Botero

I´ve had a really cultural day today, and all for free - this city is really growing on me.

First was the Museum of Money, which sounds quite dry but was actually incredibly interesting. It managed to explain the entire history of the nation by means of its currency. Everything was covered, from pre-conquest trade routes to the effect of World War Two on Colombia´s economy. There were also rooms full of old pressing machines and elaborate safes. It was nice to see just how many of them were made in Birmingham. Not only was the museum free, but on the way out I was given a specially-minted coin as a souvenir.

Next door was an art gallery (again free) filled with paintings donated by Fernando Botero, Colombia´s most famous artist, who is still alive and working today. His style is very much like Beryl Cook, that woman from Plymouth who draws fat ladies. I never really knew much about Botero before I came here, but I´m bowled over by him - it´s impossible not to smile at his work.

He´s obviously done well for himself, judging by the private art collection that he has also given to the people of Colombia. This gallery included work by, wait for it, Picasso, Dali, Chagall, Ernst, Toulous-Lautrec, Renoir, Pissarro, Matisse, Leger, Degas, Klimt, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. Just about every artist I´d ever heard of and loads more.

There were also rooms of the most fantastic Colombian art, right from early times to the present day. My favourite part was a gallery of pictures of dead nuns. Apparently here it used to be the tradition to paint their portraits after they´d died. I suppose their modesty wouldn´t allow it otherwise.

Perhaps the most stunning item was a giant altarpiece, perhaps the most valuable thing I´ve ever stood in a room with. It´s made up of 1,485 emeralds (all big and flawless), dozens of giant diamonds, rubies and saphires and more than ten pounds of top-quality gold. It was shaped like the sun on a stick, rather than a cross, in order to impress the local Indians who worshipped the sun.

After hours looking at these treasures I went to the gallery restaurant for lunch, along with a Chech bloke called Andre. This was an incredibly posh place of the sort that would be out of the question at London prices. But a two-course meal with two glasses of wine cost about three pounds - which represents my entire spending for today.

This really is a great city - it´s going to be so difficult to leave, even after I´ve seen everything I want to. Tomorrow, for example, I´m planning to visit a cathedral carved out of salt.