Hostel Life

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I am staying in a district of the city known as "La Candelaria", which is the part of the city that still has remnant colonial architecture intact. It is actually quite cool to walk around the small cobbled streets through the very colorful buildings. There are also a lot of random statues perched on top of buildings doing various things, which I have yet to figure out the significance of (I have asked several times, but have so far been unable to understand with my limited Spanish... something to do with colonialism).

Anyway, I am staying in a hostel, which I have only done a few times before. I have to say though, this has to be one of the better ways of traveling out there. In the few days that I have been here, I have met an enormous number of people, from every populated continent (I even met a few people from South Africa! Don't ask me why they are here while the world cup is going on over there...) . There are always people up for going out and doing whatever, especially at night. You are never short of travel companions if you so choose.

It has also been rather fun while the world cup is going on, as there are usually a few people rooting for whichever teams happen to be playing (you should have seen the Japanese people during the Japan v. Paraguay game yesterday!). Its too bad all the games are in the morning/afternoon, but there is still never a shortage of people in the bars or coffee shops drinking and yelling at the TV. I have been rooting for all the south american teams since the US has been eliminated, just because the scene is likely to erupt if one of those teams makes it close to the final. The Colombians seem to be mostly supporting Brazil, but for some reason dislike Argentina. I still have not figured that out exactly, but there seems to be some animosity there.

The one bad experience I have had was Saturday morning. I had literally been here less than 24 hours, and some dick hole already jacked my Camera! I have been using the camera as an alarm clock, so it was sitting literally a foot from my head. The alarm even went off at around 7:30 on Saturday morning (I forgot to turn it off...), but by the time I woke up at around 10, it was gone. I think it was the Colombian guy who was sleeping in the bunk above me (I am staying in a dorm of 6-10 people depending on the day), who was apparently rather displeased when he got back to the dorm at around 2 to find me asleep in the bed he had supposedly claimed... What a dick.

Since then I have been rather paranoid with everything valuable I own, and have been sure to put everything in the safe at the front desk when I am not using it. I even chained my wallet to myself. If any of those $%%#ers want to take anything else, they are going to have to work a bit harder.

Everything anyone ever said about the prevalence of drugs available in Colombia is true. As the world's largest producer of cocaine, Colombia has a very cheap and plentiful supply of the drug, and a lot of foreigners have it. In the few days I have been here, I have been offered the drug no less than 6-7 times! Its not really hard to understand why. Prices apparently range around $5-10 per gram, compared with (supposedly) upwards of $100 in the states. Weed is also dirt cheap, running about $5 for a large bag. Its apparently so cheap it is measured in handfuls rather than weight! This has lead to a rather sizable market for drug tourism, which seems to be widely accepted in the culture. I have even heard reports that should you so desire, you can get cocaine at many of the bars and clubs in central Bogata. That being said though, the presence of drugs and prostitution aren't terribly in your face. They are simply a widely available option, should you choose to partake (I have not.).

Overall, hostels are a rather fun way of traveling and meeting like minded foreigners. Relatively cheap too! I am staying in a rather nice central location of the city, in a highly rated hostel, and am paying about $7 a night.

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