We arrived a day early for our Adventures by Disney trip, and stayed in the same hotel as the tour: the Sofitel Bogotá Victoria Regia Hotel. We paid attention to what the temperatures would be while in Colombia, but we didn’t pay attention to why they were what they were. Madeline felt a little weird right away, and it wasn’t until a day or so later that we realized Bogotá was almost at 9,000’ above sea level. The city felt safe and it was fairly clean, although we did see a number of homeless indigenous mothers on the street with their children. Here’s what we did while in the city.

BOGOTÁ

3/14/25—3/23/25

We got our AbD care package in January, and on March 14th, we took off out of MCO to MIA and then to Bogotá. AbD had us picked up and taken to the Sofitel, where we had a large, quiet room with an interesting shower. We went across the street to our first Colombian restaurant and were seated on the covered porch. We had a great octopus appetizer and wonderful entrees, all while sitting next to a window looking into the kitchen. When we returned to the hotel, we had a nice Anniversary surprise for us.

It was a lovely morning when we looked out our hotel window, so after a great breakfast buffet, we walked down the street to Parque El Virrey. Since it was the weekend, there were people all over the lovely park. After lunch, we checked into with AbD and met our US– and Colombia-based guides that we’d be with all week. We then went back out and found another park and some more areas of the city to explore.

We got dressed and went down to a conference room to meet Yohany and hear him explain about the week and what to expect. He was excited about his country and sharing it with all of us. We also met our fellow adventurers, which we got to know when we shared our Welcome Dinner. The kids all sat at a table with Summer-Rose, and Madeline even got an early birthday card.

Caroline & Charles

Sarah & Swetal w/Eva

Jennifer & Carly

Harry & Susan

Danika & Kiana

Adrian & Ezra

It was time to adventure. They moved the breakfast buffet to the lobby, so after we ate it, we got on the bus and went down to the Central Bogotá produce market. We had a local guide to go along with Yohany and our other AbD guide, Summer-Rose. They explained the importance of fruit in Colombia, and it brought back memories of my dad. We enjoyed trying a few fruits, including fresh passionfruit. Our next stop was a restaurant open for us to partake in an arepa-making class. It was fun to make the delicious cornmeal flatbread.

We then started walking through the streets. Bogotá was very colorful in its street art. Plazoleta Chorro de Quevedo was full of locals enjoying their Sunday morning.

Our next stop was the trio of museums in town, including the Botero Museum. Fernando Botero is a famous Colombian artist (shown above, painting the brunette) who painted exaggerated nudes. The courtyards in the museum area were beautiful, as was the stained glass in one of the exhibit rooms.

We took our first group photo in Plaza Bolivar. We then walked into a restaurant that seemed more like eating in a dining room of a house. We had a wonderful stew and some fresh avocados.

 

Next was the Gold Museum, where we saw gold pieces from the 4th Century from natives. The museum wasn’t as interesting as the one in Cape Town, but there were some nice pieces.

Back on the bus, we drove through the city just as the soccer match was ending. We had dinner on our own, and we chose a sushi place across the street. They kind of messed up our order, but what we had was really good.