Last summer, guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) handed over their weapons to the government, ending decades of fighting. “It’s unprecedented how we can travel in the country now,” said Juan C. Rodriguez, an engineer and Facebook friend who offered to show me around. “I just took my family last year to Florencia, which used to be a major war hub, and the place that I live in, La Calera, 45 minutes from where we are; 25 years ago it was violently taken over by the FARC.” He later told me that the FARC had ambushed and murdered his cousin.

Safety is still a concern. Armed guards with bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs are standard at most public parking garages. Regardless, I was enamored enough with what I saw to extend my stay from six to seven days. Here’s a starter kit on ways to experience beautiful, complicated Bogotá. If this is Colombia’s ugly stepchild, I can’t wait to see the rest.

TOURIST-Y, BUT FUN

Before arriving in Bogotá, I heard two things: that I absolutely had to go to Andrés Carne de Res, and that it’s a rip-off and I’d be a walking cliché if I did. Both sides seemed to agree that it would likely be the gaudiest restaurant I’d ever see in my life — which, of course, meant I had to go.

Glowing red hearts, Catholic iconography and wrought iron chandeliers with bulbs of every color make up just some of this mini-chain’s “more is more” décor. On weekdays, go to Andrés D.C. for steak and traditional fare. It’s named after Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”; has themed floors for Infierno, Tierra, Purgatorio and Cielo; and was minutes away from the Click Clack Hotel, where I stayed some nights in the chic, uptown neighborhood of El Chicó. In a nearby mall is a more mellow food court, La Plaza de Andrés, where a young Colombian data journalism professor, María Isabel Magaña, took me one evening to gorge on queso-filled arepas de choclo, chicharrones and mashed-and-fried plantain patacones — still surrounded by things like a lifesize plastic cow wearing sunglasses. The flagship, Carne de Res, is in Chía, north of the city center. It seats 2,100 people, with room for 4,000 on its wildest nights, and is absolutely worth a trip on weekends when it’s teeming with sweaty rumba dancers partying till 3 a.m.