Cheese, chocolate and camp mannequins

Days 138 to 140: Bogota

Wed 11 May 2011 - Fri 13 May 2011 5 °C

The climate takes a turn for the worst in Bogota: it rains constantly and I sleep with 2 hot water bottles under a pile of 5 blankets.

I check out the local specialty, chocolate completo, to warm me up. This is a cup of hot chocolate served with some kind of bread and a lump of cheese, which you're supposed to dip in (or is that something they just tell the foreigners?) In this country they are really obsessed with putting cheese with everything. Still, how bad can it be? Chocolate, good; cheese, good; cheese dipped in chocolate however....odd.

After a quick tour of the city while it's not raining, I spend the rest of my time visiting Bogota's many museums. The gold museum is impressive and the military museum is hilarious: not sure the army attendants appreciate me giggling my way through the collection of 70s department store style mannequins wearing various uniforms, but if you will choose the campest looking models with red lips and eyelashes you've asked for it.

Next stop is the modern art museum and the Botero museum: the Columbian artist with a penchant for all things chubby....chubby men, women, families, fruit. Chubby Mona Lisa is a particular favourite, but chubby Jesus seems a little bizarre.