Hip Bogotá: La Macarena

La Macarena is a small, fashionable neighborhood located just north of La Candelaria. La Macarena's commercial area consists of mostly two streets, Carreras Quarta and Quinta, with about two dozen cafes, bars and restaurants and art galleries. To the north is La Perseverancia, site of an annual Chicha festival, but an impoverished, dangerous area the rest of the year. La Macarena was recently profiled by The New York Times as something of a 'Bogotá Greenwich Village.' I haven't noticed many similarities, or heard of any anti-establishment movements being born there. Rather, La Macarena has the reputation as a hangout for artsy types and telenovela stars.

What the neighborhood does have is a variety of ethnic restaurants. That's unusual for Bogotá, which lacks the ethnic immigrant neighborhoods many other big Latin American cities have.

A fancy bar that would like to be in Europe.

 

A woman who earns a few coins watching parked cars.

Spanish restaurant Gaudi 

La Jugueteria restaurant, which is decorated inside with toys. 

A look up one of the streets, toward the city's Eastern Hills.

Vasquez y Caballo restaurant

Sweets for sale in La Chocolatera (Tel: 282-1738)

The Peregrino flower shop/art gallery (Carrera 5 No. 26b-52 Tel: 283-3845)

Copernicus, in Independence Park, below La Macarena.

To La Macarena's south is the affluent, leafy Bosque Izquierdo residential neighborhood.