In addition to the Gold Museum, we visited the Botrero Museum which houses many works by the famous Colombian artist. His "trademark" works are sculptures and painting of "voluminous" people. He also painted famous politicians and artists in this unique and somewhat comical style.

He donated his work to this museum on the condition that it would be free of admission costs. There were also displays of other famous artists and a history of art in Colombia, as well as a history of the minting of money in colonial times.

Most of the best museums in Bogota were free for anyone over the age of 60. That was a nice benefit compared to museums in Europe which only offered reduced admission to senior citizens from an EU country.

We also toured a local museum which is the house where one of the events occurred in 1811 which helped to start the independence of Colombia from Spain. It is interesting to learn about this independence movement which was about 40 years later than the American Revolution in 1776. Simon Bolivar was the leader who defeated Spain eventually, and he is considered "the father of his country". The present-day countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Panama were all led to independence by Simon Bolivar. He is similar to George Washington in the USA.

We had hoped to see the "changing of the Guard" at the Presidential Palace however there was a special military "anniversary" being celebrated in the main plaza. We learned that all the branches of the military were there to honor the Colombian Air Force anniversary of its founding. So while we missed the changing of the guard display, it was interesting to hear the military bands assembled in the plaza.

Another large government building on this plaza is the Department of Justice. It was exactly 30 years ago that a paramilitary band stormed the Justice building and took 300 hostages. In the battle with the military, 11 of the 21 Supreme Court Justices were killed by the paramilitary band called M-19. A fire in the building destroyed most of the criminal records at that time. Eventually this group was pardoned and stopped being violent and became an active political party. Ironically the man who is mayor of Bogota today is a member of this M-19 political party. Much has changed in Colombia in these past 30 years. However, students from one of the Universities did some protest marches and set off "cherry bombs" (or something similar) one afternoon.

Despite drizzly rain and low hanging clouds, we managed to find a brief break to take the funicular to the famous Monserrate overlooking the city. This peak is over 10,000 feet tall so walking to the church building at the top from where the funicular stops took lots of breath.