Bogota

Big, loud, and dirty. That usually sums up most large cities (excluding dirty for places like Stockholm and loud for places like Albuquerque), and Bogota is definitely not an exception. The capital of Colombia is home to over 6 million people. To put that into perspective, it is the 19th largest city in the world, after London and before Hong Kong. (NYC has 8 million, L.A. has less than 4 million.) It's the third largest city in South America. What is truly amazing about Bogota, however, is that the only public transportation system is a network of buses. No metro. No subway. Only buses, and lots and lots of traffic. Don't judge it too quickly, though... it isn't because Bogota is in Colombia. Medellin, which is about 3 hours away from Pereira, has a metro system--but only 2 million people. Yeah, I don't get it, either.

Our experience in Bogota was never going to be amazing. This is partially because I was so exhausted on Saturday, I didn't even want to go to Bogota. It is also because our flight from Pereira was delayed for 4 hours because it was raining. These, however, are minor complaints. Small insignificant problems. Obviously, the main reason Bogota can't be a great place to visit is this: Bogota is freezing. At least that's what people in Pereira think. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who found out we were going to Bogota said this: "Bogota is really cold. It's freezing. Do you have a coat?" When they discovered that Warren did not bring a jacket with him to Colombia, I think a few people had minor panic attacks. Stella couldn't deal with the idea that Warren might freeze to death in Bogota, so she drove us to her country house on Friday afternoon, found a Juan Valdez sweatshirt, and insisted that he wear it the entire weekend. Warren and I, worried that we had underestimated Bogota's potential to be frigid, decided we had better check the weather forecasts. 67 degrees F (20 degrees C) the entire weekend. I'm sorry, but in Illinois/Missouri, 67 degrees F is a nice fall day. I guess if you live in Pereira, where the temperature stays between 75 and 87 year round, 67 would seem miserable.

To be honest, our trip wasn't very exciting. We arrived much later than planned on Saturday, and simply went to our hotel and slept. A girl named Catalina met up with us on Sunday and showed us around. (We work with her mom at LPV.) Catalina was great, mostly because she was the first person we had met in Colombia who was between the ages of 17 and 27. It was nice to finally be around someone our age. Even better, she invited all her friends to hang out with us, too. We spent Sunday afternoon at a Cuban restaurant enjoying live music and good food, and then her friends showed us around the city. A great deal of our time was spent wandering through street markets, which are always interesting. In Colombia, street markets provide the perfect opportunity for entrepreneurs to molest... I mean sell their wares... to Americans. Thankfully, tourism isn't exactly a booming business in Bogota, so only a few of these kind merchants spoke English. We also went to Bogota Beer Company, where they play a steady stream of bad American pop music and serve things like ribs and onion rings. (The beer is tasty, though!) Sunday night Catalina and her friends showed us the fashionable district of Bogota (where you can find McDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, and the Hard Rock Cafe), and then they took us back to our hotel, Quinta de Bolivar. Warren and I were both starving, but we had been warned not to go outside, so we had to have the receptionist help us order pizza. Please note: It is possible to get vegan pizza delivered in Colombia.

On Monday Catalina took us to the Salt Cathedral, which is outside Bogota in a salt mine. It's very hard to explain, so let's just say we spent a total of 4 hours on a bus (roundtrip) so that we could walk in dark old salt mine that sometimes smelled like sulfur. It was actually really interesting, but definitely not worth 4 hours on a bus. I'll put up some pictures of it later.

Monday evening Catalina took us to Crepes and Waffles for dinner. This is not "typical" Colombian food, but it is a popular chain restaurant here. They have crepes stuffed with everything from curried tofu to blueberries, and they have an extensive array of ice cream. (Even dairy free!) The food was probably some of the best we have had in Colombia. Warren even got a waffle topped with thick arequipe (like caramel, but creamier), whipped cream, and ice cream! After dinner it was raining, so we ended up back at the hotel. I've developed a sad obsession with watching anything on television that is in English. On Monday night, that meant watching Music and Lyrics, which is not Hugh Grant's best movie.

The only other really interesting episode from our trip was on our way to the airport. We had to take a taxi, and the taxi driver didn't say a word to us after Warren told him "aeropuerto." When we got close to the airport, we realized he was in the lane for international departures. Warren quickly explained we were flying nationally, to Pereira. The taxi driver looked alarmed and said, "Avianca?" to which we replied, "Si!" Our taxi driver was so upset he hit himself on the forehead and began muttering what could only be dirty words in Spanish. Apparently, Avianca flights within the country have their own terminal, and we had missed the exit for it. The poor driver had to circle all the way back so he could drop us off at the right location. While this would normally frustrate me, I found it quite illustrative of the assumptions Colombians make about foreigners. Because of the bad press and overly negative government warnings, most people are afraid to travel to Colombia. Those that do usually only see the big cities, like Bogota, Cartagena, or Medellin. Our taxi driver never even asked us where we were going: we were foreign, so we were obviously not going to be staying in Colombia.

Coming back to Pereira was like coming home. The weather was perfect, the flowers were blooming, and our bus driver picked us up in Stella's car at the airport. After Bogota, Pereira felt inviting and comfortable. I've grown to love this place, and I'll be very sad to leave it.

I'll write more about Bogota later, and I'll definitely post some pictures soon. I also plan to update more often this week, so be sure to check back often. We only have 2 more weeks left in Colombia, and they should be interesting!