Discovering LA CANDELARIA in BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA with a LOCAL!

Welcome to day five of our daily vlogging challenge. We could not leave Bogota without visiting the historical center La Candelaria and now we could just wander around on our own but the city is steeped in history so we decided to get ourselves a local guide for the day. And we booked our guide with, you guessed it, Airbnb Experiences and I promise we're not sponsored by Airbnb but we've had such great hosts so far we decided to book one more. Now it's time to go meet up with our local guide Alejandro who's going to show us all around La Candelaria. All right this is Alejandro, she is our tour guide for today. She's going to be showing us all over La Candelaria, the historical center here in Bogota and maybe some hidden gems we couldn't have found on our own. So welcome guys, welcome to my beautiful city. I hope you have a beautiful day today with me. Perfect, let's get started. So there's so many people hanging out like all those men hanging out in this square around here. Is that just before work today? No, that is actually pretty interesting. Do you know which one is the precious rock of Colombia? Like diamond? Emerald. Is this one? Some points over there. Yeah, I'm gonna get all these points. She's such a know-it-all. Yeah, I like that. I'm like, oh, I know it. I know it. I got that one quick. Yeah, you got it. This square is called the Rosario Square basically because of the building that we have over there. That building nowadays is a university, but during our colony times it was actually a jail. So most of our leaders of the independence were actually prisoners over there, especially a woman that is really important for us. I'm going to talk about her later. The Spanish basically arrived here in 1500 century. Okay. When they arrived here, all of this area was called Bacatán. That was the indigenous name and actually that is the origin of the Spanish name Bogotá. No way. And over here they found out an indigenous community that was the Muiscas. The Muiscas were actually pretty peaceful and they were pretty good on growing things. So of course they found the perfect land and the perfect group basically to start a new city. They decided to establish Bogotá between two rivers. One of the rivers was actually in this avenue over here. Oh wow. That is the Jiménez Avenue. So basically that means that from this avenue on is La Candelaria. Sadly the education system is not that even for everybody. It's pretty hard to get education. Because of that we need to survive with something. So we established several informal markets. Of course they don't pay taxes. This shows something that is pretty Colombian. I think that is pretty Latin. It's called berraquera. Berraquera. Berraquera yeah. We have R. You got it. Berraquera. Berraquera. Berraquera. And berraquera means even though everything is against you. Yeah. You're going to try your best to make your best. So it's basically perseverance. I love that. Berraquera. 7th street is always going to have these people and on Sundays it's going to be even bigger. Oh it's crazy. It's crazy. Okay we did walk it yesterday but it was just like people after people. Yeah. It is like that. Yeah. And we had like. I loved it though. Good energy. Yeah. Sugar cane juice. Yeah. Well she grilled these arepas, put butter on them and then she put sausage on them. It was only 75 cents. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. It's great time. We call that Septimas. This is a green jarumo and we also have another one that is silver. I'm going to show you the silver one at another spot. CDR because they want for the business that are here to get more customers. Yeah. And also for different people of Bogotá because sadly the downtown of Bogotá has a bad reputation about security. They want them to come and walk on these streets again. Yeah. So there is a reason why they create this. So it's basically an art gallery. Yeah it is. Alejandra just brought us to the most important square in Bogotá and all of Colombia. So this is Plaza de Boliviar. It's here that you can find really a lot of important buildings. We have the Museum of Independence. We have a cathedral. We have the first school built by the Spanish in 1604. Then we have the building of Congress, City Hall, and Justice Palace. Oh I was going to get it. The Justice Palace. I was going to see if I could name all of them but I got about half of them so that's okay. Very knowledgeable. That's the expert today. So a fun fact that Alejandra had told us was that at the school that the Spanish built in 1604, 19 Colombian presidents have went to school there. So that's a good place to go to school if you want to be the president of Colombia. So Alejandra has brought us to the best view of the entire square. You can see all the mountains behind the church and you can even see Monserrate way up on the mountains up there. So she was telling us that this street has everything in La Candelaria that you would want to see and we're going to walk up and she's going to point some things out to us. But just first impressions it is very beautiful with the town in the background and the mountains. It's really really pretty. The street is so beautiful with the old colonial buildings, Monserrate in front of us with all the greenery and mountains. Wow they have so many big flags around here at the colorful buildings. So beautiful. She's taking us to her favorite coffee shop now which is perfect timing. We're ready for another cafe. This is my first heated gem so I hope you like it. Of course Colombian coffee is pretty famous. Yeah. But actually we have also a really good cacao that is the primary base for chocolate. But our cacao is not that famous so what they managed to do was to recreate the same beverage that you have from coffee using cacao to bring cacao to the same level of importance. So over here you can find for example an espresso of cacao or an americano of cacao. So does it have caffeine? No it doesn't have caffeine because it's not coffee. It is cacao. You know what? Have I just found my favorite place ever? Okay because I don't really drink a lot of coffee because caffeine makes me like crazy but if it's made with a cacao bean it's not coffee. It's not coffee. Oh I'm so excited. Actually it has like a chemical thing that brings you happiness. Chocolate of course. I love this so much. Thanks for bringing us here. So this is a very specialty coffee. It's actually half mocha and half cacao. So half espresso. No sorry. I told you I'm terrible at this. The mocha in the coffee world is going to be the mix between coffee and chocolate. In cacao and coffee house they want to get the natural thing of chocolate that is going to be cacao. That is the natural base. They're going to use an espresso only using cacao that is not still chocolate with an espresso of coffee. And if you are not a lover of espressos you can have a mocha chino that is with the adding of the milk. The milk. Exactly. That is going to make it a little bit softer. Yeah. You get all that? I don't have to repeat it? So this is the cacao santa pereno. It's going to be the espresso from the cacao. So just the cacao bean before it becomes chocolate. So not a hot chocolate. With the milk. With steamed milk. And what makes it the santa pereno? The word Bogota was called Santa Fe. So this is going to be the cacao. The chocolate from Bogota. Wow. It is very aromatic. I can definitely smell the star anise a lot. So cinnamon, star anise would probably make it the santa pereno way here. So cheers. Tastes like chocolate? No. It tastes more like a chai. It tastes like a chai. Really? It tastes like very something similar we had at the market. A fruit market. It was called the chocolo. Chocola. Chocola. It tastes similar to the chocola. A little bit. Yeah. But this is better. This is very good. I love this. It's yeah. This is a great spin on a coffee. Yeah. So I'm trying Tommy's mocha cacao or just mocha. Just the espresso shot. There's no milk or anything. That's that's a hardcore drink right here. You get a hint of bitter. It's different from a normal espresso. I like it. It's too too strong for me to drink but I do like it. Alejandra's so sweet she's even letting us try her drink. Cacao lemonade. You like it? Yeah it's really good. That's not what I was expecting. It's lemonade. It looks like a chocolate milkshake. It's lemonade and then you get a hint of the cacao or chocolatey flavor right after. That is so unique. Such a unique flavor. I love that. Yeah. Alejandra is telling us about the best area to stay when you come to Bogota. It's going to be actually if you ask me it's going to be Chapinero. Why? Because in Bogota because of traffic of course you need to be nearby but in a central point you know. Not in La Candelaria because if not you're going to be trapped basically on only the activities in La Candelaria. We have different things in the north so you want to be in the middle. Chapinero is just in the middle and it's also the gay neighborhood of Bogota. Okay. So over there you have different restaurants, different bars, even different clothing stores if you are into that. That is a top tip and the place where Tommy and I went and played Tejo with our friends was in Chapinero as well and we really liked the neighborhood. We went out to dinner. We went but yeah we had a great time. Well that was a perfect little stop. A little energy boost now. So now we are heading to Alejandra's second favorite hidden gem here in Bogota. It is it is going to be a church. Don't fall over. There's a crack in the road. Sadly through our independence history we don't learn much about the work of the women but we actually have a really important role in that. Policarpa was one of them. So she was actually one of the few women that knew in that moment how to read and write. She was not from Bogota. She was from another town nearby but she decided to move here in order to help to the independence. What she did was that actually she started to teach other women how to read and write and with those women she created a net of spies that goes inside of the houses of the Spanish taking all the information away and also some guns and things to deliver that to the independence army. Because of Policarpa we also have our independence. Sadly they are going to capture her and she's going to die like at 23 or 22 years old. What a badass. Really badass. She was kept in in that in the building that we saw in the beginning in the university. That was her last home basically. So how did it come about for people to call beer Paula? Because over here the biggest brand of beer is going to be called Bavaria. It is pretty old and it's the biggest one but what happened was that a Germany guy his name was Leo Kopp he actually came here to Colombia and in Colombia he's going to establish his company Bavaria. At the beginning it was pretty small. Nowadays they have the whole empire of beer here in the country. So what happened was that once they wanted to celebrate the independence of Colombia so they portrayed they designed a special a label of Policarpa holding the flag of Colombia but that happens only here in the inner part of country so Bogotá and Cundinamarca which is the state. So it only works Paula here and nowadays her remainings are inside of this church so we're going to see that. This is Paula. So this is the resting place where the remains of Policarpa, Paula is here inside this church. So this next church that we've been brought to was originally built in the style as some of the other churches that we've seen but it was turned into a military hospital and was destroyed. Once it was rebuilt they rebuilt it in this neo-gothic style and it's absolutely beautiful with the colors and just everything about it is so stunning. So we've been walking through the historical center of La Candelaria right now and there's not much graffiti over here but Alejandro is going to pass us to another side of La Candelaria which is still historical but it has the graffiti that this area is known for. What happened was that sadly La Candelaria was not named a historical important point of Bogotá. It is pretty recent that the mayor actually did that so sadly what happened was that they destroyed tons of the original houses by the Spanish and they replaced it with new ones. So in this street is one of the few places where we can still spot some of these beautiful houses with the balconies and everything but yeah it's the fatigue street so it's for enjoying not for talking. You're a pro though you can handle it. So we're on the street of fatigue because it goes straight up and we're at a high elevation so you're always out of breath when you're going uphill so it's perfect timing to have a little cocoa tea to refresh us again. Okay we have stopped we have stopped at another little place to try some coca tea and the name of it something something condor the condor is the bird of Colombia. Let's go inside. This little shop also features works of art and jewelry from the indigenous communities here in Colombia. What are you trying babe? All right so we're going to try some coca tea it's herbal tea and it's made straight from the coca plant so as you can see it's just like straight coca leaves in here. Perfect location on fatigue street. Yeah this is the best remedy for altitude sickness and we just walked all the way up fatigue street to get here so it's quite hot. Yeah are you okay? It's very earthy it's very herbal kind of tastes a little bit like grass. Do you eat grass a lot? I imagine that it's I need a few more sips it's a little too hot to get the full taste of it. Is the tea growing on you a little bit? It is the more it cools down the better I like it it's because it's a little hot. Super refreshing though. It is very refreshing. Okay no more fatigue. No more. That tea did not have caffeine in it but I feel very like rejuvenated and refreshed ready to hit fatigue street again. In this house supposedly they catch la pola here so over here we have the painting of her and also some of the last words that she said. First one is going to be stupid people our fate our destiny will be very different if you know the price of freedom or liberty but it's not too late. And this is also the starting point of the graffiti so we're going to see an artist right here in this corner okay here we can spot one of the first artists that we have his name is Carlos Trilleras you can see his work over there so he's actually pretty well known because he always portrayed people that or animals as you can see that are like in a in a struggle and he always portrayed them with that shiny in his eyes like a sign of hoping that is their his characteristic is going to be that so most of it is going to be indigenous communities and a lot of animals and species that we have. They're beautiful. They are pretty beautiful. So she was just explaining to the indigenous girl with the mask with the hand because obviously COVID was so prominent in the news some of the struggles that the indigenous people were going through was covered up by the news of COVID so I think that happened in a lot of places all over the world but that's kind of the meaning behind that painting there. This one is actually pretty critique in how society works I'm going to show you actually one that is my favorite that is going to be this one of course the culture of soccer is pretty huge for us and the same as COVID it is also used to cover some pretty bad things that are happening in the country so she's showing us a shop here that is run and owned by the indigenous community everything there is made by the indigenous community so if you want to shop sustainably this is the place to do it the silver derumo the tree that she was telling us about earlier that they use for medicinal medicinal purposes it comes in green and silver and you can see it all over the city and the this is the chorro de quevedo square as you can see it's a pretty lively place and it's also where most of the graffitis here in la candelaria are a great area it is a very very lively square and I can already see graffiti on all of the corners it looks so pretty here you can start spotting some graffitis like this one that is beautiful this one is new was this done by a local or international it is done by a local that is called guache it was actually a teacher from a university oh so a lot of the graffiti has a lot of you know different meanings but this girl here is drinking chicha which is a drink from the indigenous communities and Alejandro was telling us that we're going to see a lot of graffiti that like has chicha in it right but this one is for trading the importance for our indigenous families as you can see everything is kind of attribute attribute exactly this is my favorite street we've been on yet you can see why it's called bundle street because it's so small but on both sides there's some amazing artwork everywhere I love how the artwork actually means something too that's dedicated to a lot of the aboriginals it's absolutely beautiful now do you have a favorite somewhere favorite graffiti yeah that one I love that one she loves that one that one okay because they portray the jaguar which actually is a is a really important species for us it used to be a lot around here sadly nowadays because of the cities that we build on the top of the mountains and everything we cut the tracks for them to walk but that one used to be the animal of the political leader of our indigenous communities so yeah I love the jaguar yeah it's beautiful I love it the purpose of the graffiti that is make people want to come by exactly and also to make the people that live in these areas that were pretty bad to take more care of the area all right so we had an amazing tour with Alejandra coming away from this tour knowing so much more about Bogota and the history so thank you so much for showing us around and if you're in Bogota definitely take this tour with her you will learn so much it was my pleasure thank you bring it in we hope you guys enjoyed exploring la candelaria with us we've had such an amazing time today and I hope you guys have been enjoying these daily vlogs and also let us know if there's any recommendation of any spots we need to go to in Colombia because we were open to all the recommendations and we'll see you guys tomorrow this is our first tour on Airbnb we have been with this tour for one year but the actual company has have been running for five years we host mostly a private tours you can find even a tour that is called rent a friend and what we do as a company is that we have found out that in the tourism world of course it's a beautiful world because you can help a lot of people around but sadly the way it works is that people always go to the same places the same restaurants helping the same people basically so we saw that and we wanted to do it differently so what we do is that we hunt these different entrepreneurs that have something that is pretty beautiful and authentic so you can have a really nice experience local experience by helping the also give me a plug of your website real quick like the name yeah it is okay www zebra with a cedar fizz gonna.com you know it'll be in the description below you guys thank you