Lots of Travels - Miami & Bogota with lots of Art Deco

So a little over a week ago, I went to Miami to get away and help celebrate my friend John's big birthday!  We had a great time eating at places like Joe's Crab House and checking out the people watching in South Beach during both spring break and during a big music DJ festival.  I also managed a yoga class and a few Starbucks to feed my cravings.  It was even cool (down to 68 F at night) and I needed to use a comforter. :)  Check out some photos from Miami.

It was then back to work for a 3 days stretch which was a bit hectic due to a very late delayed plane returning on Sunday as well as the start of Passover (having a nice seder Monday night at my house with Judith and Barbara) and NHS invitations to students to apply all squished into 3 days.

Then Wednesday, a mere 1.5 hours after the school day ended, it was off to the airport to catch a flight to Bogota, Colombia.  I traveled with my friend Judith and we had a great 5 days.  Our first hostel Platypus did not meet our expectations at all.  Our room had smoke coming in from the courtyard as well as noise all the time and not really a double room. During our walk to dinner we noticed this cute Art Deco house.

Which turned out to be a really wonderful hotel Casa Deco where we stayed for the remaining 3 nights. 

We spent Thursday wandering around the downtown area to Plaza Bolivar and into Museo Botero as well as having some traditional food for a late breakfast showed by Liliana, the aunt of a nurse my father works with in NJ.  She and her husband also picked us up from the airport the night before.  Friday, after seeing a procession for the holiday downtown, I became an honorary Catholic as we waited in line to take the Funicular up Monserrate with all the pilgrims. Besides the tiring wait in line to go up and back down, it was a really neat experience.  There were even services at the church up top and a great view of even an overcast Bogota.

Saturday we decided to try and get to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) but were instead lured by the shopping: found a great place for custom made shoes (Yes of course I bought a pair for my really big feet), a really nice bookstore and looking at the artisan work as well.  We met up with Liliana and her daughter who took us to one of the big malls north of downtown on our way to Chia to Andres Carnes de Res an amazing restaurant and experience that is not to be missed.  (All our friends and colleagues were right.)

Sunday was a bit quieter with us finally making it to Museo del Oro and being blown away by the gold.  We also checked out another great bookstore as well as some street art.  We came back to the hotel for a lesson on Emeralds (& a small bit of buying).  One of the owners, Gianpaolo,  of the great hotel who is there all the time as well was for 20 years and still is an emerald broker and can be found in "Emeralds, A Passionate Guide".  He gave us a great introduction to the stones and I found a cute small pair to make some earrings from. If only I had some more money, I would have bought a few stones. I have a new love and appreciation for emeralds.  We then went to dinner at Club Colombia one of the Harry Sasson restaurants.  This place was rccommended and I agree.  The food was really good and the staff as well. They even called us a taxi to the door to take us home.

Sadly we had to check out and come home today.  The city was alive and very different from its sleepy self over Semana Santa.  We brought back a few enveultos and enjoyed one for dinner back here in Curacao.  I would highly recommend traveling to Colombia and can't wait to go back and see more of this beautiful country.