In 2018 was my first visit to Bogota, Columbia, an exciting melange of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, a deep dive into then up-and-coming restaurants like the great Leo and then brand-new El Chato (see my current review below). I wrote about Bogota’s burgeoning cocktail bar scene for Gin Magazine. I wrote dining/food guides for Google’s now defunct Touringbird guides. Like the rest of South America, I marveled at Colombia’s vibrant fruit and its rich heritage of breads. The markets wowed then, as they do still.
Returning February 2025, I sadly missed the fun in Medellín for Carnivale with none other than Colombia’s own global superstar, Shakira!? Returning from another international work trip, I had to come later in the week. But my return to Bogota yielded a city very much on the rise with a stronger than ever dining scene, more finessed cocktails, even the legalization of viche in 2021, the traditional sugarcane spirit of Colombia (see Bar Continental Ron & Son below under “bars”).
When I Fell in Love with Bogota
During my first visit in 2018, there were moments of awakening to Bogota — despite the concerns from constant stories of its crime. I met warm, kind locals, wandered the leafy green streets of the city’s trendier neighborhoods and marveled at the wealth of fruits and traditional breads.
Upon my return early 2025, I was whisked away not long after arrival to the cozy apartment of husband-and-wife Carlos and Laura, dubbed Casa Buen Ayre, translating to “good air” or “fair winds,” the name of Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires. Their colorful apartment sported neon pink and midnight blue walls punctuated by Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks album cover, a long floor table surrounded by pillows for tea service and best of all, panoramic views of the city from its hillside perch.
My afternoon with Laura and Carlos was spiritual, enchanting, soulful. Combining their love of herbs and tea with music, they create custom tea blends for top restaurants and bars (like El Chato) and for medicinal, healing purposes. They source plants endemic to Colombia and from all over South America, including hayo (aka coca) visiting farms just outside the city. Their hayo is sourced from a village eight hours walking distance into a tropical jungle below the snow-capped Santa Marta mountains, harvested by hand only by women under a full moon, mixed in a clay pot by fire, gently smoked, then dried.
As I took in the aromas, sipped teas and made my own blend from enticing herbs like anise, cardamom, bright peppermint, yerba buena, lemongrass, lavender and Colombia’s own woody-minty pronto alivio (“quick relief”!), Laura began to sing as Carlos played the guitar. We were blindfolded for maximum taste and listening. With her pure, strong voice, Laura sang in Spanish, “None of it matters in the end… not your career, money, nothing except love and human connection. Who you love, how you affect others, how you give…”
I let the soothing, healing herbs of the perfectly steeped tea and the songs envelop me, as rough but beautiful Bogota and its mountains splayed below. A backdrop gritty and present, I felt alive with the warm hospitality of these people who heal and nurture each other. We have much learn to from many parts of the world and here I experienced people living their calling despite and because of the elemental ingredients and tough beauty around them. I was both transported and centered in their cozy apartment on a rainy afternoon in Colombia.
Later in the week, Colombia came home for me spiritually as we drove roughly an hour outside Bogota to eat at eclectic, historic Andrés Carne de Res (see below under “Eat”) after a morning in the subterranean, halite mountain mines where miners themselves reverently built an awe-inspiring Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. There built stations of the cross, naves and cathedrals, a temple representing Jesus’ birth, life and death in three parts. It’s magnificent, designed and built by the workers themselves, who clearly infused the architecture with the reverence in their hearts.
Read the rest on Substack: Bogota’s Gifts to the World