Tequendama Falls and the Museum Ex-Hotel Perched Nearby

Left to right: Tequendama Falls, Tequendama Falls Museum

I'm back in the BOG.

I scheduled a few days in Bogotá at the end of this trip for a little relaxation after what I thought would be an exhausting week in Peru. But the combination of 36 hours in bed with food poisoning, and the fact that I could not take a side trip north of Trujillo to Chiclayo to check out the Sicán and Sipán sites meant that I already was sufficiently relaxed. Still, I like the restaurants and there are some additional sites in Bogotá that I still need to see.  Such as Tequendama Falls.

And those are the falls: Salto de Tequendama.

And this is the building that was built as a hotel and railroad depot, then was a restaurant and now is a museum.

Officially: Casa Museo Salto de Tequendama Biodiversidad y Cultura.

Let us in!

This is the entrance.  No pictures allowed inside.  Photography might disturb the ghosts.  Yes, the place is reputed haunted.  Most likely, this rumor is because the falls themselves were once a very popular Bogotano suicide sight.  It no longer is, but, for the unfortunate reason that the lovely falls are not really in the conscience of the typical Bogotano anymore.

But the falls and the museum are starting to attract some international tourism attention (see, e.g., me), so the ghost rumors also could be intelligent marketing.

The museum is dedicated in large part to explaining the efforts to clean up the extremely contaminated Rio Bogotá.  The water is very polluted along the route to the falls -- think of the kitchen sink when someone squeezed way too much Dawn into the basin -- and, in places, there is strong sulfur smell.  Around the falls, there is a little odor in spots, but it generally smells quite neutral.

Photography, however, was permitted on the hotel balcony.

Selfies, too.

Oh, and this is the fine art photograph that I will be submitting to the judges and jury for a major photography award:

The falls seen through the balcony stonework.  What should I open the bidding at?

Still, the falls are the star of the show:

Can't get the right angle to show the building perched on the cliffs overlooking the falls.  This will have to do:

I worked up something of an appetite.  What's for dinner?  Peruvian.

Dining at the Cusco, which is much fancier Peruvian than I ate in Peru.  I ordered the Lomo Tupac.

I always liked his song "California Love."  (Please please please don't make me explain that "Tupac" was the next to last Inca emperor.  His son Huayna Capac was the one Pizarro kidnapped, defeated, and killed, in no particular order.)

One final note from when I was flying into BOG last night:

A "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.  It's there to advertise Copa Airlines flights to Las Vegas.  However, just like the one on the south end of the Strip, this one also is a photo spot.