The Kindness of Strangers

After almost a week in Bogota I arrived in Villa de Leyva, a gorgeous little colonial town about four hours north of Bogota. The lack of international tourists in this country is very refreshing – you don´t get endlessly harrassed by touts at the bus station to stay at their guesthouse and locals are not always trying to scam you or drag you into their mediocre “tourist” restaurants. However, it does mean that there isn`t much English spoken so I really need to figure everything out in my halting Spanish. It`s been working out pretty well though. I`ve found that people here are incredibly warm, helpful, and also totally curious about why I am traveling by myself. I have experienced more random acts of kindness during my four days in this town than probably a year in the states.

A few examples:

*My first afternoon here an elderly Colombian couple visiting from the southern coffee-growing region of the country (Zona Cafetera) asked me to take a photo of them in front of a famous ice cream shop. After our twenty minute conversation, they gave me their address, home and cell phone numbers and insisted that I stay with them when I visit that part of the country.

* On my third day here I woke up at 5am to horrible stomach pains and continuous vomiting. Around noon I hobbled weakly out of my guesthouse to buy some water when I ran into a man and his three year old son I had met the day before at a cafe. When he asked how I was doing, I told him I was feeling sick (total understatement, I felt like absolute shit). Before I knew what was happening, he immediately tracked down his niece who speaks English. She insisted on taking me to the doctor, even though I was pretty sure it was just food poisoning. She came with me to the doctor’s office (the visit cost $7, by the way, and this was the “good” doctor) where I vomited yet again (into a toilet that had a turd floating in it, ughghghgh). She sat with me during the appointment and translated everything he said, filled my prescription, and walked me back to my guesthouse. Total angel.

*This morning I decided to go on a six hour hike with another traveler in a national park nearby that was supposed to have a beautiful lake at the top (it ended up being kind of a pond). Anyway, I was woefully underprepared – hadn`t eaten breakfast, and carried in my backpack a small bottle of water, a roll, a cliff bar, and two pieces of fruit. Dumb, dumb, dumb… so of course I was dehydrated and starving when I got to the top. Two different groups of Colombian families were picnicking by the lake, and members of both groups plied us with various snacks, yummy!!!! Maybe they could tell I was contemplating licking the salt off my arm…

*When the hike was over and I reached the bottom, I sat down, anticipating the hour and a half wait for the bus to take me back to town. One of those same families offered us a ride into town. Elated that we weren’t going to be soaked by the rain that had just started coming down, we jumped into the car. I looked behind me and realized that we had displaced the aunt and the little boy who were now sitting in the TRUNK. Seriously. Ok, it wasn´t like they were in the trunk of a Honda Civic, but it was a tiny minivan type car and the very narrow trunk area was clearly designed for a few groceries, not people. And they were now crammed into that tiny space, sitting on top of each other. I tried multiple times to switch places with them, but everyone kept shrieking “No, no!! Esta bien!!!” and refused to budge. So I stayed put, thanking them profusely.

I am very sad to leave this lovely town, but it`s time to move on.  Tomorrow I`m catching a bus to San Gil, another small town a few hours north of here that´s famous for rock climbing and whitewater rafting.  Woohoo!

 

Bogota and my newfound empanada addiction

Welcome to my first blog entry!  I´ve been a little slow going on getting this started, but I hope to post once a week or so.  FYI, I haven´t figured out how to replace that ugly green tunnel photo above – Windows in Spanish is too much for me.

 Today is my fifth day in Colombia.  I arrived last Thursday on a flight from LAX-Panama City-Bogota.  If you want to buy a Lacoste shirt at the Panama City airport, you are in luck – there are four Lacoste stores.  However, if you are desperately searching for an Economist because you accidently packed all your books in your checked luggage, no success whatsoever.   Not a SINGLE magazine or newspaper to be had!  Ergh.

 I arrived in Bogota not knowing exactly what to expect.  It´s billed as one of the most cosmopolitan cities in South America, so I expected it to be crazy, crowded, and full of hustle and bustle.  I was not aware before coming that most Bogotans are on holiday from Christmas to January 6, so it´s been fairly mellow.  I´m staying at a hostel in La Candelaria, an older neighborhood that is packed with museums, cafes and colorful but crumbling colonial architecture.   You´re not supposed to walk around alone at night, but from what I´ve seen there are way fewer street urchins and crack addicts here than near my old apartment in the Haight.  My hostel is a bit rundown but full of friendly travelers.  I´m paying $8 a night for a bed that may or may not have clean sheets (thank god for my sleep sack) and a lukewarm-to-usually-cold shared shower.   Woohoo!

This city is absolutely massive (pop. 8 million).   My impression is that wealthy people tend to live in the north in nondescript modern apartment buildings while the south is full of the aforementioned crumbling colonial buildings and cobbled alleyways where the not-as-wealthy live.  And then there are the slums hugging the mountainside that seem to be present in most major South American cities. 

My friend Michelle connected me with some Colombian friends she met while living here last summer, and they have been showing me a fantastic time around the city.  I´ve been to a fair number of restaurants, bars and clubs in the city now.  One of the first things I noticed about the restaurants is that waiters are always reminding you to put your bag away in a safe place (i.e. under your table or in a secret compartment in your chair) even when you are sitting inside in a corner…

Which brings me to the security situation in Bogota.  It is impossible to miss the police, tourist police, and military guarding the city at almost every turn.  There´s also usually a soldier with a giant gun posted in front of every ATM machine.  This was a bit startling when I first arrived, but I don´t notice it too much anymore.  Bogota is much safer than it used to be even a few years ago, and I assume this giant military/police presence has something to do with it.  And all that said, I do feel safer here than in parts of Los Angeles or New York.

What else… oh, the food!  Of course.    One of my absolute favorite parts of travelling is trying all the local food.  Here are the culinary highlights and lowlights of my experience in Bogota:

HIGHLIGHTS

-Empanadas: delicious, cheap (15-30 cents), usually filled with rice and a little chicken or some type of meat, eaten with aji, a spicy cilantro sauce.  I´ve been eating these every single day.

-Ajiaco: a Bogotan specialty, chicken/potato/corn soup served with sliced avocado, cream and capers.  One of the very few things to eat that is not fried.

-Arepas con queso: Corn pancake-type things with cheese inside.  Fried, of course, and served by street vendors and restaurants everywhere.

 LOWLIGHTS

- Hot chocolate with cheese (chocolate santafereno??), another Bogotan specialty: This isn´t as gross as it sounds.  In fact, I bet if you like hot chocolate you would think it was delicious.  Since I´m not a huge fan of chocolate, I don´t think I will have it again.  You drop pieces of mild cheese into the hot chocolate and it becomes this gummy mass at the bottom of your mug which you retrieve with a spoon and eat with bread.  The hot chocolate doesn´t end up tasting like cheese at all, in case you were wondering.

-Wobbly-fat stew: ok, I have no idea what this is called, but without inspecting it very carefully I ordered a portion of what looked like a delicious spicy potato stew from a women at the market yesterday.  As I was about to dive my fork into it, I noticed that it consisted almost entirely of huge chunks of quivering animal fat and two tiny potatoes, covered in a spicy red sauce.  I took one ginger bite of potato, not wanting to waste food, but then threw the entire thing away.  I´m feeling a little ill thinking about it right now.

Other foods that Bogotans seem to be obsessed with are ice cream and giant cuts of meat for lunch and dinner.  I´ve avoided the giant slabs of meat so far, but I´m glad I started eating a little meat again before I left because as a pure vegetarian, I would be subsisting solely on french fries and arepas.  I am very much looking forward to the seafood on the Carribbean coast!