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Published: November 22nd 2010
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Rainbow in Bogota
After so much rain, finally a little sun and a little rainbow... The first full weekend ended yesterday.
Friday morning went hiking on the mountain close by. 5am start, loaded the camera equipment and a 10 minute taxi ride brought myself and 3 of the girls to the hiking trail. They had been on this before so they knew what to expect. I, on the other hand, knew that it would be hard but not to what extent. We hiked for about an hour in which time I almost died! The combination of the thinning air and climbing up constantly highlighted my physical unfitness. I had 3 different headaches when we reached the halfway mark and could not move anymore. The trail continued but because we had to head back and eventually to work, we only made it that far before turning back. My anguish was to the point that I couldnt focus on taking artsy photos so I put up the best that I managed to get. The way down was a euphoria of the cleaner air and going downhill... I intend to finish that full hike before the end of this trip.
We were back by 8am and ready to head out to Soacha. The afternoon I spent there
teaching a christmas song to 4 different classes which they would preform the following week. The whole classroom had about 50 kids starting from second grade until 9th grade all screaming at the top of their lungs 'jingle bell rock' to my pointing to the lyrics on the board. It was quite an experience and the energy was electrifying. I hope to contribute more to the kids musically which will be possible when I get my hands on guitar.
In the evening, after a short nap, I headed out with a couple of the girls to a bar close by. We went through quite a few cocktails, solved the existence of god, and got to know each other a bit better. I feel pretty old in this bunch, I think I am the second oldest out of the lot. Thats ok as we are united with a common goal and the rest is peripheral.
Saturday I spent relaxing most of the day and went out for a solo walk to check out some of the music shops. Lots of good stuff out there but the prices where not as cheap as I had hoped. The selection though was HUGE!
Saturday night I was not in the mood to go out so stayed in with a bottle of scotch and played chess with the director of the program while the rest of the household went clubbing. Their night was cut pretty short as everyone was already pretty drunk and one of the guys was thrown out for losing his shirt. The household was pretty loud and it wasnt easy to get to sleep.
Sunday afternoon, I went out with one of the girls to find a park in which to sit and read. It just happened that there was a big park a few km away down the music street. One guitar caught my attention and I had to get it. Its a Walden, which i have never heard of, but the feel of the wood, the electronics on it (its semi-acoustic/classical and has a tuner), the fretboard all felt so comfortable, that I didnt bother going to the rest of the shops. It wasnt too expensive for what it is, but its a keeper. After guitar shopping, we headed towards the park and decided to stop for a bite to eat. We stopped at a little burger shop
along the way and my comrade got herself a burger, i wasnt hungry yet. The menu had a couple of burgers on it and a lot of meals which were 'perro'. She mentioned that perro meant 'dog'. I couldnt believe they would eat dogs here, as there are so many domesticated ones, so we asked one of the workers to confirm. All we got that it was an animal and after looking it up, there doesnt seem to be any other meaning to it. My comrade only had a couple of bites of her burger and lost her appetite. Later found out that dog eating was unthinkable here that it was probably 'hot dog'. hmmm... We finally got to the park and there was a festival going on there with shops, food, live music. We stayed for a while on the grass, i played with the guitar while she read, and as we were leaving, the main stage had a drag show. For a conservative catholic country, it was liberal enough to let this kind of display of mister sisters take the stage reaffirms how much this country has and continues to progress. I love it here...
Rest of
the night I spent playing the guitar in the living room for whoever would listen. Even those horrible pop songs which are popular in America at the moment. sigh...
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