| DAY 9: MAY 14, 2002 5:05 PM BOGOTA, COLOMBIA |
| Sunday Mothers Day meal at Tanias Moms was really yummy. Tanias brother Camilo drove us over to the church she and I were going to attend, Casa Sobre La Roca, on north side of Bogota. First though we went to a sort of flea market just a few blocks from the church, which is only open on Sundays. Lots of neat artesan-type things, and Richard!! i found something just for you there!! :) I saw a lot of instruments I had never seen before (for those of you who didnt know I love music and also different interesting instruments.) I will surely get one or a few in Colombia. One lady had these little wooden doors, carved and painted like those seen in La Candelaria in Bogota. On the back of each was written in both Spanish and English some information about the door -- what architectural influence the door (Roman, French, Spanish, or whatever), from what era, etc... a really neat idea! There was a really neat hat there, which really suited me, and I kinda regret not buying it. Oh well. (Im not even normally a hat person...) I liked the worship and the message at the church, but a little bit hard with no overheads at that church... there was a big rain during the service (the first since I have been here). It quit by the time we went out, and was chilly by then too. We needed to kill a bit of time so decided to go to a mall, El Andino, which was on the way to Tanias Moms place. We waited for a bus at a BUS STOP... I indicate this because in Bogota the norm is you can just hop on a bus at any point along the side of the road. We had to wait longer than usual, so i kidded saying this was no good -- usually takes less time to catch the bus you need (within seconds or a minute) upon reaching whatever point on a road, than this in an actual busstop. Then I needed a garbage can for my Snickers wrapper (yes I found some North American chocolate), but none at this bus stop, had to laugh. Had some ice cream at Freddo"s, a really good ice cream place, in El Andino. Many kinds, with arequipe.. different fruits, and then the usuals.. I think I test-tasted four kinds before deciding and finally decided on... I like that word "guanabana" (is a fruit), so i tried guanabana ice cream, and one calleed Trufle with had cookies and arequipe. Yummy. :) We spent a good amount of time in a music store, I tell you I dont think ive ever seen so much latin music in one place as I did here! Neat-O. If I hadnt mentioned it yet, the music style called VALLENATO is muy muy popular in Colombia, I hear more of it than salsa or cumbia or any. I hear it in the taxicabs, the buses (love that -- music in the public transportation), in other places, etc. and, is the favorite of several Colombians I have met. If any of you have heard of Carlos Vives, a Colombian singer, his is of vallenato style, although "retomado", "retaken" sort of -- modernized, jived up a bit. But the traditional vallenate is really good and I got a really good cd recommended by Tania and the store, I look forward to enjoying that at home. Also picked up a set (two) of Celia Cruz, so I can listen to "La Vida es una Carnaval" at home, hooray! This was a really good price, but the majority of cds actually cost about the same as in Canada or US when you work it out, so I kept my purchase to those two for that day. Camilo and a friend of his picked us up and we went out to a cafe in La Candelaria (not much was open as it was Friday night)... on the way there I saw a number of people sleeping under blankets in doorways of stores or whatever places in downtown, I was sad and felt bad, here I was in a car going out to a cafe with friends, and here people on the chilly evening nestling up in doorways... I also have already seen a few individuals in streets who have deformations of limb, and one had a visible disease of some sort :( ... not to mention all the street vendors, this is how they make their living... I am told there are about 5,000 street vendors in Bogota. Yesterday morning got on a bus (Tequendama company) with Angela and her bf (she is friend and coworker of Tania) to go to Tocaima for the day and night, a place about 3 hours ride from Bogota. We went via a town called Viota. On the way back we took Flota San Vicente bus via Anapoima - La Mesa - Mesquera (something like that), and stopped in Anapoima for a walk-about. On the way there, I was on the wrong side of the bus and i think missed quite a few neat scenes and therefore pics of them, including the Salto de Tequendama, a high waterfall on a great cliff... along this road amazing mountain scenery, very deep-steep mountains. I think two words i said a lot were WOW and AMAZING. :) really enjoyed it. For the first while, it was really really cold. My ears popped like crazy and even it took a good many hours once in Tocaima for one ear to get back to normal. Then it got warm and then HOT. Once there we took a taxi -- these are more primitive taxis, little cars with the gear-shift being a little stick in the dashboard (haha) to our hotel, well resort-like place with cabin-buildings. it is called Vacaciones Santa Ana, algo asi. Each room-cabin had the name of a country, ours was Brasil, the one next door was Canada (but most were Latin American names). There are two pools there. That evening we got the one pool all to ourselves, que chevere!!!! (very Colombian and Venezuelan expression for "How cool!!") The weather was hot, probably between 27 and 30�C, and the water was warm too. Had some great Colombian food there, including two soups, one "cuchuco", the other like cream of mushroom soup (without the mushrooms). I really enjoyed the first one. Also ate patacones - platanos verdes (a kind of banana fried), similar texture to potatoes. Pepino, a green vegetable which in the store looks sort of like a wrinkly green pepper, these were really good. Tried a fruit called mamoncillo, about the size of a golf ball, light green peal, using your fingernail break the skin open and put the inside in your mouth and suck the pulp-like flesh off and spit out the rest. Ok, different, not my favorite. I think Angela and Edgar ate almost the whole bag full... Saw mango trees, banana trees, also orange trees.. especially a lot of banana trees on the route back to Bogota... On the way there saw sugar cane crops, and even a man beside a wooden truck box full of cut cane, him with an armful, couldnt get a pic the bus moving too fast. And in Tocaima some groups of people by their houses cutting up "laurel", leafy stuff, used in flower bouquets, and or something or other to give to La Virgen in the month of May. Ok I gotta go so will continue next time... ~ AMY |