8/5/2014
I spent the entire day at the conference yesterday listening to all the marvelous talks by experts from the USA and Colombia alike. It is so humbling to visit different countries professionally. I love discovering what great work is being done everywhere in the world to serve the best interests of children. Friday and Monday all day and today till noon, listening to child abuse for 2.5 days was more than enough. As soon as I am done with my second talk this morning, I am ready to leave to get to outdoors. I brought my tennis shoes along so that I could walk back to my hotel to change and start walking...
Prayer for the peace of the world
Walter and Teresa would like to join me, how lovely. We start toward the north side of Bogota to get to Parque Nacional. Walter leads us since he has been coming to Colombia since 1990s. We first find a neighborhood park adjacent to Bogota Planetarium past the university, where the conference is being held. Once done with that, and it is a quick task since the park is pretty small one, we walk west and come down to Carrera 7, which is one of the main throughways across town. Again the crowds of Bogota inject energy to all of us. We buy cut up watermelon from a vendor. First time I dare eating cut up fruit, which will recur quite a few more times. Past the National Museum, we finally arrive at Parque Nacional. It covers the east slopes, rising toward the mountains that Bogota has nestled up against, on its east.
My favorite piece from the National Museum
It is a beautiful space, certainly not like the national forests of Santa Marta area as far as I have read. But still, I am coming back to life from all the child abuse talks. Temperature is just right, birds are chirping, there is an occasional cool breeze, but the sun is smiling at us warming our already heated bodies to the extent, we all take off our jackets and vests and are happily climbing up toward the higher layers of the park. Walter takes us to the Colombia map installation area; an open area on which they created the Colombian map topographically. Walter gives us a mini crash course on the geography of Colombia, luckily what he shares is pretty familiar from the reading I did on the way to Colombia. This is indeed one interesting country, I can hear my daughter say "it is the best country ever, seriously". She had visited Colombia a few years ago and had stayed at an ecological hostel up in the Nevada Mountains in Minca, near Santa Marta.
Some colleges are very old in Bogota
She is still fantasizing a life like that for herself. We will see what kind of traveling I will have to do to reach my daughter and perhaps my grandchildren, too, in the future... It may become yet another chapter of our lives full of adventure. After a few hours of hiking, my friends leave to go back to the conference since Walter has another talk. I walk along Carrera 7 and discover that past the university toward the south, Carrera 7 is closed to motor vehicle traffic again, and we are in the middle of the week. So it is not only a weekend thing that this avenue is closed to traffic: People are enjoying themselves, strolling, shopping, chatting, biking, you name it. I do the same, I go in and out of all the churches scattered along the carrera as I make my way toward the Plaza Bolivar, one more time. I try different kinds of fruits again: dragon fruit is gradually becoming my favorite. I top my day having a late lunch at the Hotel de La Opera restaurant.
My vegan dish from Hotel de La Opera restaurant
My friends will be disappointed that the roof top restaurant unfortunately is closed at this time. We will have to find a different place to have our last dinner together in Bogota before I fly to Cartagena for my last three days in Colombia. And we do. From our first visit to Montserrat, I had wondered how it would be to have dinner at the Casa San Isidro, adjacent to the church down the slope some 50 yards. That night being a weekend evening with great visibility, the restaurant was full with no hope to get a table for 8 people.
Casa San Isidro, a very elegant French restaurant up on the mountains in Bogota
But now, my friends Robin and Jim are very interested in going to Casa San Isidro, so it will be only the three of us: Volla, my dream may come true, may, because we don't know if we will be able to get in without a reservation ahead of time. Robin and Jim are as adventurous as I am and we decide to take the risk of going up at the expense of the possibility of having to come down to find a different place to eat if we can't get in again. And at the last minute our colleague Ben joins us, and… we get in.
It is a beautiful space, certainly not like the national forests of Santa Marta area as far as I have read. But still, I am coming back to life from all the child abuse talks. Temperature is just right, birds are chirping, there is an occasional cool breeze, but the sun is smiling at us warming our already heated bodies to the extent, we all take off our jackets and vests and are happily climbing up toward the higher layers of the park. Walter takes us to the Colombia map installation area; an open area on which they created the Colombian map topographically. Walter gives us a mini crash course on the geography of Colombia, luckily what he shares is pretty familiar from the reading I did on the way to Colombia. This is indeed one interesting country, I can hear my daughter say "it is the best country ever, seriously". She had visited Colombia a few years ago and had stayed at an ecological hostel up in the Nevada Mountains in Minca, near Santa Marta.
She is still fantasizing a life like that for herself. We will see what kind of traveling I will have to do to reach my daughter and perhaps my grandchildren, too, in the future... It may become yet another chapter of our lives full of adventure. After a few hours of hiking, my friends leave to go back to the conference since Walter has another talk. I walk along Carrera 7 and discover that past the university toward the south, Carrera 7 is closed to motor vehicle traffic again, and we are in the middle of the week. So it is not only a weekend thing that this avenue is closed to traffic: People are enjoying themselves, strolling, shopping, chatting, biking, you name it. I do the same, I go in and out of all the churches scattered along the carrera as I make my way toward the Plaza Bolivar, one more time. I try different kinds of fruits again: dragon fruit is gradually becoming my favorite. I top my day having a late lunch at the Hotel de La Opera restaurant.
My friends will be disappointed that the roof top restaurant unfortunately is closed at this time. We will have to find a different place to have our last dinner together in Bogota before I fly to Cartagena for my last three days in Colombia. And we do. From our first visit to Montserrat, I had wondered how it would be to have dinner at the Casa San Isidro, adjacent to the church down the slope some 50 yards. That night being a weekend evening with great visibility, the restaurant was full with no hope to get a table for 8 people.
But now, my friends Robin and Jim are very interested in going to Casa San Isidro, so it will be only the three of us: Volla, my dream may come true, may, because we don't know if we will be able to get in without a reservation ahead of time. Robin and Jim are as adventurous as I am and we decide to take the risk of going up at the expense of the possibility of having to come down to find a different place to eat if we can't get in again. And at the last minute our colleague Ben joins us, and… we get in.
Montserrat Church at night
After Tabula, this is the second restaurant that will prove to us all what an elegant fusion cuisine some Colombian restaurants are creating in Bogota using local ingredients that produce, wonderfully plated, "muy delicioso" a variety of dishes. I go for two appetizers since I had a late lunch around 3 pm. Both are served in three small triangular bowls plated on a larger triangular plate that generously fits the three smaller ones. In the triangle created in the middle by the other triangular plates is a small, elegantly piled mass of delicious mashed potatoes.
Bogota donned with golden flickers at night from Montserrat
For my first dish, the three small triangles display a ceviche, steamed calamari in a butter sauce, and fried baby shrimps in a spicy tomato sauce. I cannot believe how each small plate bursts with layers of flavors as one of my friends would say. With each bite, I close my eyes for a second to savor the sensations the flavors create in my mouth without any distractions. Had this been served at Iron Chef with me a taster, I definitely would have given 10/10 to each dish!
My second dish is a squid and shrimp cooked in squid black ink again served in similar plating. This is the first time I am giving in to black ink sauce, not bad at all. I am glad though, I saved some of my ceviche to "rinse" my mouth with the most flavorful bites of my dinner after all is said and done. This brings memories of my father with his eating habits. When I was growing up, the order of serving food followed a certain pattern: Soup first, then the main dish WITH salad and bread, the last dish before fruit as dessert would be rice or pasta.
The big firepit in the middle of Casa San Isidro
When we had lamb at our house, we also had rice as the last dish cooked in lamb stock with butter. My dad, who loved lamb to the extreme, always saved a bit of his lamb so that he could have lamb with his last bite of rice: He said "I want to leave the table with the taste of lamb not rice". It is unbelievable how much of our parents, good or bad, we carry in ourselves to, way into adulthood, even old age. The restaurant is a very elegantly decorated French restaurant with multiple fireplaces warming the place. I am very glad to see that since the climate in Bogota and their heating systems are very interesting: Although only four degrees north of Equator, because it is on a high plateau on top of the eastern range of the Andes crossing Colombia in three ranges, it is relatively cold up here. Throughout our stay, we needed a raincoat or a jacket over long sleeve shirts pretty much at all times except for the few hours of the day the sun might come up briefly.
What is interesting though, is that, the temperature doesn't change much throughout the year. Under these circumstances, at least hotels and other public/private buildings open to public do not have either heating or air conditioning! If you are lucky, a fireplace is all you get in select places like this restaurant and private homes. However, at my hotel room, I put on long pants, socks, two layers of t-shirts and a light sweat shirt that I designate only to bed to sleep comfortably since I had brought only a light set of shorts and a tank top for sleepwear.
Each reastaurant in Bogota has enormous wine selection
What is most attractive in this restaurant is that there is a grand piano, on which a very competent Colombian man is playing very nostalgic international music for us from “Over the Rainbow” to classic music from Beethoven. I can't help but humming to the music occasionally. My friends are also ecstatic with the ambience and the relaxed atmosphere in this tucked in place that one would find only via a recommendation from locals. The bonus of course is that if you get a table in the small enclosed deck by the window, you would enjoy the millions of flickering lights of Bogota that is alive all night long down below on the plateau. As we exit the restaurant in the end, we all stop for a moment on the walkway and take in all we can one more time, of the adorable Bogota lying down below before our eyes since at least Ben and I are leaving the next morning, who knows when and if we will be able to return to this lovely place...
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| From Traditional Arts Museum in Bogota |
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