National Park & National Museum

First of all, I moved to a new neighborhood! I am staying in a hostel downtown for the next 2.5 weeks, so I have new places to explore (that are within walking distance). I'm a little behind on posting photos, though, so these are from last week. I'll try to catch up this weekend, but no promises. Anyways, these photos are from my trip to the National Park and National Museum.

These dogs looked like they were having so much fun! It's usually hard to tell which are strays and which are accompanied by their humans. On the streets, sometimes strays will sort of just walk with people, and sometimes pets will just sit around on the sidewalk.

Roads through the park are often lined with taxis and vendors.

The views were really incredible. This is one of the fountains and, oh, look, mountains!

Clock square (like Times Square), or square clock? Both?

There are new, smooth paths in the park, but you can also find many older paths. This one was so quaint with its uneven stones and wall of trees.

There's a whole section of the park with playgrounds. I considered swinging but I didn't want to alarm any Colombian parents.

I love the juxtaposition of modernity and antiquity that you can find in the city. The sun came out to light up this patched fence.

There's a globe and a map of Colombia. They have an observation platform so you can look down on the map, but I could only take photos of bits and pieces, so this is what you get.

This might be my favorite photo of the day. I was watching several birds, and as this one rested on a branch, the sun peeked out and lit up the leaves. I love the colors!

One of the stray dogs in the park. She was so pretty!

There are so many different people in the park. This guy was practicing his tightrope-walking skills. You never know when it will come in handy for a quick escape...

This is the main fountain/monument in the National Park. It's a great place to take a rest and people watch, because it's on one of the main streets in Bogotá.

Right next to the National Park is a Museum of Culture and Art. It's not as much a museum as it is a cultural center. They have different talks on artists and art techniques. I walked around a little, but most of the lights in the exhibit rooms weren't on, so I didn't get many photos. I had to use flash for this one, but it actually turned out okay.

Despite not seeing a lot of art, the building itself was pretty. There were some interesting, quirky items in the gift shop, but they were quite expensive.

After the National Park, I walked in the direction of the museum, but I didn't know exactly how far it was. I thought I passed it, so I turned around and after half a block knew I hadn't walked far enough yet. It was a little confusing, but went past a mall so I stopped to get coffee and a sweet roll. The mall had this horse statue in front of it. I have no idea why.

Outside the mall, there were jesters on stilts. Kind of exciting, until you realize they are just giving out ads for a cell phone company.

Aha! I found it! The outside is impressive in size, but actually rather boring otherwise.

I don't remember what exactly this is, but I didn't notice the face in the sun until after I took the picture. It looks pretty cool, so I deemed it to be blog-worthy.

This is the desk, flag, and portrait of Laureano Gómez, president of Colombia from 1950 to 1953.

This is a poster promoting the Pan-American Union. "What's that?" you might ask, to which I would respond, "Look it up on Wiki. You'll learn something."

This piece depicts Adam and Eve partaking of the forbidden fruit from the serpent.

This is one of two pieces entitled "Anguish." I love how the perfectly sculpted body is emerging from/attached to the rough, unpolished stone.

This shows a prisoner being 'disciplined.'

Some of those 'disciplinary' instruments.

These are typical items that the peasant/working-class type would have worn back in the day.

This is a typical painting by some really famous artist from Colombia. He's known best for his voluptuous figures, whether they be people, animals, or even houses. His name escapes me at the moment, but I will eventually be touring a house that has a bunch of his paintings in it, so you'll get more information then.

This is one of the gardens. The museum is broken up into several different wings, so in between there are gardens with statues and fountains.

What better way to end a blog post than with a headless statue!?

Gold!

So, today I went hiking through the mountains. The guide said there were some caves we could go in if we wanted, and I was exploring in one of them and and I found gold! I'm rich!
Really, Jess?!?
No, not really. But I did catch a cab to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum).
Sorry, not as exciting.
I know.

A view from right outside. As you're walking in, there's a guard. She said (in Spanish) "Open," so I asked her how much. We just sort of looked at each other confused for a second, then the guy standing near her said (in English) "Open your bag." Boy, did I feel dumb. But the woman hadn't explained anything to me. If she had actually asked me to open my purse in Spanish, I would have understood. Anyways, once inside, I saw the ticket window and the rest of the trip went by without a hitch.

This is a human figure cast in gold. Terribly informative, I know, but I don't remember what the caption said.

This display showed different mixtures of gold with other metals and their respective abilities to reflect or absorb light. Gold was primarily worn by chiefs and religious leaders its reflective ability made it seem tied to the sun, and thus to power. Some ancient cultures also believed that those who formed the gold were also near-deities, because they knew how to wield its power. (Okay, not verbatim what I learned at the museum, but I tried to capture the essence as best I could. I read a lot today, and it didn't all have the English translation, so give me a break.)

Various busts that were commonly used during human sacrifices. Apparently, some cultures taught parrots to talk so they could be used instead of people. They believed that once the bird could speak like a human, then the animal was actually transformed into one (or at least its spirit, or something to that effect.)

Jewelry for the chief used by one tribe/culture, and its approximate placement on the body.

Jewelry from another tribe/culture. Notice that the headpiece resembles rays of the sun.

I actually took a picture of the caption! It reads: "The jaguar-man statues of San Agustín embody the strength and the symbolic power of the feline." Some cultures believed that the jaguar's colorings meant it embodied some of the power of the sun. Many Latin American cultures thought the jaguar and the deer were both sacred animals.

This is an actual mummy from...somewhere in Latin America. The apparent grainy-ness of the photo is actually because there was a black-full-of-holes layer in the glass. I think it might be there to protect the mummy from possible damage from flash (which I didn't use for any of these photos, by the way. I'm not about to intentionally break rules in a foreign museum.)

Although it's called the Gold Museum, there were plenty of other artifacts. I think these are some type of carved stone.

These are shells. They were often used with the coastal cultures and sometimes traded inland.

This scene, carved in stone, depicted dancers wearing animal masks. It was believed that when the dancers wore masks, body paints, and animal parts (feathers, hides, teeth, claws, etc), they actually saw and experienced the world through the eyes of that animal.

Haha, I took a photo of this caption, too! "It was with this lime container, which was found in Antioquia in the 19th century, that Banco de la República started its Gold Museum in 1939. It is a imitation of a gourd, the rounded features of which were associated with the female body."

This display was really cool. It was in a small round room with automatic doors. When you were inside and the doors closed, it was completely dark at first, then slowly different parts of the wall lights up, revealing hundreds of different gold artifacts. The whole thing is set to different shaman chants from Latin America. The sounds were often haunting and unearthly.

And on the floor of the room was a round display that had several layers of gold artifacts. The sound of dripping water preceded the light on this display, which created an awesome effect.

The top floor houses an exploratorium. The middle of the room had this display showing the diversity of humanity.

There were also models depicting various aspects of village life.

In the basement there's a temporary exhibit about body alterations.

This is a wooden carving. Possibly the inspiration behind the Batman villain Penguin?

A somewhat-creepy-looking doll. Then again, a lot of dolls are a little creepy.

Rollers and stamps used to make designs on the body with ink or paint.

Some of the materials used to make the aforementioned inks/paints.

This shows various skull alterations used by tribes in the not-so-distant past.

This photo and the next two photos display different ways people change their appearances in this day and age. I love the contrast/message, because as I was walking through the temporary exhibit, I was thinking, "Wow, some of this stuff is pretty bizarre." But then, if you think about the hundreds of different ways to alter your appearance now, it doesn't make the past seem so strange, now does it?

Images from ads and pop culture about changing your appearance.

And this is a list of many of the different things that people in this day and age commonly do to change their appearances. Yes, I realize it's in Spanish. If you really want to know what it says, Google translate should give you a pretty good start.

Fountain outside the museum.

Carvings on the side of the Banco de la República building, which sponsors/owns the Museum.

This was in St. Francis church, across the street from the museum. I found out after I took this that you're not supposed to take photos. One of the guards saw me with my camera and didn't say a word, he just shook his head and wagged his finger. Oops. It's quite a lovely church. This is just a side altar, too.

Oh look, a nice shot of the hustle and bustle of downtown. Wait, are those...mountains? Yes, yes they are. I loved the busy street life below contrasted with the serenity of the mountains in cloud cover above.

You generally see cops everywhere. They're on foot, in cars, on motorcycles, and on horses.

You see street vendors with carts like these all over the city. Some people also sell cell phone minutes. Apparently they just pay for a huge plan and then sell all the extra minutes for profit.

This is a great view of Monserrate Sanctuary. It's definitely one of the top places I want to visit. (No pun intended)