Don’t misunderstand… this post is not about graffiti ON church buildings! It’s just that today I took two back-to-back walking tours: the first was a tour of graffiti and street art in the La Candelaria district. The other was a walking tour of churches and the Cathedral in downtown Bogotá. I have to give credit to my fellow classmate, Amy Dane from my Cada Dia Spanish class, who suggested the Graffiti Tour. Amy is truly a world traveler and has visited over 120 countries!

Although I had been urged to use Uber throughout my stay here, just for today Uber drivers were prohibited from going through downtown and I had to hail a taxi. Luckily the driver was a young woman so I felt safe. However, when we took the road away from the city through the hills above Bogotá, I started to worry. For at least 15 minutes we drove through the hills with no city streets in sight and so I pulled up a website on my phone about taking taxis in Bogotá. I read such admonitions such as “Never hail a taxi from the street” — always have your hotel call for a taxi for you. I read about “Paseo Millonario” — the Millionaire’s Ride, a risk which involves being temporarily kidnapped, held in the taxi against your will and possibly being drugged and joined by the taxi driver’s accomplices, before being taken to various cash machines and being forced to withdraw money from your bank account and handing it over.” (How to Bogotá)

In the end, I had no reason to worry, even when the trip was taking in excess of 35 minutes. The driver had a little trouble finding the meeting spot for my tour, but after circling around and using Google Maps on my phone she finally found it. I was worried at how much the fare was going to cost after driving so far. When the meter read 268, I was really worried and started to pull out two 100,000 peso notes, thinking that the fare was 268,000. The driver protested and said that was waaaayyy too much. With the fare plus a tip, she was happy with 30,000 Colombian pesos. That’s a grand total of $7.65! Unbelievable!

There were only four people in my group—a couple from Panama, a young woman from Mexico and myself. The couple especially did not speak English well, so I told our guide Gabriel that I was fine with him conducting the tour in Spanish. Gabriel started the tour by giving us a history of graffiti and the three different types. He showed us the first type: tagging, with which all of us are familiar. Tagging refers to writing the tagger’s signature on a public surface.

The second type of graffiti we saw was called blockbuster style, which are large murals made of sprayed letters and done quickly — within 5 or 10 minutes. They are distinctive for having block letters with a black border to indicate shading.

The rest of the two hour tour was taken up with viewing street art, some of which is done with the property owner’s permission. In Bogotá graffiti is considered legal ever since 2011 when a 16-year-old tagger was murdered by the police. Diego Felipe Becerra had been famous for his signature, Felix the Cat, and the city broke out in an uproar. The uproar was one reason that the city downgraded the crime of graffiti to now where it is condoned.

Enjoy this slideshow of the the street art of Bogota!

We ended the tour by having coca leaf tea, an herbal tea made with the coca leaves native to South America. From Wikipedia:

The leaves of the coca plant contain alkaloids that—when extracted chemically—are the source for cocaine base. The amount of coca alkaloid in the raw leaves is small, however. A cup of coca tea prepared from one gram of coca leaves (the typical contents of a tea bag) contains approximately 4.2 mg of organic coca alkaloid. (In comparison, a typical dose (a “line”) of cocaine contains between 20 and 30 milligrams.) Owing to the presence of these alkaloids, coca tea is a mild stimulant; its consumption may be compared to consumption of a moderately strong cup of coffee or tea. The coca alkaloid content of coca tea is such that the consumption of one cup of coca tea can cause a positive result on a drug test for cocaine, however. (Wow, I drank the whole cup!)

However, there are some health benefits to drinking this tea: Drinking this herbal tea promotes weight loss, boosts energy and mood, enhances the immune system, alleviates altitude sickness, and reduces diabetes risk.