Bogotá 1: First impressions

On the day of our arrival we walked from the hotel to the city centre.

The view from our hotel room. Bogotá sits almost on the equator, but the altitude (2600m) and semi- (or perhaps more exactly 3/4)permanent cloud cover mean that temperatures never climb much above 20C whatever the time of year.
The 16th-c. Iglesia de S. Diego is one of numerous colonial-era churches in B.
Iglesia de S. Diego
The Iglesia de las Nieves first opened its doors in 1568. However, its current rather attractive incarnation actually dates from the 1920s.
Iglesia de las Nieves (Nuestra Señora de las Nieves: Our Lady of the Snows / Maria Schnee)
Iglesia de las Nieves
Rather more austere: the 18th-c. Iglesia de la Tercera Orden.
Iglesia de la Tercera Orden. (You want to annoy me? Let me travel 12.000km to look at something and then tell me I‘m not allowed to take a photograph. So I did anyway.)
Right next door: the Iglesia de S. Francisco, built in the 16th c.
Iglesia de S. Francisco
Iglesia de S. Francisco. Same deal: no photography allowed. Pffft.
Iglesia de S. Francisco. The richly gilded presbytery was added between 1611 and 1623.
Iglesia de S. Francisco
Catedral
Catedral. An early 19th-c. effort replacing a previous version supposedly left uninhabitable by some earthquake. Not unimpressive if a bit sterile.
Catedral, with the hilltop sanctuary of Monserrate beckoning in the distance.

Next album — Bogotá 2: Colonial Bogotá