The four hour BOGOTA CITY TOUR in Bogotá with HANSA TOURS was a great experience. In this Tour we had a fantastic view of Bogotá from the road close to the mountains when we were taken by car to La Candelaria. We also passed the station for the cable cars that takes you to Cerro de Monserrate, another main attraction of Bogotá. The main focus of this BOGOTA CITY TOUR was to see La Candelaria, the beautiful part of the city with old colonial buildings, and learn more about the history. The first stop in this BOGOTA CITY TOUR was Plaza Del Chorro de Quevedo where it is said that Bogotá originally was founded between two rivers and the mountains, to be protected against intruders. The plaza is now filled with a lot of young students since there is a university nearby, and a lot of small and nice cafes and bars. On a Saturday afternoon you can go to one of these places to drink chicha, a corn and pineapple drink in a bowl with a straw, play games and dance salsa. Another good thing about this BOGOTA CITY TOUR was that the Tour Guide took us through the beautiful streets of La Candelaria, and guided us both in English and Spanish. We passed Teatro de Colon, which is the biggest theatre in South America, the oldest restaurant of Bogotá where you can drink the traditional hot chocolate with cheese, and the 20^th of July museum where you can get the full history about the independence of Colombia.

Another incredible site that we visited during this BOGOTA CITY TOUR was La Plaza de Bolivar, which is surrounded by historical buildings, and of course the statue of the liberty hero himself, Simon Bolivar is in the middle of the plaza. The Tour Guide took us inside Catedral Primada, the largest in Bogotá, where you can see the tomb of Jimenez de Quesada, the founder of Bogotá. From the plaza you can also see Capitolio Nacional, and when we followed one of the streets close to the plaza we could see the presidential building, Casa de Nariño, where president Uribe lives and works. On the backside of his palace there is a very old, beautiful church, Templo San Augustin, with wooden paintings. The church has a statue of Jesus Christ, and it is said that the hair on his head is always growing. However, the Hansa Tours Guide had never seen any change in the hair length, but who knows? We were guided around the presidential palace and back to Plaza de Bolivar, passing Iglesia Museo de Santa Clara, with walls covered with paintings on the inside, Observatorio Astronomico, which is the first observatory built in the continent, and a house where a lot of revolutionaries were killed by the Spanish.

The last stop on this amazing Tour was Museo Del Oro, the gold museum, world wide known and one of the most famous museums in Bogotá, and with good reason because you can see and read about this important part of Colombia’s history. It was absolutely an advantage to have the tour guide from Hansa Tours here, because it made the whole experience more interesting and it was easier remember more about what we saw and heard. We could see how the different pre-historic cultures in Colombia earlier used the gold, and how the methodology for treating the cold has developed. We could see how a chief would be decorated by gold, and through their design what was important in their religion. There are some impressive pieces of art made of gold in this museum, and the museum is a “must” if you are in Bogotá.

By car we were taken back to our departure point. We were very satisfied with the experience we got from Hansa Tours, and we will recommend this BOGOTA CITY TOUR to others who wants to see and understand more about the history of Bogotá and Colombia.