How to Bogotá

Updates to How to Bogotá (and a chance to buy me a digital cup of coffee :))

July 11, 2019 // 5 Comments

Naomi drinking Colombian coffee from Amor Perfecto

After living mostly in Bogota between 2013 and 2018, I left the city last year in March for London and then Spain and only returned last month (in June 2019). So other than the odd update here and there, the blog has been a little neglected these past 18 months, so I’ve made it my mission to start going through and gradually updating the blog’s content [more]

Visiting Chingaza National Park in Colombia [Updated 2024]

January 8, 2018 // 7 Comments

I’d wanted to visit Chingaza National Park since I arrived in Colombia in 2013. A guy on my CELTA course at the British Council had waxed lyrical about it for weeks after he visited it with his family, and this aroused my curiosity. Unfortunately though, I don’t have a car and wasn’t sure how to organise a guided visit to the park. So I was really [more]

Where to drink specialty coffee in Bogota

December 9, 2017 // 6 Comments

Now that I’ve been on a coffee farm tour and on the Flavors of Bogota coffee shop tour, I thought I’d write a post on my favourite coffee shops in Bogota. Specialty coffee is the finest quality of coffee, cultivated, roasted and prepared by experts to produce the best cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted. I’ve always been more of a tea-drinker [more]

What to wear in Bogota

February 9, 2017 // 10 Comments

One cool Bogota afternoon you will find yourself walking among the quaint rugged buildings of the Candelaria, the smell of coffee wafting out of a nearby café and filling your nose. You look up to see where it is coming from, and almost stumble into a couple of (unmistakable!) tourists wearing shorts, vest tops and flip flops, standing in the middle of the street, [more]

7 great markets in Bogotá [Updated 2025]

July 23, 2016 // 12 Comments

There are a number of markets in Bogotá which are worth visiting. If you’re staying in Bogotá for a while, you–or your family and friends who are visiting–will want to do some souvenir shopping at some point. Or you might have developed an obsession with Wayuu mochilas and regularly scout the markets for the prettiest new designs.. (ahem.. 🙂 ). Before [more]

Bogota neighborhoods: where to live in Bogota [Updated 2024]

March 4, 2014 // 26 Comments

Bogota neighborhoods where to live and stay in Bogota Quinta Camacho

If you’re thinking of moving to Colombia, you’ll be in a similar situation to the one I was in back in 2013. I started researching the different Bogota neighborhoods and the average cost of rent. The problem was that I had no idea which areas were nice, safe and well-located, or which I should avoid. At the time of this update (September 2024) I can now [more]

How to find a place to live: Bogota apartments

January 30, 2014 // 8 Comments

Whether you are looking for long-term or short-term accommodation in Bogota, there are a number of websites advertising Bogota apartments for rent. You might also find my other post about the neighbourhoods and where to live in Bogotá useful. Long-term accommodation Renting long-term normally means committing to at least a one year contract. I’ve yet to come [more]

How to Bogotá and Me in 2023

July 15, 2023 // 4 Comments

Well, it’s been nearly 4 years. When I arrived back in Bogotá last December, I thought about starting to blog again, but thought I needed to do a long post to bring people up to date with everything that’s happened since I last posted. It’s been a lot. So I procrastinated, even though I felt I did want to write on here again. This morning, I decided I’m just [more]

Things to do in Cali: my trip to Colombia’s salsa capital

October 18, 2019 // 3 Comments

Arrebato Caleno Salsa School - things to do in Cali Colombia

I’ve visited a few lovely places in Colombia outside of Bogota. I’ve been to Cartagena FOUR times (I’ll never get tired of that city :)), Santa Marta, La Guajira, Villa de Leyva, Paipa, Medellin and a few rural areas and pueblos around Bogota. I’d wanted to visit Cali, the Colombian salsa capital, for a while, and this month I finally went! View of Cerro de [more]

Choachi: an undiscovered trail for hiking near Bogota

August 8, 2019 // 0 Comments

Choachi cloud forest, Colombia I grew up in London, so I wasn’t much of a hiker before moving to Colombia. But if you’ve lived in Bogota, you’ll know that restless feeling of wanting to escape the city once in a while. Bogota is surrounded by lush green countryside, several different ecosystems due to the varying altitude, and wildlife-spotting opportunities. [more]

Horse riding near Bogota: an adventure in La Calera [Updated 2024]

July 24, 2019 // 0 Comments

Born and raised in London and with family roots there that go back many generations, city-living is part of my family’s DNA. Horse riding on Saturdays in London when I was a child involved walking around a large sandpit in circles. Needless to say, I lost interest in that hobby fairly quickly. Nowadays I’m living in Bogota, another fast-paced big city, and [more]

Magic in Colombia: From Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Ghost Stories

July 9, 2019 // 3 Comments

I first started associating Colombia with magical realism during my A-level English literature class at school in 2002. Before Shakira and Sofia Vergara stole his thunder, Gabriel García Márquez (or “Gabo”, as he is affectionately known here) was probably the most famous Colombian in the world. He was a Nobel Laureate and one of the founding fathers of magical [more]

Extending a visa: how to get a salvoconducto in Colombia

February 19, 2019 // 8 Comments

how to apply for a salvoconducto in Colombia

Every now and again in one of the Expat groups on Facebook, someone will ask about how to extend a Colombian visa. So I decided to collate the information on Facebook into this blog post in the hope that it might help others. Dutch expat, Fetze Weerstra, found my blog post and read about the salvoconducto, which many people had mentioned on Facebook. The [more]

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