Gunga- T-shirt contest-and the winner is.....

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In the spirit of the Academy Awards ( which we watched entirely in Spanish last night) I want to give an award to the best t-shirts I saw yesterday. The runner up is a picture of Che' Guvara ( sp?) with this written in large print under his iconic picture: CLICHE'. And the winner is a red t-shirt with the Macdonald golden arches. Under the arches it said: "marijuana" under that it said " 1 billion stoned". I have never inhaled myself but I appreciate seeing people who have a good sense of humor.

Sat. we went to the fantastic Botero museum. It is a permanent exhibit of 208 pieces by Fernando Botero including his paintings. sculptures, and drawings. If you have never seen any of his works please google him. His paintings are usually of large ladies, men, and children. Even his dogs and horses are generous sizes. He has a delightful sense of humor in his drawings and you can't help but smile as you wander through the galleries. In addition, there are works by Picasso, Chagall, Calder, Miro, Dali, Renoir, Matisse, and Monet. The museum is FREE so we can go back any time we want. It is about 3 blocks from our hotel.

Sitting on a bench outside one of the galleries we were joined by a young man from Seoul, Korea. He is a professor at a very prestigious University there. He is on sabbatical and is traveling around to many countries. Colombia was his first. When we asked him "Why Colombia?" He answered pretty much as we did when asked that question- "because for many years it wasn't safe but now seemed to be a good time." We all marveled at how calm it was, how sweet and welcoming the people were, how good the food was and how inexpensive restaurants were. As we talked a bit more I found out he had done his Masters and Ph.D at Rutgers ( my son's Alma Mater). His plans are to do some trekking. When I asked him if he had any meds for the high altitude he cracked up. "Can you believe my doctor gave me viagra?" That was a new one for me as I've only ever heard of Diamox as being a med to prevent altitude sickness. More on our new friend later...

We stopped for lunch at the Restaurant Bore. It was not a bore. The chef came to explain all the special dishes he could prepare for us. Everything is cooked over a wood fire. I had a wonderful piece of beef, perfectly done, and tender as a filet mignon for about $12, Val had an equally delicious vegetarian meal with a seafood soup he prepared just for her. They had a long converstion about some special cookware that is made in Colombia. He showed her on a map where to go to find a shop that sells it. We went the next day and she was joyous with her purchase of a black clay cooking pot and lid for about $7.50. On line it was about $75.00 + shipping. Later Sat, evening we found a delicious Middle East restaurant right 1/2 block from our hotel. The falafel were delicious as good as any we had in Egypt.

Oh, remember that nonsense about it being the dry season- well sure enough Sat. night was a HUGE thunder and lightning storm. We were dry, if not warm, inside our room when it hit. I am still waiting for my othere shoes to dry :-(

Those of you who have read any South American literature know it is often called "magical realism". Spending any number of Sundays in many Central and So.Am. countries I can tell you that you never know what you will run into. I remember a wonderful parade in Cuenca, Ecuador that just seemed to materialize out of nothing. The processions in Antigua, Guatemala were solemn and varied from neighborhood to neighborhood. The parades in Cusco were endless -16 hours being one I witnessed. And, of course, lovely Oaxaca, Mexico where symphony band concerts were held in the middle of a street while down on another corner were other musical groups. So we ventured out Sunday morning knowing something might happen and we were not disappointed. As we headed towards the 'cooking pot store' we heard drums pounding and loud cheering. As we got closer we saw lots of police and military. We are cautious when we think it might be a political demonstration or strike as that is a place tourists are not welcome. We have learned, as far back as 2003 when we were in Spain and the entire country was protesting Bush's invasion of Iraq ,(and they were one of his so called allies) that you go in the other direction when you see people marching. I asked a soldier if it was political or a sports rally ( yeah, for my baby Spanish!). He told me it was for the futbol team 'Santa Fe Bogota' and that the game was that day. Whew! We stopped and enjoyed seeing all the young people dressed in their red and white team shirts waving flags and throwing confetti all the while jumping up and down and cheering keeping time with the drum beats. It was great fun.

We walked throught the plaza and saw at least a hundred boy scouts all lined up in front of the major statue in the square. Right in their midst was the fellow we saw the other day( only in a black uniform) in back of his sign delclaring himself 'Governor of God' AND 'President of Peace'. Today, since it was Sunday, he had on his 'dress whites' with plenty of 'scrambled eggs' (as the military called the gold stuff on their hats). No one told him to get off the podium. He sat quietly until all the scouts left and then started his spiel. Really, you cannot make this stuff up.

Today we booked a car and went to the salt cathedral in the town of Zipaquira. While we were having breakfast our friend from Korea came to join us. He was leaving Bogota today and wanted to say 'goodby'. What a delight it was to see him again! The town we were to visit is about 35 miles north of Bogota. It was great on many levels but mostly because it got us way outside our neighborhood. Margarita, a really, really good driver, was open to talking about anything. She is 36 and loves to be a tour guide. She went out of her way to point out all the universities telling us that often the public ones are shut down whenever there is political unrest. She grew up in Cali and described how horrible it was to live there when the drug cartels were in power- especially for a young girl. She told us that China wants to build a new route from the Atlantic to the Pacific and is trying to get land in Colombia to do it. The land they want is very important for the rain forest and keeping our (yes our, ) air clean. It would pretty much make the Panama Canal obselete. At one time what is now Panama was part of Colombia but when the US wanted to build the canal it 'created' a new country ( Panama). Oh, people, our history is so sordid when the 'robber barons' did whatever they wanted and our gov't assisted them. Does Teddy Roosevelt and his exploits ring a bell? I won't even get into what United Fruit did to the countries of Central Am. Enjoy those bananas.

We went for dinner at an Italian restaurant a couple of doors from our hotel. A sign said it would open at 4pm. But when we went in at 4 they told us to come back at 5pm. We walked around to find another place but apparently a lot fo places close on Monday. After walking for 1/2 an hour we went back. There were 2 young girls running around seemingly doing everything from cleaning the bathrooms to taking orders. There was a lot of running in and out of the place. We ordered and waited and waited and waited. While we waited a man about 35ish came in. He turned out to be the owner. Next, a TV camera crew and a reporter came in. They set up right next to our table. Hmm, this is interesting. Meanwhile, no dinner has appeared. One of the waitresses came to us and in very fast Spanish told us the problem. We didn't understand a word. She sat down at a computer and found a translation and about 10 minutes later put a notebook in front of me explaining that they had no gas in the stove. But, the note went on, there shoud be some soon and our dinner would be ready in 20 min. ( it was now 5:45). What the heck? This was worth it for the entertsinment value alone. The TV camera was turned on and the owner was interviewed not more than 2 feet from us. His Spanish was good and he spoke slowly so that we understood almost everything he said. He had come from Venice, married a Colombian, had a couple of kids, loved the Colombian people- he said that over and over. The reporter pressed him as to what exactly did he love and he had a hard time finding the words. Over and over he repeated 'just the people'. Oh, he then said how safe Colombia was -not as dangerous as El Salvador or Nicaraqua(although he said he had never been to those countries). I wanted to tell him I HAD been to those countries 5 years ago and didn't find them dangerous at all. Finally, after 6, our dinners arrived. It was worth the wait as it was delicious. First, we had tasly bruschetta with cheese, tomato, and mushrooms. Then I had a wonderful creamy vegetable and meat lasagna. I've never had a dish like it. There was no tomato sauce and only a top and bottom layer of noodles. The rest was filling. Unusual. So an Aquila beer ( highly recommended by our driver, the bruschetta, and the lasagna came to about $8. The entertainment- priceless.

More adventures ahead....
Carolyn

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