| DAY 16: MAY 21, 2002 10:35 AM BOGOTA, COLOMBIA |
| Talk about having catching up to do! OH well, I am on a vacation. :) So lets see, I think Im behind about a week eh? DAY 10, May 15: I went to the Museo Nacional by taxi. There I met a friend of Doctor Johnsons and delivered his message to her. A friend of Lilianas works there too, and he gave me a personal guided tour of just a few of the real significant things on the first floor of the museum. Unfortunately I didnt have enough time to see the whole museum, and only saw a portion of it, didnt even make it to the 3rd floor, where there is artwork of a famous Colombian painter named Botero. :( There is a LOT of good and very interesting stuff in this museum, which I would like to take time to see... so if I cannot make it back there again on this trip, I will for surely return there on my next trip to Bogota ;). So much of it is very interesting to me because it relates to things I have learned about and studied in my Latin American Studies, History, and Spanish classes at University. I met my friend Sandra at the museum at 2pm and from there she decided to take me on a drive out to a town called Sopo. There is a dairy producing plant there called ALPINA, and we stopped at the store there to pick up a few treats, ie. with arequipe. :) We took a walk about through some of the town, esp. the town plaza. She has a friend who lives in that town, so we went to visit him. The sign on the solid gate at the entrance to his place said "Bellavista". Well I tell you they have got a yard on the side of a mountain, and boy is it landscaped nice! Mom and Dad you would love it. They have got nice views of the yard, and of the countryside in the distance from both their yard and from inside their house. Neat. He invited us in for a juice and we had a chat. He and Sandra know each other because they both went on an exchange to study English in Omaha, Nebraska a few years back. It turns out he is hoping to do his Masters in either University of Winnipeg, or University of Alberta. Cool. Upon return to Bogota, there was kind of a purplish color to the clouds hanging over. DAY 11, May 16: This was Tanias Moms and my day out. She picked me up around 9 and we headed out through La Calera and onward to Guatavita, the town which is not too far from the Lake (Laguna) of the famous Legend of El Dorado. We walked about the Plaza / Park of Guatavita for a good while, going to a few artesanias there. This town is kind of distinct, almost all the houses and buildings white, with the redbrown rooves. There is a Plaza de Toros there. The Plaza area is distinct from other towns, hard to describe without pictures. There was a rain there, and as we moved on, decided not to go to the Laguna, becuase, apparently with rains, the road up to there and such is not favorable. Anyway so I was close to it! :) We trucked on along through the countryside, passing through a number of little towns, in many a lot of really really old wall-fences of probably mud-brick or something. Always having to ask directions. I learned quickly how to politely ask-- always speak to a Senora if possible, and say "Senora!, un favor!..." :) We went through a place called Nemocon, with the next destinations being Cucunuba, and Ubate. (Sorry I cant get the accents on this keyboard, arrrgggghhhhh.) We wanted to go to Cucunuba for the quality of RUANAS they have there. A RUANA is a kind of clothing typical to South American fashion, especially in the ANdes I think.... Different kinds or styles to be found in different countries... What we were looking for, apparently, was ruanas SIN CARDADO (means when the wool is not combed - something like that - to get the softer appeal). The ruanas can also be "closed" or "open", meaning: for the former kind of ruana will have a slit to put the head through, and for the latter, there will be a slit from head down, sort of. The latter can be warn with the two sides hanging, or one of the sides put over the opposite shoulder. But checking them out in the local artesanias, there were hardly any SIN CARDADO to be found. I landed up getting two ruanas, with the open-style. They are beautiful, the colors suit me, and, boy are they cozy! I also got a bufanda (scarf) and hat of neutral color which are really really nice. Cucunuba, although a town, is like Hollywood (haha) in that it has CUCUNUBA letters on the mountain at its side. Yes, I got a pic. :) In Ubate, Indiana wanted to get some cheeses (in that town there is another dairy production I guess) and we got some. We also walked around the plaza of the town. (Can you tell yet, that the PLAZA is the place to go in every town???) :) DAY 12, May 17: Hopped the bus with Tania first thing in the morning and I got off at a big supermarket called Carrefour (a French chain of supermarkets found in Latin America) (but which carry of course all kinds of South American foods and products). Well I spent about two hours there (it is huge, sort of like a SuperStore in Canada, really huge with clothes and household goods and all). I picked up a lot of Colombian chocolates to bring home, and will return for arequipe just before I leave country (as they have expiry dates). Checked out the produce section and saw a lot of new fruits and veggies... I bought a bottle of 100% Orange Juice, this was SO YUMMY!!!!!!!!!! The place to go though to see produce here in Bogota is called "Paloquemao", I hope to make it there yet. Took a taxi home from there, had a good conversation with the driver on the way. After I dropped my groceries off at home, walked over to the Christian bookstore just off of Avenida Jimenez. Oh I got excited there, finding many cool things in Spanish, not to mention all sorts of books by many Ive heard of, translated into Spanish and available there, including Swindoll, Bright, and too many others I cant remember right now. AND OF COURSE, I got lost in the music section -- and was impressed to find a lot of good Christian music by Colombians. Of course I picked some up, could have spent a lot of money there if I d have wanted.... There is a Christian group from here, Bogota, really popular among the Christian youth and young adults. It is called "Mision Vida", or "Life Mission", algo asi, and it is good. Actually I had already heard a little of their album in Sandras car. They also have good Christian salsa, Christian vallenato, and more. (Find continuation on next entry......) |