One Week in Bogotá for Gay Male Travelers
My name is Tracey Parker. I’m a middle aged gay American Male and I’ve been digital nomading after living in Mexico City, for 6 years. I use what I learned living in Mexico City to inspire really cool trips to other Latin American Cities and these travel guidelines are my way of showing off how I’m always able to put together great trips on the spot without much planning.
Read on for personal stories of what I did in Bogotá and tips and guidelines for how you can put together a really fun trip on the fly. I try to share my guidelines and stay away from lists of ‘top ten’ places because things are changing quickly and lists like that don’t age well.
Complices Spa – Gay Bathhouse, Sauna & Community Center Come together in a Weird and Sexy Way
My first night in Bogotá I wanted to act fast. I only had one week because I kept extending my stay in Medellin because I loved every minute I spent in that city. I stayed in Medellin as long as I possibly could and then arrived in Bogotá on a Friday afternoon in November. I would be leaving the following Thursday. I needed to make every second count and I was moving at the laid back, tranquillo, pace at which everything moves in Medellin.
Brevity aside, I had a great time in Bogotá. It is a strange city. I didn’t think I had many expectations but the reality of Bogotá made me see for myself how much I had already assumed about the city simply because it was Latin American.
I decided to check out a gay bathhouse on my first night. I went to Complices Spa.
I walked in through a nondescript door and on the other side I found a line of about 10 other men, some alone, and some chatting with friends, all waiting to be checked in by two handsome young men who were working the front desk.
After paying and entering I literally got lost, along with another set of foreigners. Everybody else seemed to already know how to navigate their way through this truly weird bathhouse/museum/community center.
Eventually we found the locker room. It was crowded with men of all ages, shapes, and sizes, in various states of undress. Most of the business types were shedding their button up collared shirts and exposing their toned muscles while creative types took off jeans and vintage fits, showing off piercings and tattoos. Everybody stripped down naked and walked around in a towel, but some chose to leave the towel behind and wear designer bathing suits with easy access holes in the back.
When I first show up to a new bathhouse I like to take a lap around and see what catches my attention. This club was perfect for doing that. There were so many staircases, secret passageways, and strange features that really make you think about what in the hell is going on here.
I walked up a staircase to a quiet second floor which was nothing more than a half dozen private rooms, with doors open, and simple beds inside of them for private fucking. I passed a few young twinks, with blue, green, and red hair, who were coming up here for privacy.
Aside from the private rooms, there was also a dark room. It was a simple rectangle, but it was split in two by jail bars that were too close together to pass through. The other side of the dark room seemed to belong to another business. Maybe it was a bar, maybe a cabina, but it seems that the idea was for two gay establishments to share the same building and be connected only by a dark room.
I liked the idea. I imagined being fully dressed in a bar and popping into a dark room and sucking off a few guys in towels, dripping with water from the sauna.
Only this particular night, there was nobody on the other side and the entire room was empty. It seemed the place was overbuilt. There is a place like this in Mexico City, called La Casita. It is an enormous row house that is divided up into so many creative rooms for fucking and socializing. Many have their own bars but these days they are all practically empty, the bars covered with black blankets. Nobody really goes there. They seem to prefer other places in smaller townhouses where everybody can fuck in front of one another and you’re always close to the action.
I made myself back down to the locker room and then down another set of stairs to a very elaborate steam room. Arched entryways separated two rectangular steam rooms with benches on either side and lots of frisky action.
Another arch opened up to a large and deep hot tub with a frosted window behind it that let in the Friday evening light from outside. The foggy steamy hot tub matched the perpetually foggy Bogotá skies outside. Beyond the steam rooms was a pitch dark hallway, steamy and hot, that lead to a slippery maze with lots of fucking behind the privacy of the thick steam.
You couln’t watch much and it was pretty hard to see who you were fucking, or who was fucking you, but there was an incredible feeling in here.
Arriving to a new city is intimidating. The post card images you had in your head give way to the reality of an urban jungle and tons of people who all seem to know exactly where they’re going. Suddenly I felt as if I’d found where I belonged, surrounded by bodies I’d dreamed of long before I’d arrived. But there was also something unfamiliar with how everybody looked and smelled and the way they spoke Spanish. The way the light came in and the pace at which everybody went about their business. I volleyed between being comfortable and terrified, between predator and prey.
This maze of steam is where most everybody hung out. There were probably 20 guys in the entire maze. One way in and one way out.
We all lost track of time down there. When I came out, I noticed that the club was beginning to empty out. Men were sitting on the benches outside or in the hottub. I noted the ones who I had fucked around with. All our faces looked as if we had been transported from another place.
I got friendly with a young guy who was in the hot tub, named Sebastián. He wanted to speak to me in English because the next day he was beginning English classes at a private school. He asked me about my trip and didn’t say much himself. He probably didn’t understand what I was saying in English. We were cuddling in the hottub and fondling our penises. It was sexy but I quickly began to get bored.
We had a strong connection, at first, but it went flat quickly, and, soon, I didn’t really know how to end things. He was hanging on and I didn’t know for what.
He texted me that night. I didn’t reply to him.
He texted me the next day. This time with a frown face. I wanted to reply but I couldn’t find words. I waited for them to come until I forgot about him.
At my age I’ve been on both ends of this dance, but I feel I have been on his end many more. It hurts. You imagine the other person feeling strong and it humiliates you. I imagined he was drawing untrue conclusions about me.
Sometimes desire opens an entire ocean of possibility, and other times it’s no bigger than the tear that drips down the other guy’s cheek.
Gay Mexico City vs. Bogotá
That night, in my hotel, at the same time I was avoiding Sebastián, I was chatting with my ex, from Mexico City, and telling him about Complices Spa. I focused on the actual facility and left the actual sexual encounters out.
From his perspective it seemed demasiado (way too much, or overkill) for what it was. I mentioned that it seemed a little over built and some of the most novel cruising features, and the community center, and the museum, were ignored in favor of the steam maze.
While it may have seemed demasiado to my Mexican ex, to me it seemed familiar. I’m reading between the lines here, but I sensed a familiar self consciousness that is pervasive in the United States and pretty much absent in Mexico. In Mexico there is more fucking and less steam. Nobody feels the need to hide behind a cloud of steam, or behind the pretext of a community center or museum.
Outside of Mexico, there seems to be a modern desire to combine gay cruising, with gay men’s health, with community, and with human rights. Many of these instincts are noteworthy, but I think it’s worth noting that this is cultural, and not all cultures, particularly Mexico, feel the need to put on a big show to distract from the fact that gay sex happens here.
I wanted to include this distinction that I noticed. Just some insights from my travels. But the good news to report here is that Sauna Complices is clean, perplexing, friendly, and really hot. It’s totally recommended.
Museums Bogotá
Gay bathhouses and Art Museums are my go to places when I don’t have much time to spend in a city. Even when I have a lot of time, I find them a great place to start. They most always lead to connections and recommendations on how to enjoy the city, from people with similar interests.
Museo Nacional de Colombia
Located inside of a huge Colonial stone building that used to be a prison, the Museo Nacional is an incredible introduction to Colombian Art in all forms. I strolled through the galleries and saw paintings from famous Columbian artists. The diverse landscapes of Columbia’s many regions inspired me to take future trips to explore this beautiful country. I left feeling like I knew a lot more about the country than when I entered.
After the museum I walked around the surrounding neighborhood and found it delightful. Notice the abundance of red brick and the seemingly British Architecture. Oftentimes I felt as if I was walking around in a suburb of continental Europe.
Parque Nacional is within walking distance. A guy from the bathhouse told me that there is cruising over there. The park sits at the base of a steep hill. There are levels to it. The highest up are the most remote. I walked around, even lay down, and enjoyed the beautiful nature. The sun peaks out through the clouds throughout the day in Bogotá and when it does it offers a nice break from the grey.
The quiet of the park was broken periodically by swarms of skateboarders, stunt bicyclists, roller blades, and other groups of young kids gliding down the steep hills that form a wall on one side of the city.
The park was too big to go through inch by inch searching for cruising. I didn’t even know if there was a peak time. I was just looking to see what I could see and enjoying the nice day at the same time.
Museo del Oro – Gold Museum
The Spanish really hit jackpot in Colombia in their search for Gold. Colombia has a rich history of gold artistry and it is on display in this museum. I was eager to visit because I had some great memories visiting Mexico’s famous silver mining Pueblos like Taxco and Guanajuato.
I found this museum to be a little too specialized for me. You could get as down into the weeds as you want here. For me, the best parts were the people watching and the nice maps of gold mines all over the country.
Parque Santander
The Museo del Oro is located on Parque Santander, a gritty downtown park that is surrounded by some of the coolest churches I have seen in Latin America.
There were three churches that surrounded the plaza. All of them were open and one was actually hosting a mass. They were very simple on the outside and breathtaking inside. The wood, gold, stone and the paintings came together in a way that I’ve never seen outside of Bogotá. There are other museums around this park so it’s likely you’ll find your way over here.
Calle Real, Plaza Bolivar, and Museum Santa Clara
Normally I think reading travel content written by people who only spend a week in a location is a waste of time. I wasn’t even planning on writing about Bogotá, but a few months after my trip, I realized I had a lot to say.
I think that since I spent so much time living in Mexico City, my trips around Latin America are easier because I already have an idea of what to look for.
One example is that I like to see the Main Zocalo in each Spanish colonial city I go to. The main Zocalo is never the highlight of my trip, in fact they’re all usually pretty touristy, but it is a common urban feature that I can compare across places that are in other ways, very different.
Parque Santander, connects to the main square of Bogotá, which they call Parque Bolivar, via a pedestrian walkway called Calle Real. It is a safe, touristy walkway that feels like an overcrowded egalitarian amusement park for all walks of life. Mexico City has a street identical to this called Calle Madero.
Streets like these, as well as the Main Squares, in Latin America are may cause you to feel as if you’ve made a mistake in your planning. They’re not very magical and they can often be kind of scary. But there are always hidden gems all around if you make the effort to look. So this is my advice: there are always hidden gems in downtown even if the neighborhood feels like a tourist trap.
Museo Santa Clara
In the case of Bogotá the hidden gem is Museo Santa Clara.
Similar to the churches at Parque Santander, Museo Santa Clara is set inside of a beautifully restored catholic church in Downtown Bogotá. The museum has an impressive permanent collection of classical religious art, as well as some fascinating modern day interpretations by some of Colombia’s most talented artists.
El Chapinero – The Gay Area of Bogotá
Most guidelines I found online, on where gay travelers should stay while visiting Bogotá say that we should stay in El Chapinero. That’s where I ended up. It’s perfectly located, that’s for sure. But if you’re looking for a cute neighborhood with sidewalk cafes and lots of greenery, this is not it.
Chapinero is huge and it’s actually more of a district than a neighborhood. It’s a concrete jungle with beautiful street art, great access to public transportation, and it’s packed with gay bars, clubs, cabinas, and cruising. Outside of the actual establishments though, it looks like a downtown area and there isn’t much of a welcoming family vibe in Chapinero. You’ll see flamboyantly dressed artist types walking in groups from one place to another, but most of the streets and ‘parks’ are pretty drab around here.
Parque de Los Hippies seems to be a place where many travel bloggers like to say they visited. I went there on their advice and I think they should name it Parque de Los Homeless. It’s a sketchy vibe that I don’t really get.
That’s where most of the gay bars and clubs are however. There is plenty written about gay bars and clubs elsewhere on the internet. I happen to prefer cruising to the bar scene and I found plenty of that in Bogotá. More below.
Transmilenio
The transmilenio is an interesting bus system that runs through Bogotá and from what I gathered, it is the veins of the city. I highly recommend you try your best to use this bus system. If you’re staying in Chapinero, and you select the transit option on your google directions, you’ll undoubtedly be given a route on these buses.
You enter the buses through what seem like subway stations in the middle of a busy urban avenue. The Transmilenio buses have two of their own dedicated lanes in each direction. They make frequent stops at the stations but you have to be careful which route you take because no 1 bus stops at all the stations.
This network of express buses allow the people of Bogotá to cross the entire city quite quickly. The stations are chaotic, some of the best people watching I came across in Bogotá.
On your first trip you’ll have to buy a rechargeable card at a kiosk. They won’t speak English but they won’t talk to you either. They just sell cards to anybody who presents themselves at the window. The cards are cheap. The fare is almost free. But all this aside, you’ll see plenty of people jump the turnstile or climb up onto the platform from the street.
The organized chaos of this bus system, the diversity of life, and the beautiful people are one of the best introductions to Bogotá you can get.
Cabinas Gay Chapinero – Gay Sex Clubs
Cabinas Gay are Spanish for video booths in porn stores where gay cruising happens. These types of businesses are underground word of mouth places. In large metro areas they operate more openly, they are googleable, but they still have a sexy underground vibe.
Chapinero has a lot of these types of places. I attended a few. On average they maintain hours from 10AM to 10PM. They fill up between 3PM and 9PM.
I like these types of places because they cut to the chase without any pretenses. People come to play around and they get right to it. Urban cabinas like the ones you’ll find in El Chapinero, always have seating areas which sell beers and soft drinks that you can sip on while chatting with friendly staff and patrons.
I went to Cabinas de la 63. These cabinas were a short walk from my hotel. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go during the busy hours because I was out discovering other parts of the city.
I showed up late, around 8PM, and there was still a nice group of men there.
Walking around El Chapinero, at night, is a really cool experience. It has a Gotham city feel to it. It feels dangerous but there are always others around. Street vendors setup grills that let off huge plumes of smoke and cook arepas for hungry crowds all night.
It is chilly. You’ll need a jacket even if it was warm in the afternoon. Nights in El Chapinero remind you that you’re in a high altitude metropolis in the clouds. There is no other place like that that I know of.
Gay Cruising Parque Nacional
Instead of hitting Las Cabinas every afternoon/evening, which would totally justify a trip back, I decided to search for cruising again in El Parque Nacional, but this time at night. I had an Uber drop my off right in the middle of the park and I proceeded to walk around and see what I could find.
I showed up at 6:30 and it was already dark. I saw a guy standing by the road that goes through the park. I stalked him from across the park. He looked as if he was waiting for car traffic.
Not long after, he and another stranger, on foot, walked down to a graffiti’d statue to play around. One sucked the other off for a good 10 minutes. I wouldn’t have lasted that long to be honest.
I watched the two of them, they were no more than black silhouettes. The long carribean sized organ that Colombians are famous for also had its own silohuette and it was quite the sight. Behind me I’d hear swarms of other rollerbladers rolling down the hill and joking around in Spanish.
Gay Bars and Clubs
Gay bars and clubs really aren’t my scene. I know few people who actually like doing that. If that’s what you’re looking for, it’s pretty easy to find. Many blog about it, but I actually think you’ll have better luck asking people at the cabinas or at Complices Spa for their recommendations.
Coffee Shops Café Culture
I loved the cafe culture in Bogotá. I visited a good number of cafes in both Bogotá and Medellin, and found the quality and originality to be delightfully high. I was digital nomading and, so I would often google ‘cafe digital nomad coworking.’ This keyword always filled my maps with many options and visiting them allowed me to get familiar with some of the more upscale or upwardly mobile neighborhoods of Bogotá.
Erik Hernandez is an adorable young man from Bogotá who loves to visit Bogotá’s endless cafes and make instagram reels about them.
Food in Bogotá
Unlike Medellin, where the food was delicious, I didn’t like the food I had in Bogotá. The cafes were delicious and it was the best coffee that I’ve ever tried. But as much as I like a good pastry, or salad, sometimes I want a good stick to your ribs local meal.
As a foreigner, this is a problem because they assume we want to go to the fanciest restaurants. I actually was complaining to an Uber driver about how difficult it was to find good food in Bogotá. He told me that the locals ate at a shopping mall upstairs in the food court.
While I happened upon many surprises in Bogotá, good food wasn’t one of them. The surprise was that the food was bad. I found myself eating at McDonalds a very dissapointing amount of times while I was there.
I tried doing some google research after the fact, to see if perhaps I missed something but what I found only reinforced what I discovered myself. Take a look at this article from eater, which profiles the best restaurants in Bogotá. Many the places look expensive, none of them look ‘local,’ and several are international cuisine, like pizza or sushi.
Because of the bad food, I can’t really consider Bogotá as a long term slow travel destination. But there is a lot to do here. There is an active and developing gay community that, like Mexico City, combines new and old pieces of gay culture, lots of boys who love foreigners, lots of art, and happy people.
Monserrate
Monserrate is a Cathothlic Church that sits on top of the mountain beside the city of Bogota. You can look up and see this church from almost everywhere. Normally it is surrounded by clouds that make it ever so tempting to find out what’s up there.
Locals told me that the church is built on a site of sacred prehispánica where ancient rituals were performed. I think that any trip to Bogota needs to include a view from above (outside of a plane). Monserrate will check that box. The views are great.
Things to consider.
You get there on a cable car, and there are only 2 that continually bring all the people up and down. Even if the line is short going up, it can get backed up going down and you may have to wait a long time.
Take this into account before you go up here. There are other ‘miradores’ (lookouts) in Bogotá that are easier to access with Uber. I asked each of my Uber drivers to recommend miradores. Not only did they have recommendations, but they each offered to drive me up to one on the spot. Many of the lesser known miradores are popular hangouts for Uber drivers, and a diverse array of Bogotá. Rumor has is that some also include gay cruising.
Tip for Monserrate: You can walk down but it’ll take about 35-40 min. Personally I’d rather be walking, especially downhill, for 40 minutes, than standing in line with hundreds of people. If you see there is a line you may want to turn around and begin your walk.
Also, the views from the church are wonderful but the church itself is very average.
El Candalaria
After I came down from Monserrate, I called an Uber and put in a destination of Varietle Cafe. It was located in a rustic historic Spanish mansion. It was about to close when I got there. I was blown away by how cute the neighborhood was.
Afterwords I took a walk around a beautifully restored colonial neighborhood that was packed with creatively dressed young college students gathering together at cafes and in public spaces after classes.
Keep in Mind that La Candalaria is the same neighborhood or ‘district,’ that I was complaining about when I was talking about the sketchy Plaza Bolivar. Candalaria is big and I’m talking about a smaller section, centered around the “Chorro de Quevedo.”
It is a college Neighborhood with lots of community theater, and a lot of discover.
Parque Metropolitano Simón Bolivar before the Airport
In almost a blink of an eye, it was Thursday and it was time for me to go. My flight to Mexico City left at 4 in the evening. I had an entire afternoon to spare. I did some shopping before I left my hotel and then decided to spend a few hours in Parque Metropoliatno Simón Bolivar. It was in between El Chapinero and the Airport and there was supposed to be gay cruising there. I found a great spot by a small lake. As always, it was a grey day in Bogotá. The fog would change to mist a few times but never long enough to ruin my picnic.
Spending this time in the park ended up being a great idea. Not because I found any cruising, I hardly ever do on those apps. There is no substitute for word of mouth when talking about cruising. It gets shut down by the police only to reemerge somewhere else close by.
Coming out here allowed me to see the Bogotá outside of the touristy areas.
Conclusions
When I was digital nomading in South America and it came time to come to Colombia, I did a lot of google searches for Bogotá vs. Medellin. Tracey Parker’s preference is definitely Medellin. Medellin is the land of eternal spring and everything about the city seems to encourage you to take a seat in one of the city’s endless parks, light up a joint of marijuana or crack open a beer, and participate in the slow relaxing pace of life in Medellin.
Colombia is more of a big city feel. Some call it the land of eternal fall. It is colder and rainy. The food is not as good. Practically speaking, you’ll probably pass through Bogotá on your way to anywhere in Colombia and there is a lot of stuff to explore and get into for short trips. It just kind of wore on me after a week. I’d say one week is the perfect amount of time to spend here.
