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Published: April 12th 2009
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BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
“Isn’t Colombia dangerous?” I can already hear you thinking. Yes and no. Of the top 10 most dangerous countries Iraq tops the charts, followed by Colombia, and then the USA. Apparently Bogota is statistically safer than Washington D.C. “Yeah, but Washington D.C. is only dangerous if you go to the really seedy parts.” Exactly. And Alvardo Uribe, Colombia’s newest president has done a lot to clean up this country. Gone are the days of tourists kidnappings (as long as you stay out of the Darien Gap) and a huge dent has been put in drug trafficking. Basically stay out of the jungle and don’t take night buses and you’re golden.
We noticed two things immediately upon landing in Bogota. 1) Bogota is COLD! Doesn’t the equator run through this country? We just weren’t used to being at elevation again. There are less palm trees and more pine trees. I guess I’ll have to wear something besides shorts and flip flops. 2) Bogota is clean. Really clean. People are all dressed in nice clothing. I wasn’t used to it. I thought maybe the plane diverted to Spain and we hadn’t been told. It’s really nice just to stroll
around for that reason alone. I think the people are trying to change Colombia’s reputation to increase tourism.
We weren’t really sure what to do in this town, so we decided to see just the majors before heading off. The Museo de Oro was pretty interesting because they had thousands of Pre-Colombian gold pieces on display, as well as giving in depth instruction of the various processes of making gold jewelry.
The Police Museum was interesting simply for the sheer number of firearms on display. I enjoyed seeing all the stuff Palbo Escabar had on his person when he died, at least 10 guns, as well as seeing his bloody jacket with bullet holes in it. There was one room with hundreds of dolls dressed with the various police uniforms around the world. Ammi laughed as she imagined these tough Colombian policemen arranging the dolls and making sure their little shoes were just so. As we were about to exit the country’s oldest policeman approached us. This guy in his 70s was more fit than I could ever hope to be in my life. “You are Americans?”
“Yes.”
“You are most welcome to our country. Please,
stay as long as you like.” We got to talking about politics and when Obama’s name came up he just beamed. Everyone we met loves Obama and is so excited to see what he’ll do. In fact, most Republicans don’t travel where we do, and so most people think they are a mythical as unicorns.
We’d heard about Bogota’s Hamster Race and we were afraid we were going to miss it. It’s not really a race, per se, more like Hamster Betting. A guy on the street holding a mega phone has about 5 well trained hamsters sitting by his heel. There are about 20 food dishes turned upside-down with holes in the side and numbers painted on top. People bet which ‘house’ the hamster is going to go into by putting coins on top of whatever house they chose. If a hamster goes into a house with coins on it that person gets all the money. If the hamster goes into a house without coins the owner gets the coins. Not a bad little business. And if the hamsters stop behaving he can always sell them to the Peruvians as food. Ammi decided to try her luck, putting
a few Pesos on number 2. The man tapped the hamster on the butt which ran off to the houses. He went halfway into one and came out as if changing his mind (I wonder if the guy secretly puts food in a house without coins on top). Finally the hamster decided on a house without coins, the winnings going to the owner. It was a good solid five minutes of fun.
Another thing we heard about was the Salt Cathedral. The salt miners long ago decided to build a great underground cathedral directly into the salt to try and improve their chances of survival while working in the dangerous mines. That’s not normally our type of thing but it’s supposed to be scenic. Plus we have a weird attraction to going underground. I think it started with the underground maze in Budapest. Anyway, the cathedral is lit with hidden fiber-optic cables that change color every few seconds providing for a psychedelic experience.
VILLA DE LEYVA
“I want to see this colonial town, Kevin.”
“Another one? Colonial towns are like churches in Europe, after a while I can’t see any more without going crazy.”
“Yeah,
Golden Idol
Now if I try to steal this will a huge round boulder chase me? but it has the biggest cobblestone plaza on the continent.”
“Great, the better to twist my ankle on.” The guidebook also talked about dinosaur fossils, wineries, and ostrich farms. I guess I could stand to see a dinosaur fossil. As we got there, however, we realized the sights were all far from town and the tours were really expensive. We were able to walk to the winery and had some good wine, but I saw a picture of the dinosaur fossil which looked kind of blah, and how badly did you really want to see ostriches? Not enough to pay through the nose for it, apparently. Nice scenic plaza, though.
We went to a restaurant and ordered steak. After we finished the waitress came up to us. “Did you enjoy your horse?” I thought maybe something got lost in translation. House, maybe? Hose? Or maybe she was referring to the kids outside trying to sell horseback riding tours to the tourists.
“Oh, no thanks. We don’t want to ride a horse.”
She looked at me like an idiot. “No. You just ate horse meat. How was it?”
Ammi and I stared at each other wide eyed.
Gold Dust
Museo de Oro, Bogota “I ate a horsey?” A single tear came to my eyes as I remembered Artex from “Never Ending Story” trying to survive the Swamps of Sadness. “It was yummy.”
SAN GIL
At least we’d be able to do some river rafter, something Ammi’s been looking forward to for a while. We tried it once in Durango, and even though it was the summer the water was pure ice melt. She wanted to give it another shot somewhere warmer and somewhere less expensive. You can’t beat $12 for two hours! After we got all suited up and after we memorized our commands (Adelante, atras, derecho, izquierda) we hopped in the raft and got under weigh. The water was warm, the rapids class II to III. We were having fun. Then for no reason the guide said: “Ok. Everybody get on the right side. We’re gonna flip the raft.”
My brain refused to compute what he told me. “Why?”
“Just so we know how to right it if it gets flipped later.” So we all got to the right side and pulled a hard as we could, dumping ourselves into the drink. It probably looked to
a passerby as logical as someone punching themselves in the face. After we righted it and got back in we were able to enjoy ourselves a bit more, since we were already wet and not afraid to paddle through the rapids. Another good day.
Next stop: Taganga and Cartegena. Chao!
***TRAVELERS' TIPS***
- Poor but Happy and Viva Travel Guides are both excellent online travel guides for Columbia.
-Bogota is safe during the day, but less so at night.
-Your best chance of seeing the Hamster Betting is to walk around the Museo de Oro.
-[url=http://www.platypusbogota.com/]Platypus while not the cheapest hostel in Bogota, is nice and it's a great place to meet people and the owner gives lots of useful information.
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Sydney
non-member comment
Rebbe Syd's kashrut rules for travel in the 3rd world
I hope you guys will be refraining from eating horse for Passover. That's really not kosher...yuck!