The Adventure Begins | Graffiti Tour ● Bogotá, Colombia

Today, we spent most of our day with the Graffiti Tour. If you are planning on visiting Bogotá, this tour is definitely something you should check out. Our guide, Carlos was great and really informative. Honestly, Tim and I decided that during our trip, we want to try to do everything on our own if we could. But this was the one thing that we figured would be interesting. This tour is free, however, they do recommend that you make a tip donation of ~20-30 mil pesos each person. This is to help them fund these tours and keep it going.

Upon arrival, Bogotá's streets are filled with street art - anything from tagging, geometric shapes to realistic images. In Bogotá, graffiti is not illegal, but it is prohibited. Artists would have to ask permission from property owners to be able to paint on their walls. Some artists do it without permission and sometimes their artwork would be "erased" or cleaned off.

During our tour, we were able to see an art piece in the making.

 Artist: Javier 

Still work in process (2017-08-05)

I'm sure you're thinking that you can just walk around the city and see graffiti everywhere and take photos of it. But with this tour it was very informative and I learned a lot about the history of graffiti and the hardships the artists in Bogotá are currently going through. Since there has been changes in their political office, some of the street art are slowly getting "erased" or painted over to keep the streets "clean of any street art".

Here are some photos from our walk:

Artist: DJ Lu 

"It's about the art, not the artist."

 Artist: Rodez (left) "Grandfather of Graffiti"

 If you stand in a specific spot across the street, you will see the black cat at every angle, the image is never blocked.

 A collective group of artists

"Hasta que nos encontremos de nuevo" meaning "Until we meet again..."

Artist: Kiptoe 

He is an LA based artist who visited Bogotá for 10 days. He fell in love with a Colombian woman and painted this mural (without permission) on a rainy day for her.

Artist: Small (left), Cruz (Right)

I asked Tim to pose for me... 😜

Overall, it was a good day of walking around and seeing all the different styles of street art. There are so much more murals to see. Everywhere you go, there is something on the walls and in my opinion, that's what makes this city beautiful and unique.

Thank you to Carlos and the team of guides who put this tour together. What a great way to learn about the city and to appreciate the art around us.

& That's a wrap. Thanks for reading!

Until next time...

~ Lynna