When in Doubt, Travel: Bogota, Colombia

September 12th - 18th

Oh...where to begin?

Luckily, the two short, less than 50 minutes flights to Bogota were uneventful! For the first time, we had someone MEETING us at the airport - one of the best things ever! However, at our connection in Medellin, we discovered the immgration officers here in Colombia are NO JOKE! Like a prepared traveler, I had not written down the contact number or contact number for Mauricio, the new member of our family (his sister married my Dad's nephew?) who we would be staying with in Bogota. When the immigration officer realized I had left the "Forseen Address" section of my customs card blank, she demanded I give her one by saying (literally), "If you don't have an address, you cannot enter my country, and I suggest you go ahead and leave!" Whaaaattt? Dang lady - no "Bienvenidos a Colombia?" I RAN over to Hannah 6 cubicles down and grabbed the South America guide book which had various hostel addresses listed - Hannah already had it in her hand, so she didn't have a very warm welcome or easy entry either! Thank goodness that appeased her. They should really use her for interrogation, she would truly excel - she did an excellent job scaring the crap out of me! Finally, we reached Bogota and after a little mix-up about international vs domestic arrival areas, we found Mauricio waiting for us with our names written out on a sheet of paper! We kinda felt like rock stars a little at that moment. He is just the nicest and sweetest gentleman on the planet! The night consisted of unpacking, eating AREPAS he made for us, sampling juice from "lulo" (a fruit only found in Colombia we were told), and decompressing! Thank goodness he speaks clearly and somewhat slowly, by Colombian standards, so we can actually understand him.

On the 13th, Mauricio escorted us to the city after a tamale breakfast (that's right, huge tamales at 7:30am) and showed us "must-sees according to a local" - guaranteed to be better than any guide book could offer! We walked along the streets near one of Bogota's many universities, which provided the youthful excitement that one can find on most all college campuses. The energy was set perfectly to the background of cobblestoned streets, vibrantly colored houses, and many wooden external balconies artfully littered with potted flowers and plants. Bogota sits in a valley between alarmingly steep but smooth mountains, so wherever you look, the green giants are always present...a HUGE yet humble reminder of where we are standing. We walked MANY streets in that area before descending into Plaza Bolivar, a vast open space of clean, concrete beauty, flanked on all four sides by very significant architechtural icons - the Primate Cathedral, the National Capital (Congress), Palace of Justice (Supreme Court), and Lievano Building (home of the Mayor). We could have spent HOURS there exploring and people-watching if it weren't for the obscene amounts of pigeons constantly flying at your head. We checked out a cloister-type compound that had just recently been restored which also provided information about some ongoing human rights projects in various areas of Colombia. Of course, we sampled the street sweets called "obleas," two circular wafers that contain the ingredients you choose - raspberry jam, dulce de leche, peanuts, coconut, etc - and ate a traditional lunch soup called "ajiaco," quite literally a little bit of everything. After walking a bit more and speaking with the eclectic locals, we headed back to the apartment to recoop before the FUTBOL game!! We went to see Equidad de Bogota play Libertad del Paraguay... an hour and a half before the game even started! Due to the fact this is a relatively young team (7-years old), we may or may not have been three of the first, ehhhhh, 20 people in the stadium - let's just say at that moment, the number of police and personnel working the event outnumbered the fans 15:1. Luckily, the die-hard fans soon came to set up their drumsets, brass instruments, and "buzzers" (the annoying things you heard during the games of the World Cup), thus providing the majority of our pre-game entertainment. The quality of play was leaps and bounds better than Guatemala (sorry Guat, but it's true), and the teams were pretty evenly matched, so it felt like a real game!

The next day, Hannah and I went explored some more and took the funicular up to Monserrate, a huge yet simple white church that sits atop one of the surrounding mountains and provides 360-degree views of the city! I am always amazed that people can build train cars and gondolas that can safely ascend or descend near-vertical terrain! Also, SUPER FUN to ride in, let's be honest! Bogota is HUGE - not only does it take up the entire valley area, but it creeps up the bottom third of almost every surrounding mountain! We spent a good amount of time just sitting and appreciating where we are and putting things in perspective. After coming back down the mountain on the gondola, we made our way to the Museo de Oro, a very informative, well-organized, and well-supplied museum about this history of gold and other earth metals. It is still quite difficult to believe any metal comes from the earth! On the way back, a man struck up conversation with Hannah and asked what we had done thus far in Bogota - she told him about the futbol game and he kept insisting it was a waste of time. After repeatedly defending the game and honestly telling him how much we enjoyed the game, the conversation ended when Hannah said in a very direct tone, "Well, we had fun and really enjoyed it!" I was so proud of her and the awkward silence that followed! In the evening, we headed to a cute Del Ray-ish style bookstore, which had books for $50 and above!! PS - NEVER buy a book in Columbia if you can avoid it! Actually, try not to buy ANYTHING in Colombia if you can avoid it because it is SOOO EXPENSIVE. We have already decided to cut our time in Colombia due to the fact 4 days is one week's worth of budget! As a thank you to Mauricio, we made a pasta dinner with a vegetable salad because, well, who can really mess that up? THESE KIDS! Somehow the pasta became rubbery, we burnt the pre-made sauce, AND none of the vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, and avacados) were ripe! Saaaaaad! Some thank you! Mauricio, being the kind and gracious man that he is, ate everything on his plate. We still feel bad about that...don't worry, we took him out for a real dinner before we left - at an actual restaurant!

You thought I was kidding when I said it was expensive?

The next few days were filled with laziness and failed attempts to organize our lives, except for LAUNDRY. As we were looking through Mauricio’s eclectic collection of books, he began recommending some…which we later discovered were “American classics”…that we had never heard of before. Pretty embarrassing a Colombian whose THIRD language is English knows more about American literature than we do! He also had an English idioms book…how many people have heard of the phrase “as awkward as a cow on a crutch?” I definitely hadn’t before, but now I use it as often as possible because the mental image makes me smile. We went to a richer area that had a very Old Towne vibe to walk around at night, looking at the various name-brand stores, expensive boutiques, and specialty restaurants…with the exception of a “Hooters?” Why does Bogota or ANY city for that matter need a Hooters? We did pass through the mall cinema and see a “Coming Soon” poster for the movie Mauricio had worked on with his professor, “Pequenas Voces,” which we went to see the following day in 3D!! The movie itself is a 3D animated collection of stories about the lives of certain countryside children told by the children in the face of troubling times. It was AMAZING! The animation is based on the drawings of the children as well, so although simplistic, they are very powerful. Even if you do not speak Spanish, you only have to watch it to FEEL EVERYTHING! I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone!

Things that may us jump for joy...clean laundry!

Hannah with the best arepa to date!

On the 17th, we took a bus ride through the mountains to Villa de Leyva, a beautiful, Spanish-influenced pueblo that is one of Mauricio’s favorite places in Colombia. Many of the white buildings had external wooden, flower-adorned balconies which gave the whole pueblo small splashes of color and lots of personality. Pretty sure my grandmother would run out of film in this town! We spent the entire late morning/early afternoon just walking around the town and taking in the beautiful people and architecture. Events in short: ate huge lunch (soup, rice, baked potato, salad, lentils…), watched a man weaving his own material very quickly and efficiently, got rejected by street dogs when they wouldn’t eat the bread I offered them, watched kids being kids, and just before boarding the bus home, we saw a bride and groom riding through the streets in a horse-drawn carriage to the church steps in the main square, where their friends and family awaited them with HUGE smiles and rose pedals. We took hundreds of pictures and Mauricio waited patiently without a word – oh Mauricio, sorry!

We convinced Mauricio to partake in the jumping pictures ritual!

The next day, we packed and took Mauricio to “Crepes and Waffles,” an AMAZING restaurant with, well, sweet and savory crepes, waffles, and a HUGE salad bar! FINALLY, a good salad! THANK YOU MAURICIO FOR A GREAT TIME!