| DAY 5: MAY 10, 2002 9:30 AM BOGOTA, COLOMBIA |
Hi everybody! ...now to finish my sentence from the previous entry, it was a ROOSTER! and boy does he like to screech away in the mornings. There are also chickens clucking somewhere down below. Continuing with the theme of animals... in the midst of the sprawling city you will see some cows in fenced pastures, and also many horses with pull-carts. Bogota, as Tania told me, is indeed a city of contrasts. I have yet to see more of these contrasts as she and I will take a number of bus rides around the city, including through the south side, which is the poorer part of the city. "Out with the old, In with the New"... I don-t know that this could necessarily be applied to Bogota. Surely there are things of this city already passed and passing away as it endeavors to modernizarse, become more modern... one interesting thing Ive seen which Im told is not so common anymore in the city, every morning by the house comes a truck with a bell ringing. I asked what it was, and it is a truck coming through the neighborhood to sell gas for peoples stoves (two types of gases). Another example is the public transportation system. There are old and colored buses, or busetas, other city buses (not to mention all the taxi-cabs), and the new and very modern "Transmilenio". For those of you from Edmonton, these buses look like the long ones for Edmonton-St.Albert and Edmonton-Sherwood Park. These are red, and they have their own lanes, in between the normal running traffic, on one or a few of some Carreras in Bogota. By having their own lanes, they can travel much much faster. For these, when you pay you get a plastic card, and you use it to get into the waiting stops, and you have to have it to get out. Glad i didn-t lose mine anyway... As someone seeing the city though, the regular buses I prefer. Yesterday is a highlight i want to share. I got to go on a day trip (by car) with Tania-s Mom to a little town called La Calera, not so far from Bogota. She was selling just a piece of her land to another Senora, from that countryside area, and they were going to take care of the documents of the sale in that town. Dr. Johnson, I bet your ears have perked up here, haha. :) We picked the lady, Yolanda, up from her house. I TELL YOU, THIS DRIVE WAS AN ADVENTURE. The countryside and mountains are so so beautiful. Every second of the way is something new to see and revel... even both ways, there and back on the road to the lady"s house, and yet at 9am and 4pm, gave lots to see on each of the stretches, as the light of the sun at the diff parts of the day shine upon the landscape to highlight different things there. it was real neat. it was very green, and, Javier, I now see better what you meant about curving winding roads to cross what is in reality if you were flying not a very long distance. Lotza curves, some hairpin turns, ups, downs, throughs... Tara, you might have your seatbelt on on this road! (Remember Road to the Rising Sun!!?) ha... well it wasnt that narrow or road or that steep of cliff but pretty close in some places. There are all along the way dwellings here and there, no stretches of nothing or no one as we see in Canada and U.S. And never long without someone in sight whether a vehicle, on horse, on foot, in a field, in a roadside cafe, or whatever. On the way back we stopped at a panaderia, like a bakery / convenient store and got some pan (bread / pastries). I have been trying a lot of different bakery things, and they are SUPER-DELI (as Andres would say), ha! LOL. (Really delicious.) For those of you who know Colombian food, pan de yucca, pan de mais, roscon con bocadillo, pelera con bocadillo, esos tambien con AREQUIPA!!!! (this the Colombian equivalent of the MANJAR i know from Chile -- YUMMA!!!!!!!) I was treated to a lot of pan yesterday :) ademas, i had a Colombian empanada (like a turnover), this one with meat and potato, yummy. Also we sat and ate some papas amarillas (yellow potatoes), little ones, really good too! The Colombian people surely like to eat, a lot, through the day. Now LA CALERA: a nice little town. As this mission to get these documents taken care of took longer than even Tania"s Mom had anticipated, like 10am til almost 4pm (shake my head).. we had time to walk about and drive about the town. (I just smiled with how long it took -- also no computer in this oficina, two kinds of typewriters. -- smiled with it as I remembered some of Dr. Johnson"s stories of how some things in Latin America which really shouldn"t take so much time to get done, have some seemingly complicated process to complete, and demand a lot of time and a number of trips to different places in the town to get different things done. Apparently the complication with this sale was the documentation for the uniting of Yolanda"s new piece of land to her existing property, which is adjacent. I don{t know how it is in Canada, but I doubt it would take as much time and such as this did. Anyway, first to the office, then to the Alcalderia (Town Office) or whatever for some kind of paper, back to the office for hours, then later back to the Town Office for to have it firmado, signed. But anyway, it was a blessing cuz I got to see a lot of the town, and see a lot of things about which I learned in classes, and experience la clima de este pueblo!!! (the weather of this town!) I tell you -- in one afternoon, i put on and off my long'sleeve layers to many times, as it rained, got sunny and warm, probably 6 times!! And diff temps with each too. At the Alcalderia I got to see the beautiful plaza-patio or whatever it is in the middle, with the fountain and all. This is by the old little cathedral, or capilla as I"m told the little ones are called. Adjacent to this big building and capilla is the newer cathedral , in the middle the town plaza (square) and surrounding it the other important buildings and offices, etc. (Sorry! I guess you really gotta know what I"m talking about or have seen it yourself to know how it looks.) In front of this registry office or whatever was the town cemetary, we walked there together after Yolando bought some flowers at the florist right beside the cemetary, to put by the two graves/tombs (I don{t know how they call them when they are in walls, not in the ground)... of two of her children who had passed away as babies. This was really different from Canadian cemetaries. I sat on the sidewalk there for a long while, and just watched people go up and down the (inclined) street. There"s always decent entertainment in people-watching. Then again, i was a sight for the people too I guess -- I believe i was looked at a lot more in the pueblo than in Bogota, probably because there are not many white visitors there. On the drive back, I got into a waving mode, after asking how waving from strangers is received by the people. Apparently it is considered "picarona", something fun / chistoso (funny-joking) and is well-received. So... yah I had fun, and we had a lot of laughing. Upon return to Bogota, given it is a descent on the mountain back to the city, I got a nice look at the city, we stopped at a few points to take pictures. But still to come is a trip up to Monserrate -- waiting for the day it fits to schedule, which is also a clear day. Tania�s Mom says when I come back in five years I can visit the new casita (little house) they will have built in that part not far from Yolandas house. OK�!!! So I�m going to be back! I told her, that probably I�ll be married by then, (LOL) so my husband will be with me on the return. Haha.. :) Que mas!?? Note to BCIRG co-workers --- no sight of Juan Valdes, or son Juanito, yet!!!! I�ll keep you all posted, hehe. Ah yes, and I went to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) two days ago. Really really neat -- I don� think I really realize the VALUE (value on a number of levels) of that collection... I would certainly go there again. Of course a highlight was to see the gold piece of the Legend of El Dorado, something I�d only seen pictures of in books. I believe that later in the next week Tania�s Mom and I will take a day trip to Guatavita, the actual site of the lake of the Legend. Coming up this weekend is: going dancing, trip to Zipaquira, and on Mon/Tues a trip to Tocaima and some other little places along the way (where it�s HOT!!) with two new friends through Tania... plus lots more I am sure. Ok this i long enough for today, congrats if you made it down here! Take care all, I send hugs, Amy |