Bogota day 2-3Jul 6, 2012
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| Bogota day 2 Was eventful. Definitely saw the city a little. Walked on down to the museum of fat art which gave me a case of the giggles. Spent my time with an English, ausie, sweed, and germ. Then we went to the police museum to see an exhibit about Pablo Escobar. Unfortunately the exhibit was closed for renovation. So we got a tour led by a police dude, he showed us all the police badges, uniforms, guns, helicopters, and awards. It was most Un thrilling and basically a waste of 2 hours. We did get a good view of the city where the police man said don't go past that cathedral or tenth street unless you want to get into big trouble. Then he paused and said well if you want to get marijuana or cocain go there. Ummm since when would a police officer tell us where to get drugs? Quite weird. We all laughed. The streets are filled with police 4-5 on each block. Makes me feel safer. Most of the Colombians are well dressed in suites jeans and fancy shirts. Definitely doesn't feel like the Colombia I expected. We headed to get a snack which turned into a meal. They jave set menus which are cheap. We got BBQ beef potatoes salad and rice for a measly $4. On the way back to the hostel we got lost. Typical. But with 4 girls looking at a map we finally made it. We also took a ski lift tram thing up this huge hill to a church. Of course right as we reach the top clouds and rain blow in. The view is still stunning the city spans farther than you can see. They say ten million people live in bogota. We found a cute cafe out of the rain and sipped on coffee to make the trip worth the $7. Ok I am now on the bus, I must catch up on what has happened. So after we went up the hill we returned to the hostel had dinner and got a few cervecas for the evening. We sat at the hostel and chatted for hours. A crazy new Zealand guy sat with us an began telling us elaborate stories of his life. He went on for at least an hour about how he used to export diamonds but since the movie blood diamond he doesn't get any ladies by saying that is what he does and so now he exports emeralds. He continues telling us stories about how he was blitzed off his brain and someone was chasing him then he found a group of polie and felt safe until they began interrogating him then he ran from the police and all the crazy places he snorted cocain he went on and on and there was no shutting him up. We were all relieved when he decided to go out to the bars. I had an early night as to fight whatever cold or infection I had. I woke up on Thursday and felt even worse than any of the days before. I decided to stay in and drink lots of tea and relax. That is what I did all day. By evening my energy had returned and I decided to head north to the wealthy part of town caled zona rosa. The thirty minute taxi ride was entertaining. Up and down hills around bends the taxi driver didn't seem to understand what a lane was and neither did any other car. Weaving around breaking speeding up. Once we were at a stop light and trying to turn left but the car in front of us wouldn't run the light and so the car being us went around cut in front and ran the light. That gave the dude is front the hint so he ran it and so did we. Anyway zona rosa is basically a First world neighborhood. Burgar king, fancy bars, guess, Bose, people dressed all fancy and malls filled with expensive shops. The restaurants were all $15 plus for dinner so we found a little fast food wok place and had some Asian food. Oh I even saw an advertisement for groupon. Weird!!! Anyways today was a new day the first day I woke up with energy!!!! So before catching my bus I decided to make breakfast and head the the gold museum. This museum was amazing more gold than I have ever seen. Room upon room of gold artifacts. Some dated as far back as 3,000 years!!!! Then there was a black room that closed you into pitch black then crazy tribal music started and a light show along the gold art walls began. It was pretty crazy! I stopped on my way back to get fresh squeezed oj. They take these gross lookin oranges. Puke colored green and orange and squeeze then with a hand machine and sooo much juice came out. It was a little bitter but the vitamin c should be good. I also made a splurge and decided to get a Colombian cell phone number along with a cheap little phone. This is useful as many travelers have cell numbers so as Laura from England is one city ahead of me, we can more easily keep in contact. It is also good to use to call hostels and such. It's not as cheap as the pay phone people on the streets. Did I mention them yet? Oh man, they have 3 or 4 different cell phones each one is a different carrier so you use the carrier that you are calling and its 150-200 pesos per minute. Anyways it's cheaper than that to text so I'm sure I'll use the text feature more. Some other things I saw on my morning walk were bums lots of bums sleeping on the sidewalk. Flat on their back. Shoes half off. Just dangling from their toes like they are trying to air them out. Most had no shirts an were skinny. Also there was an area I walked passed, it smelled like a Porto potty. I looked against the building about 20 feet away and there were piles of poop at least 8 of them. And well I guess this is where the bums relieve themselves. I personally would find a Place away from the main street but hey to each's own. There are a few shoe shine people and it's funny because they look at everyones feet as you walk by. Luckily Matt had tennis shoes on and I was wearing Toms so no shoe shining was needed so no harassment. Oh I forgot, I met a girl from Iowa who has lived in Colombia for 3 years teaching at an international school. I made sure to ask her about special education which is non-existent here. She did say if I have any sort f teaching credential, I can teach at an international school an make really good money. Sooooo that is what I'm looking into when I get home!!! Anyways I hopped in my taxi to the bus station which seemed like it took forever. Traffic was horrible I feel like I could have walked faster. But not really. Anyways as usual finding the right ticket booth is difficult. One company sends you to another whih sends you to another and so on. Basically the direct bus to the city I wanted to go didn't leave for 2 hours unless I just didn't fid the correct company. So I took the ticket to a nearby bigger city and will have to transfer. The bus stops so frequently I'm going crazy. We stop every 7 minutes for 10 minutes. They yell at people outside hoping to get More people in the bus. I still swear I could walk faster than this. Anyways I guess I should chill out and take a nap. Also I have been on the bus 1.5 hours now and we still are in cities and towns. We have yet to hit any countryside. The giant population of this country means more towns and less country roads. There are mountains all over houses planted along them. The little towns are in the valley and they stretch into the hills. One hill even looked like it was only houses I didn't see a single road or street just brick houses side by side by side. Probably 3,000 of them. It reminded me a lot of the ghettos in rio de janeiro. So I am headed to Villa Del Leyva alone. Laura was going to come but the others convinced her to go farther north with them. They are in San Gil which I plan to go to next. So hopefully I'll catch up to them or meet new people who are headed in the same direction as me. The decisions of a Traveler to stick with a group or go see what you want. It's so early in the trip, I want to see what I want. Plus there were soooo many single travelers at the last hostel 80% of the people I met were traveling alone. So I am hoping it will e easy to meet people again :) We just passed a little hill village where all the houses were white with red roofs the church was also white. It looked as if it came Straight from some fairy tale movie. There are occasional Cows grazing along side the road. Not even fenced in but they do have ropes tied to them and attached to some fence. It is quite civilized feeling, they have s. o.s. poles along the road in case of a breakdown or what not. Their street signs are.... Well almost identical to those in usa. |
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