After an overnight flight from Heathrow, Brian Field & I arrived into Bogota just as it was getting light. Having collected the bags & cleared passport control, we were pleased to get to the arrivals area & find somebody waiting for us to take us to the hotel. I hadn't slept for more than an hour or two on the plane, so was looking forward to some sleep. But about three hours after closing my eyes, the alarm was going off to wake up again, having left just had enough time to race down for the complimentary breakfast. Whilst enjoying breakfast, I had time to consider the early starts & insufficient sleep that were going to be a feature for the next few weeks. Therefore, I might as well get used to it straight away. At least I would be feeling tired by mid evening when an early night would be helpful. The next item on the plan was to change some money & head down to the city centre. We had the rest of the day to ourselves, before we had to meet the rest of the Birdquest group for dinner. Brian had said there was an excellent gold museum in Bogota, the Museo del Oro & he thought it would be worth a visit. After a fifteen minute taxi ride, we were dropped at the museum. It looked like a dull office block, but with few windows. Perhaps not surprising giving the amount of gold inside the building. Apparently, it houses over 34,000 separate gold items. The museum was dedicated to the history of pre-Colombian gold by the many different indigenous cultures and regions within the modern Colombia. Many of the items dated from a few hundred years BC to about 1000 AD. The quality of the workmanship was impressive & seemed comparable to similar gold jewellery and objects I've seen at the British museum or on archaeological programs on TV from the UK & Europe. The Colombian items were largely pure gold, whereas similar aged items from the UK were often gold with inlaid precious stones. In hindsight, I didn't photograph as many of the labels as I should have done & so the captions are not as detailed as I would now have liked.
This was from the Yotoco-Malagana culture close to the modern city of Cali: It dates from 200 BC to 1300 AD (or in Spanish 200 AC to 1300 DC)
I really like these fine figures
Looks like a shark symbol
There aren't many people who get to go fishing with gold hooks
Gold Lizard pendant: Although it looks like a crocodile, the translation confirms it is a Lizard pendant dated to 970 AD
This is a Guan pendant dated to 240 BC & it was part of a burial item
In addition to over 34,000 gold items, the museum is home to over 20,000 bone & stone items
Frigatebird pendants
Burial goods
The burial practices in some parts of South America were very different to Europe with people buried sitting up: This individual must have been found in a very arid location given the excellent preservation
Colibri or Hummingbird: I saw 64 species of Hummingbird including 23 Ticks in Colombia
This item is believed to have been on the end of a cane or stick & dates to 490 AD
I'm assuming this was an elaborate headdress with a religious or ceremonial use
Gold band
Gold pins
Gold figurine: This is thought to be an important female chieftain. Chieftains and shamans performed important rituals to ensure that life would continue normally. This is from Quimbaya and dates from 500 BC to 700 AD. It is close to the Hotel Themales del Ruiz where we stayed a week later
Will this be the next dancing craze: This Jaguar breastplate was made between 1 and 700 AD
Golden earrings
One of the earrings
Conch shell: Conch shells were often of great value to pre-Colombian Andean cultures as they would have had to have been traded over hundreds of miles to get into Andes. This one was covered in gold leaf as well
We declined a chance of a photo with this local
Or a photo with these ladies
It was now late afternoon & time to get a taxi back to the hotel & sort our gear out for the morning. We were due to meet the rest of the Birdquest group & leader Janos Olah that evening for dinner in the hotel. All the group had arrived during the day, apart from one of the American Birders, Doug, who wasn't due in to Bogota till the early hours of the following morning. He made it in time for the 04:30 meeting the following morning for our departure in search of some real Colibri & lots of other goodies. At least we were staying in the same hotel for the next couple of nights so didn't have to worry about packing the bags.
This was probably a ceremonial gold breast band
This looks like a gold breast band to indicate the owner's importance: Note, the Monkey imagery. A lot of the items featured wildlife in the designs
After leaving the gold museum, we had a wander around the centre in search of a cafe.
This cafe had been well decorated: The coffee & cake were equally well made
Old church: This looks like it was one of the early Spanish churches in Bogota
Modern Bogota