Nestled in the Andes more than 8,600 feet above sea level, Bogotá has a heft and urbanity, not to mention the traffic and population (eight million), that conjures up another great city, Los Angeles.

Like the City of Angels, Bogotá prefers to show off its charms via far-flung neighborhoods, which can be a challenge to the first-time visitor. But thanks to the many inexpensive taxis and, of course, Uber, you can get around Colombia's largest city with ease, from La Candelaria—the cobblestoned central historic district with top-notch yet human-scaled museums such as Museo Botero and Museo del Oro—over to Monserrate, whose central hilltop vistas make it prime tourist territory. Well, "ease" might be a little bit of an overstatement because of the crush of cars, but based on my experience, no one in the world drives with more intuition or sense of space than a Colombian cabbie. So, just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Like Colombia itself, Bogotá has been working feverishly to shed its reputation as a nexus of the drug trade (with no help from the popular Netflix series Narcos), but you may still catch a whiff of coca culture—don't be surprised if you come across security or law enforcement with an unusual police dog in tow. You may find yourself wondering, as I did, how the friendliest pup in the world lands a gig as a guard dog. But Golden Retrievers, it turns out, are easily trained and have such sensitive noses that they are super adept at sniffing out three things: drugs, explosives and dollars. Yup, you read right: In the very bad old days, canines were trained to nose out large amounts of cash being brought from the USA for laundering purposes.

But as a San Franciscan on vacation here, my nose was trained toward restaurants. And in one of the world's most biodiverse countries, the cuisine has finally emerged from the category known as underrated to earn itself a seat at the table. The food scene in Bogotá is robust and runs from traditional hearty sopas and stews such as the awe-inspiring ajiaco of chicken and potato, to much more modern fare exquisitely prepared, plated and served. The jazz singer Peggy Lee once said that "perfection is made up of trifles, but perfection itself is no trifle." Spend a couple of hours in the relaxed sophistication of the restaurant Abasto, in the Chapinero neighborhood, and you will see what she means. While you won't find trifle on the menu, you will find a kind of ambient perfection—the type achieved as the result of hundreds of tiny decisions gone right—that is indeed rare.

Orlando, our favorite cabbie in Bogotá, had a huge awareness of the food options in the city. For a bowl of authentic ajiaco, he recommended Casa Vieja, and boy he was right.