Greetings from Colombia... it is now Monday night... I´ve only been here two and a half days and already have more than I can write about in one sitting. So the first part was composed on Sunday, and the second right now...
I really love it here. People are so, so nice. So... simpatico. Looking forward to my last day in Bogota tomorrow, then heading down to meet up with Gwen...
Part 1: Saturday
Arrived in Bogota yesterday afternoon and quickly found out that the rumours are true: Colombians are incredibly friendly and kind people. My taxi driver from the airport was a hoot - very patient with my non-existant Spanish - and very eager to just be... a really nice guy.
Likewise the folks who run my quirky little hostel. It seems like nothing is more pleasing than trying to figure out what I am saying...
I am staying in La Candelaria, the old quarter of Bogota, which has a lot of hostels, colleges and students, stray dogs, stray hippies, and grafitti. And beautiful little buildings, hilly streets, cobblestones... After I arrived I took a walk around, had an empanada. Storm clouds were coming in, so I went back to the hostel and took a nap. Once it stopped raining really heavily, I went back out. Walked around La Candelaira again, ending up at the Plaza de Chorro (I think that is the name) - supposedly the place where Bogota was founded, now a little square where students and travellers hang out. Had my first Colombian juice - lulo fruit with milk. Kind of like an orange mixed with a kiwi, but sour so they put sugar in. Then I went and had a canelazo de aquardiente in a really cute little bar on the square... tiny and wooden with a fireplace and a chair right by the door and, once again, the nicest of people. The canelazo is a hot drink with suagr and cinnamon and this one had an anise liqour in it.
Then I walked down to the Plaza Bolivar, the main giant square where the government is. It was all lit up and very impressive, with just a few people wandering about. (But lots and lots of police.) An older man had camped out at the foot of the statue of Bolivar. He is on day 19 of a hunger strike in order to encourage dialogue, peace, reform, revolution. I spoke to him for a while tonight (not last night). His name is Alejandro and he speaks very good English. He was an engineer with the Merchant Marine and loved Philadelphia when he was there. An amazing and gentle man... I hope to visit him again before I leave.
A bad seque from hunger strike to what I had for dinner, but I went to a little place that served a soup-stew that is a specialty of Bogota - ajiaco. It was very, very comforting... potatoes and chicken and capers and corn... I slept well that night.
Part 2: Sunday
Today was the day of the Bogota Bike Tour. (bogotabiketours.com) We left at 10:30am and didn´t get back until around 4! Mike, a journalist from CA who has lived in South America for about 15 years, runs the bike tours. He was great and it was great. We went to a lot of places that you would normally not go (like the red light district... prostitution is legal in Colombia but confined to certain "tolerance zones".) It was also the Ciclovia, which is a 30 year old tradition of closing down many of the main streets to cars on Sundays and holidays so that bicyclists and pedestrians can roam freely. Amazing.
Towards the end of the tour we stopped at a market so we could sample some of the numerous fruits Colombia has to offer... tree tomato, lulo, soursop, ground cherry, some amazing version of passion fruit... Then we went across the street to a tejo parlour. Tejo is the national sport of Colombia and consists of tossing a lead weight at a wall of mud in which is embedded trangular pieces of paper filled with gunpowder while drinking lots of beer. Make any sense? No, not really. But it is fun. We stayed an played quite a few rounds, thought none of us scored. I was the only person who made any gunpowder explode, and that was because I threw my weight so far off the mark is skidded across the floor and hit some paper-filled gunpowder that was lying to the side.
I have to say: it is a boy´s fantasy game. You get covered with mud, you throw heavy objects, you make things explode, you drink beer, and they have the urinals in this particular parlour pretty much out in the open so you barely have to stop playing while you pee.
It started to pour rain while we were playing tejo, but eventually we donned plastic ponchos Mike had brought along and rode back. Went to my hostel (Hospedje Cacique Sugamuxi). Got dry, took a little nap, and then headed out. What was great when I went out walking this time was that the tour had oriented me to the city... had a tamal in a little bakery on the way to Montserrate, bought a thing whose name I forget from a little old lady street vendor... two wafers filled with caramel (forget the Colombian name...), ended up back on the main drag of the city (Carrera 7) that w had ridden down while on bikes. Folks were still out walking and shopping a little. Went to a supermarket and picked up some things and just looked around. Then headed back towards Plaza Bolivar, stopped in to Iglesia de San Francisco on the way. The oldest church in Bogota, I think, with a magnificnet gold altar. Mass was just finishing up.
And then got to the Plaza Bolivar and met Alejandro. Sat and spoke with him for a while, along with Alejo (from Argentina) and Juan Carlos (from Ecuador). Then we were joined by a guy I´ll call MexTel, based on the logo on his windbreaker. A homeless man, a drunk or a drug addict, who spoke good English and had also been a Merchant Marine. Jumped ship and went and worked in Texas for a number of years. One of those people who you know are trying to scam you, and is also sort of annoying, but also interesting and worth a little of your time.
But eventually Alejo and Juan Carlos and I left, and wandered around La Candelaria for a while. And then we headed back to our hostels. At Sugamuxi, I had a nice talk with the sister of the owner, who had lived in the States for 10 years when she and her husband were students. She loved Philadelphia, though they lived in the South. The family who owns or runs this place are so, so, so nice. You really feel like a member of the family. I also met the couple´s son earlier. He is visiting from Germany with his (German) boyfriend and helping the family redecorate the place. A real sweetie.
So, slept well again. And now I am going to go to sleep once more...
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