Colombia was never really part of my travel plan. In March 2019, I was in the United States with about seven days available before heading towards Mexico, and I decided to use those days to explore two new countries. Machu Picchu in Peru was the real target, but flying with Avianca gave me an opportunity to stop in Bogotá for around two days.
Bogotá surprised me with its mountain setting, historic La Candelaria, Plaza de Bolívar, Colombian food, nightlife and, above everything, warm and generous people. There was even a small argument over a VIP table at a bar with a great city view.
But Colombia doesn’t enter my personal top 25 countries, and there is a simple reason: I don’t think I really saw Colombia. I missed Medellín, Guatapé, Cartagena and almost everything beyond Bogotá.
Then the journey took another unexpected turn. Bad weather destroyed my Machu Picchu plan in Peru, so I cut Peru short and added an unplanned one-day stop in El Salvador on my way back towards Mexico.
Sometimes the best travel stories are created by plans that never actually happen.
The Colombia I Didn’t See
This is where my Colombia story becomes slightly uncomfortable.
Because I left too quickly.
At that stage of my travelling life, I had limited time and another major destination ahead of me: Machu Picchu.
Peru was pulling me south.
Bogotá had effectively been a stopover that I had stretched into a two-day exploration.
Looking back now, that was nowhere near enough.
I missed Medellín, a city whose transformation from its violent past has made it one of Colombia’s most talked-about urban destinations.
I missed Guatapé, with its colourful streets and the enormous Piedra del Peñol rising above a spectacular landscape of lakes and green islands.
Most importantly, perhaps, I missed Cartagena.
That is the Colombia I would particularly like to return for: the Caribbean side of the country, with Cartagena’s fortified old city, colourful colonial architecture, balconies, plazas and completely different atmosphere from high-altitude Bogotá.
And this is why I hesitate whenever somebody asks me whether I loved Colombia.
I don’t think I really saw Colombia.
I saw Bogotá for around 48 hours.
Those are two very different statements.
After travelling extensively across some countries by road and spending days or weeks discovering different landscapes, cities and cultures, it would be unfair to compare those experiences with a two-day stopover.
Colombia probably wouldn’t enter my personal top 25 countries today.
But perhaps Colombia isn’t responsible for that.
Perhaps I simply didn’t give it enough time.
Colombia Wasn’t the Plan
It was March 2019. I was travelling in the United States and had around seven days available before continuing towards Mexico.
Seven free days. For me, that immediately became an opportunity. How many new experiences could I fit into those seven days?
Machu Picchu had been on my mind for years, so Peru became the obvious choice. But while looking at flights and connections, another possibility appeared: Bogotá.
And one of the reasons was Avianca.
Avianca has long been one of my favourite airlines in Latin America, and Bogotá is its major hub. Instead of treating the connection simply as an airport transit, I thought: why not enter Colombia and see Bogotá?
That is how countries sometimes enter my travel history.
Not through months of planning. Not because they are sitting at number one on a bucket list.
Sometimes it is simply a map, an airline connection and the thought: Why not?
So Colombia was added. Two days then Peru then Mexico.
At least that was the plan and travel would later have other ideas.
Landing in Bogotá
I landed at El Dorado International Airport, the main international gateway to Bogotá.
For Indian passport holders, Colombia can also be relatively convenient under the country’s conditional visa-exemption rules. Travellers should always verify the current requirements before departure, because immigration regulations change.
My own experience was straightforward enough to allow me to start exploring quickly.
And Bogotá immediately felt different from the Colombia I had imagined.
I think many first-time visitors subconsciously expect something tropical.
Bogotá isn’t that.
The Colombian capital sits high in the Andes at roughly 2,600 metres above sea level. Mountains rise dramatically along the eastern edge of the city, while Bogotá itself spreads across an enormous plateau.
The climate, altitude and mountain backdrop give it a completely different personality from Colombia’s Caribbean image.
It is huge.
Busy.
Sometimes chaotic.
Historic in places and thoroughly modern in others.
And within a few hours, I realised that Bogotá had much more character than the international headlines through which I had known Colombia.
A Country Known for the Wrong Reasons
For people of my generation, Colombia was unfortunately introduced to much of the outside world through drugs, cartels, Pablo Escobar, kidnappings and violence.
Movies and television reinforced that image for decades.
Eventually, a stereotype becomes stronger than the country itself.
I knew Colombia had a complicated history. But I didn’t travel there to search for Pablo Escobar.
I wanted to see how Colombians actually lived.
That distinction matters.
Countries are not their worst decades.
And Bogotá was very much alive.
Restaurants were busy. Cafés were full. Young people filled the streets. Music appeared everywhere. There was street art, colonial architecture, modern neighbourhoods and a huge city moving at its own rhythm.
Most importantly, people were generous.
Sometimes the quickest way to challenge an image of a country is simply to spend a few hours talking to the people who live there.
My First Night and the VIP Table
After spending part of the day exploring Bogotá and taking the steep funicular railway up Monserrate, where the view really showed me the enormous scale of the Colombian capital, I wanted to experience Bogotá after dark.
Bogotá has a lively nightlife scene, with plenty of well-known bars, clubs, rooftops and more exclusive venues, particularly around areas such as Zona T and Zona Rosa. I had only one proper night in the city, so naturally I wanted to make the most of it.
My first evening eventually brought me to a bar with a fantastic view over Bogotá. I found what looked like the perfect seat: good position, good view, drink ordered. Everything was sorted.
Then someone came over and informed me that the table was reserved for VIP guests.
I wasn’t particularly interested in the word VIP, so I asked the obvious question: “When are they coming?”
Around midnight.
It wasn’t midnight.
My logic was therefore extremely simple. I could sit there, enjoy my drink and the view, and when their VIP guests arrived at 12, I would move. An empty table didn’t need to remain empty for hours just because somebody important was coming later.
Apparently, my solution wasn’t as brilliant to them as it was to me.
There was a little argument. Nothing serious, but enough back-and-forth for the incident to become one of those small travel memories that somehow survives for years. Eventually, I moved and continued enjoying the evening.
I don’t remember every drink I had in Bogotá, and I certainly don’t remember every street I walked through during those two days. But I still remember being moved from my excellent Bogotá viewpoint because an invisible VIP was arriving later.
And perhaps that is why I remember the night so well. Bogotá had already shown me its historic side, its mountains and its enormous scale from Monserrate. That evening showed me another side; a capital with a vibrant nightlife, fashionable venues and a city that certainly didn’t go to sleep when the sightseeing ended.
These are the moments I love about travelling. Nobody puts them on an itinerary.
One Day to Discover Bogotá and the Colombia I Missed
With only one full day to explore Bogotá, I concentrated on La Candelaria, the colourful historic heart of the Colombian capital and one of the essential places to visit in Bogotá. Its colonial buildings, churches, cafés, street art and restaurants make it perfect for exploring on foot without following a strict itinerary.
I walked through Plaza de Bolívar, Bogotá’s historic central square, before visiting the Museo del Oro, the Gold Museum. I don’t normally build my travels around museums, but this one is worth the stop. Its remarkable collection of gold and archaeological objects offers a glimpse into Colombia’s pre Hispanic cultures and a history far older than the Colombia most of us know from modern headlines.
Food was naturally part of the experience. Bogotá is known for ajiaco santafereño, a traditional chicken, potato and corn soup that suits the city’s cool, high altitude climate perfectly. There were also arepas, empanadas and plenty of Colombian dishes to discover. More than any particular meal, however, I remember the hospitality. People were generous, curious about where I came from and always ready to suggest something I should try.
By the end of the day, together with my Monserrate experience and Bogotá nightlife the previous evening, I had seen enough to appreciate the city, but nowhere near enough to understand Colombia.
If I planned a proper Colombia itinerary today, Bogotá would only be the beginning. I would continue to Medellín, make the trip to colourful Guatapé and Piedra del Peñol, and then head towards Cartagena for its historic walled city and completely different Caribbean atmosphere. These are the places I regret missing most.
My biggest mistake in Colombia wasn’t where I went or what I did. It was how little time I gave it.
And Then Machu Picchu Didn’t Happen
As my short time in Bogotá came to an end, my mind was already in Peru. The next morning I was flying to Cusco, and from there I had planned something that meant much more to me than simply visiting another famous landmark.
I wanted to make my way towards Machu Picchu on a motorcycle. Read the full article of Peru here.
There was something deeply personal about that idea. I had always been fascinated by Che Guevara’s The Motorcycle Diaries and the idea of discovering South America from the road rather than simply flying from one attraction to another. I wasn’t trying to recreate his journey, but riding through the Peruvian Andes towards Machu Picchu felt like my own small connection to that spirit of travel. The road, the mountains, the uncertainty and finally Machu Picchu at the end of it were all part of the dream.
That was why I left Colombia so quickly. Bogotá had surprised me, but in my head the real adventure was waiting in Cusco. I had spent years looking at photographs of Machu Picchu, and now I was finally close enough to turn that image into a memory of my own.
Except it didn’t happen.
Bad weather changed the plan, and the motorcycle journey to Machu Picchu that I had imagined simply disappeared. It hurt because Machu Picchu wasn’t just another attraction that I could replace with something else in Peru. It was the reason I had travelled south in the first place.
Rather than forcing an itinerary that had already lost its heart, I cut my Peru trip short. Suddenly, I had an unexpected day before returning towards Mexico, and in typical fashion I looked at the map and asked myself what else was possible.
That is how El Salvador entered the story.
Looking back, those seven days almost created their own itinerary. Colombia appeared because of an Avianca connection. Peru was supposed to give me my motorcycle journey to Machu Picchu. The weather took that away, and the disappointment unexpectedly opened the door to El Salvador.
The Lost Mumbaikar Reflections
Colombia was never the destination. It became one because there was space between two flights and because having a valid U.S. visa made adding Colombia relatively easy for me as an Indian passport holder. Even today, Colombia can be convenient for eligible Indian travellers holding qualifying U.S. or Schengen visas or residence permits, although the exact immigration requirements should always be checked before travelling because visa rules can change.
Sometimes a visa already sitting in your passport opens a door you weren’t originally planning to walk through. That was Colombia for me in 2019. I arrived expecting very little, spent two days exploring Bogotá, took the funicular up Monserrate, discovered the historic streets of La Candelaria, argued over a VIP table, tried Colombian food and, most importantly, met generous people who gave me a very different impression of the country from the one I had grown up seeing in international news.
Then I left for the place I really wanted to see, Machu Picchu. Except Machu Picchu didn’t happen. Bad weather changed the plan, I cut my Peru journey short and suddenly another unexpected opportunity appeared. I used the extra time to spend a day in El Salvador before continuing towards Mexico.
Perhaps that is the real memory I carried away from those seven days. Travel isn’t always about successfully completing an itinerary. Sometimes the destination you planned for years doesn’t happen, while the country you added almost accidentally gives you a story you remember years later. A missed experience can create another experience, and an inconvenient change of plan can open a completely different door.
Colombia remains unfinished for me. I saw Bogotá, but I didn’t really see Colombia. Medellín is still there, Guatapé is still there and Cartagena is still there. There are mountains, coffee regions, Caribbean landscapes and countless smaller places that I never came close to experiencing.
That is also why I don’t think it would be fair to judge Colombia by where it currently sits in my personal list of countries. Two days in Bogotá cannot compete with countries where I have spent weeks driving thousands of kilometres and discovering different regions. Perhaps Colombia didn’t fail to enter my top 25. Perhaps I simply didn’t give Colombia enough time to earn its place.
And maybe one day I will return, not because Bogotá happens to be between two flights, but because Colombia itself is the destination.
Frequently Asked Questions: Colombia & Bogotá
1 Is Bogotá worth visiting?
Yes, particularly if you enjoy history, food, street culture and large Latin American cities. Monserrate, La Candelaria and the Gold Museum remain three of Bogotá’s most visited attractions.
2 How many days do you need in Bogotá?
I had roughly two days, which was enough for an introduction but not enough to understand the city properly. I would allow at least 2–3 full days if Bogotá is an actual destination rather than a stopover.
3 What should I see if I only have one day in Bogotá?
Focus on La Candelaria, Plaza de Bolívar, the Gold Museum and Monserrate. Bogotá’s tourism authority itself promotes a one-day historic-centre route combining Monserrate, La Candelaria, Chorro de Quevedo, Plaza de Bolívar and the Gold Museum.
4 What food should I try in Bogotá?
Start with ajiaco santafereño, then try arepas, tamales and other Colombian dishes. La Candelaria is particularly good for traditional Bogotá cuisine.
5 Can Indians visit Colombia with a valid U.S. visa?
Under the current conditional exemption, eligible Indian passport holders can enter Colombia for a short stay without obtaining a Colombian visa if they satisfy Colombia’s U.S./Schengen visa or residence-permit conditions. A qualifying U.S. or Schengen visa must have at least 180 days’ validity at entry; verify the latest rule before booking.
6 Did Colombia enter my top 25 countries?
No.
But I don’t think that is a fair judgement on Colombia.
I experienced only Bogotá for around two days and missed many of the places that could completely change my perception of the country.
