Another Gold Museum

Bogota is a very large city. It took us a half hour to get to the gold Museum from our hotel. Looking on the map it's maybe a quarter of the distance of the entire metropolitan area. So it's no wonder that 12 million people can live here. The gold Museum took up three floors was so extensive and quiet enjoyable. Unlike the museum in Cali, the displays had English as well as Spanish so we got a lot more out of it. The workmanship is hard to imagine. What's even harder to imagine is how much gold must have been taken by the Spanish. I realize that a lot of these items came from excavations but it boggles the mind to think about what other exquisite workmanship got melted down and sent to Spain

The shell was wrapped in gold completely sealed so that when the shell inside disintegrated over the Millennia the gold outline was left

Tools of the trade of goldsmiths

A very interesting chart that shows the different percents of silver gold and copper and the resulting color of the alloy

A mold used in making gold figurines

Toucan representation

Monkeys monkeys monkeys

Hopefully not a portrait

This seems to be a lifelike representation

Extraordinary workmanship for a one inch item

Mister rat

Each one more intricate

A shaman

This flying bird figurine was represented well in all of the tourist shops

An embarrassment of riches

This is just one of the wolven golden figures seeing above

King of the underworld it's the bat

Nice hair on this guy

The caiman one of the underworld Spirit creatures

These are some serious doors

Big Bird

A ceramic Bowl depicting a ceremony 

A bird eating a scorpion

Perhaps a jaguar

 

A shaman who is taken the form of a bird and who is flying through the heavens

This item was presented all by itself and was a representation of the head Shaman delivering people and other Shaman to the other world

We were walking by nondescript door when the guard stopped us and said I know uno momento . We waited and these circular shaped doors opened up

When the doors opened it was dark and we all shuffled into this dark area

The door is closed behind us and we were in a round room with a round Center area

Suddenly a little pieces of display roll it up with small blotches of light

I chased the small pieces of light with my camera but as soon as I went to hit the picture the light went off, it was like a game

This was the collection of items in the center of the room

As time went by more and more areas were lit up and you can see here and the next three pictures the huge amount of gold items that were on display

More masks

Masks and bracelets and ceremonial headdresses

So many to try and photograph

And then the show was over the lights turned off and we all shuffled back outside shocked and amazed

Bogota Colombia

We made it to Bogota Colombia. We landed around 5 but it took us quite a while to get to the hotel due to the traffic in the capital city. It is certainly quite different from Cali and tomorrow we will go out exploring. Today we just need to get settled down and get in our room and acclimated. The number one goal of our trip to Bogota is to get ready for altitude the next coming days up at Machu Picchu.

This is a mysterious series of buildings there so very thin in one dimension but all in the other dimension

More modern buildings here in the capitol

It's hard to tell if they're building this building or demolishing this building

Thanks to the staff at the Cali Marriott

We would like to thank the whole Marriott staff for our very pleasant stay at the Cali Marriott. A special shout-out to Felipe and to Johnny, both of whom made our stay extra special.  Also great thanks to Laura the trainee in the club for helping us as well. The facilities were excellent everybody was very smiling and personable and sweet. The pool and Jacuzzi were great.  We had a great sushi lunch and thanks to the Chilean businessmen for adding so much extra excitement to our lunch. Chile was playing Portugal in soccer and we got so invested in the game that we actually spent a couple minutes watching the end of the soccer game, go Chile!

Omega-3 roll and a spicy tuna roll

How much business are they actually getting done?

Felipe was extra special. He had spent time in Arlington Texas and Italy in Colombia he was fluent in three or four languages. Beyond that he took personal interest in our happiness. It really showed that he was a caring person.

Johnny came around from the counter to stand with us and take a picture.

Thanks Johnny for making sure that everything was correct for us.  He has his finger on the pulse of the entire Hotel.

A great pool and a living wall

Butterflys our Theme realized

The butterfly was the theme of our trip. Inside the zoo was a butterfly garden chocked full of butterflies. We could have spent the whole day there but we did not. Here's a selection of some of the best photos.

Just in case you're keeping track here's all of the possible butterflies

Eating on a mango

Red skirts

They loved the blooms on this bush

Orange tips

A crazy cool flower

 orange you glad we had another butterfly

This is the outside of the wings of the green butterfly

The inside of the green butterfly. Very beautiful indeed

A tiny fast-moving White butterfly

 

strange flowers indeed

More strange flowers

Most beautiful flower

Our trip around the zoo