity of 48,600 spectators, is in the neighborhood of the same name in the Teusaquillo location, specifically on Avenue Norte-Quito-Sur and 57th Street. The Stadium El Campin is the home of the local teams: Millonarios (THE BEST TEAM IN ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)and Chanta Fe, no joking, its real name is Santa Fe. Currently, the Postobon League games are played there with the participation of a total of 18 teams. I took some photos of El Campin and I must say that I'm a super fan of Millonarios and I hate Santa Fe, and the matches are very emotionant and fun. If you come to here you have to see Millitos in action and the very humiliating lose of Santa Fe. It was incredible when I went and I like it very much, although it is a little dirty, but I think that the experience at the stadium was great. When I went, I could also see the players of Millonarios and I will never forget it. GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

Article # 2:
Do you like swimming? In Bogota is the perfect place for you: The Complejo Acuatico !

The Complejo acuatico Simon Bolivar is a sports center for the practice of swimming in Bogota, Colombia; the project was designed by architect Arias Serna Saravia, and promoted by the District Institute of Recreation and Sports authority of the Mayor of Bogota. In total, the construction cost was 20,130 million Colombian pesos. I went there and I must say that it's incredible! There are pools out of this world! I have the obligation to say that, in my opinion, it the funiest and complex swimming place of ever! I can say also that the pools are very clean. There are a lot of peaceful pools and it also counts with a group of three scenarios that can be seen from their bleachers, with a capacity of 1500 people, a diving pool of five feet deep, another Olimpic pool of 1250m and a children's pool. When I was in the pool was very bad at swimming, but I had a great fun at there. Is attached to the Parque Metropolitano Simón Bolívar, next to the Parque de Los Novios that integrates the structure through the large windows overlooking the lake, which was one of the concepts used by the architect. You must go. I  recommend it to you.

Article # 3:

If you liked this places, you HAVE to go to the IDRD! (Instituto Distrital de Recreacion y Deporte {In English: Distrital Institute of Recreation and Sports}).It was amazing and I could see real professional sportsmen training, like for example athlets, soccer players, gymnasts, etc. I liked it very much because that is the most complete sports training place that I have ever seen.........................GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also saw professional sportsmen and I sweared a lot when I tried to make exercise there, but, although I couldn't do any exercise (or I did them bad {hahaha}) it was very fun.

The most important place of the IDRD is the High Performance Center, located on near Simon Bolivar Metropolitan Park. The center is located in Bogotá, Colombia, specifically between 63th and 64th Streets with Transversal 48 and 47, WOW!!!, I will never do anything there because there is where the BEST sportsmen practice for international tournaments, Olympics, etc., but is very entertaining to see them.
The main facilities of the complex are:
-50 m Olympic pool and 8 regulatory lanes
-9 tennis fields with brick's powder it their surface
-4 Regulatory fields for soccer
-8-lane running track
-Sauna, Turkish bath, Jacuzzi
-Massage room for sportsmen recover
-Multiple arenas for sports such as volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, indoor soccer, shooting, fencing, combat sports and table tennis
-Other facilities: Archery fields, Dressers, Small Square event, Bar, Common Areas, Meeting room, nursing, resting areas, Front office.
In my opinion, the IDRD is the best sports place in all the world, so, I have to say that you have to go, because it's OBLIGATORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...................hahaha!!!!, no joking, but you must go, IT'S INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!