In March of this year (yeah, writing this a bit late I know) I flew to Colombia for a week. After three months of living in Pisco, surrounded every second by the rotation of 60-80 other volunteers from dozens of other countries and cultures, facing the troubles of keeping the biodiesel project afloat through its many hiccups, and being without proper good veg food or beer, I was badly in need of a vacation!
I met up with a friend from Arizona, Matt. It was his first time really traveling; he had to get a passport and everything! I was pretty excited and amused by this, because I got to hear observations of another country from someone who was so green. I was also very excited to see the familiar face of a good friend, as traveling gets lonely even when you are surrounded by people.
We met in Bogotá and decided to explore the city for a bit then find another town nearby for some trekking or sight-seeing. Bogotá was a very beautiful and lush city, probably because it rains all the time! We spent a couple of days walking around, eating great food and finally drinking good beer! I get sick of plain beer really quick, and it seems like most other countries (at least in Asia and South America) only produce these tasteless lagers and have very few other choices. In Bogotá we found the BBC (Bogotá Brewing Company) which had its own line of beer and even a Belgian wheat beer, my favorite! We found a lot of other good food, but admittedly didn’t eat very much Colombian food – I was craving American, European and Asian food like crazy! We did eventually eat some Colombian breakfasts and I found that I absolutely love arepas. They’re like little patties of cornbread, but can range from very tasty to a bit bland. Put a fried egg on top of a good one and you have a delicious breakfast! Going to bring that idea home. They also sell them hot on the street and that was a great snack.
(View from outside our hostel in Bogotá)
(Matt and I trying new beers and fantastically huge chocolate milkshakes)
(I was so excited about balsamic vinegar, good pizza and beer I had to take photos)
(Fanciest Burger King ever! Even the McDonald's in Bogotá was stone with pretty gold signage.)We loved walking around the city, checking out old buildings, trees covered in moss, and interesting graffiti. Walking seemed to be the best way to go because the buses were confusing and you have to call for cabs on the phone and give them a code when they pick you up for security reasons. The code is the last two digits of the phone you called from. Usually the hostels will call cabs for you, but good luck getting one once your in town. Nobody seemed to want to help us with this! That was frustrating, because we couldn’t just find a payphone to call for one, not knowing the language well or even where we were. And the adventure isn’t over once you’re in the cab. The cabs are metered, but you have to match the number on the meter with the price listed on a card in the back pocket of the seat. We saw this, but then there’s a list at the bottom of extra fees for things like riding on a Sunday or at night, or going to the bus station or airport. But it’s in Spanish and a bit vague. When does “night” start? Either way, the drivers always tried to overcharge us. I figured it out quickly and gave them a piece of my mind every time they tried it on with us. Usually they would just tell you a price that was a dollar or two more than it should be (then I would sharply correct them, which would be followed by a sheepish smile from them). It drives me nuts the way people like this prey on foreigners.
(cute dog near our hostel)
(Bogotá graffiti)
(Bogotá graffiti)
(Bogotá graffiti)
(Bogotá graffiti)
(Bogotá graffiti)
We made it to the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) on one of its free entrance days and explored how many pre-Incan and Incan civilizations in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia mined for gold and used different techniques to mold it into jewelry, trinkets, and armor. Much of the gold was stolen when the Spanish came. At the museum I noticed a little boy standing next to me wearing some kind of sports shirt from Minnesota! I met his parents and found out they were here adopting a child and were from Eden Prairie (the suburb right next to where I grew up), such a small world! I can’t believe this even surprises me anymore.
After a few days of rainy Bogota, we searched the net for another place to see and found that Villeta was only two hours away and very warm! It seemed like the entire area within 8 hours of Bogota was raining except for this tiny town. So we hopped a little bus and drove through beautiful mountains down into Villeta. We stayed at a guesthouse owned by English people who were very helpful and showed us where we could go hiking. We saw some waterfalls and many butterflies. On one mountain hike, as I was busy checking out butterflies and other weird bugs and plants, Matt realized the ground was a bit glittery. We looked closer and found that we were walking on crystals! They weren’t huge, but I did get a few rocks covered in a crust of clear crystals. That was really neat!
(going hiking in Villeta)
(going hiking in Villeta)
(sugar cane field)
(sugar cane field)
(very creepy old train bridge with a narrow board to walk on)
(very creepy old train bridge with a narrow board to walk on)
(very creepy old train bridge with a narrow board to walk on)
Villeta was also really cool for me because it was safe to be out at night (unlike many parts of Bogota) and also because we found an amazing vegan restaurant. It said vegetarian, but I’m pretty sure there were no animal products in the food at all, but it was still incredibly tasty and healthy. I love vegan cooking in particular because it’s not so easy to do. Meat is hard to screw up, but vegetables take a little extra care, and when the chef gets it right, it’s the best! Also, as Colombia was a bit more expensive than Peru in general, I was happy to get a 3-course meal with fresh juice for only 3 dollars! We ate there three days in a row. The town also had a very pretty main plaza. The trees in it were gigantic and covered in vines and orchids. There was also the church of course, and in the middle of our stay in Villeta we went to see the people who were going in for Ash Wednesday. Half the town had a black smudgy cross on their foreheads that day.
After Villeta, we went back to Bogota and had some more interesting experiences with the public transportation. We got to the bus station and tried to get a taxi, but the line for the taxi stand was literally hours long. So I tried to find someone who spoke English who could help us. We found two Colombian girls who showed us where other taxis were, but these taxis were charging about three times the amount they should have been! We figured out that they were all commissioned by hotels, so they charge more if you want to go anywhere else. The driver was so low, he even looked at my notes for my hostel reservation and told me that he was sure I didn’t have it right – no hostel in that area is so cheap. Apparently it’s normal for these drivers to tell people their hostel or hotel doesn’t exist anymore, or other lies like this to get you into their hotel. I figured out the game they were all playing and headed back to the line. Luckily, I noticed other foreigners in the front of the line and asked where they were going – same area! So we hopped in the cab with them after waiting only about 15 minutes. Saved ourselves quite a lot of time and money and even made some new friends! We did meet up with them in their hostel later and Elena gave us a taste of some of the exotic new fruit she’d bought (there is SO much fruit in the world I’ve never heard of!)
The next afternoon we went to the Botanical Garden, a perfect place for a couple of plant geeks like us. It was basically overloaded with beautitful, exotic plants. They also had a butterfly exhibit going on at the time, which was a steamy room with butterflies, cocoons, and catarpillars all over the place.
Another funny transportation experience happened after we finished touring the garden. We got outside and tried to find someone who could help us call a cab, but even at the garden, nobody could help us. So I figured I would try out the buses. Bogota has one city bus company that doesn’t go everywhere, so there are many private buses and collectivos that go all over town and show their routes in the front window. We hopped on the next bus we saw that was going toward the north. One problem solved, sort of, we didn’t know where to get off! I asked the friendly woman next to me, and with my broken Spanish, she figured it out and told me she would show us when to get off. But then these two university students got on the bus to tell jokes. Yes, jokes. They figured out we didn’t speak Spanish, so one boy started his funny story in Spanish and the other one would copy him in English. It was really funny and made for such a great bus experience! The woman next to me told them we needed help, and they actually got off the bus with us and showed us which streets to take. This made me a bit nervous – I just knew they were going to ask for money. They walked us up to this great gothic cathedral where some other friends of theirs were doing comedy as well. They poked a little fun together at us foreigners getting lost, but it was all in fun. Then they gave us their phone number in case we wanted a tour of the city, so nice! They never asked for money, but we were happy for the help and gave them some anyway. We later learned that there just aren’t enough jobs in Bogota for everyone, so some people do things like this or play music on the bus or street, or bag groceries for tips.
I had a really great time in Colombia hanging out with Matt and exploring another country. Even though I knew I didn’t want to stay much longer at PSF, I started missing “home” and was excited to get back. It was really nice to get back to PSF and see my roommate Karine, other familiar faces, and many new ones I would quickly get to know.
Some of the things I noticed in my very short stay in Colombia were that the people seemed much more open, friendly, and polite (at the time my comparison was to Peru). Bogota is much more metropolitain and advanced than Peru’s capital city, Lima. Because of my upbringing, I notice the way strangers treat each other. In Korea, strangers don’t hold doors for others. That drove me nuts! In Peru, when I’m walking down the street, people barely get out of the way for me. In Bogota, people give you a lot of space to walk around and nobody rudely bumps into my shoulders. There was a bit more PDA in Bogota though, it wasn’t uncommon for Matt and I to see couples making out in restaurants or on the street. That doesn’t really bother me, it’s just a bit strange. All in all I really liked Colombia and would 
love to come back, especially to the northern coast for some scuba diving!
love to come back, especially to the northern coast for some scuba diving!
