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My craziest night so far was last Saturday after I met up with a contact I had in Bogota named Hilary, another recent graduate who is in Bogota for the next several months working with a micro-finance organization (actually kind of a cool idea. These organizations give out small loans to individuals looking to setup or grow their buisness, when normal banks won't. They apparently have a very high rate of payback, and some of the effects of the recipients are startlingly dramatic!). Perhaps the funniest part is the connection itself, as the separation between the two of us is like 8 people deep. A few weeks before I left, I got a (rather long) chain of emails informing me that I had a possible contact in the region. Part way through the chain, some guy named Jed wrote:
To be clear here is the connection. Brendon through Rosene connected with Mary who connected with her husband's cousin's wife, Nancy, who connected with her husband's brother (me) who connected with Susan to connect with her daughter to have a set of contacts in Bogota 😊
I guess the world is even smaller than I thought. Anyway, I met up with her on Saturday, and after diner went out to a club in “La Zona Rosa” (one of Bogota's party districts) with her and a few of her Colombian friends. It was one of their birthdays (a guy named Fernando), so he and several of his friends were out celebrating. Turns out the Colombians know how to party... Several bottles of tequila later, there were few in the group not ready to dance overly enthusiastically to the odd collection of Hip-hop, Salsa, Reggaton, Techno, and Micheal Jackson hits from the 80s blaring over the loudspeakers. It was slightly disconcerting that although there were a lot of american songs playing, I'm pretty sure that the Colombians knew the words better than I did! And a lot of them didn't even speak english! My (rather pitiful) attempt at a Micheal Jackson dance impression was quickly put to shame by another guy who had the moves down pat. He even kind of looked like a colombian MJ... By the time the club closed at 3am, my ears were ringing.
But the night was young according to the Bogotanos! We all headed back to Fernando's house for a few more hours of celebrtation. It was here that they brought out a rather strong drink called Aguardientre (I think), a local drink made from sugercane that tastes a little like anise. I had heard terrible things about the drink, but I actually didn't mind the flavor (the several bottles of tequila may have helped though...)! The next few hours were filled with a smattering of gringo attempts at salsa dancing and ever more convincing Michael Jackson impressions, until I passed out in Fernando's guest bed at around 6am.
Needless to say, after I made it back to my Hostel the next morning, I spent the majority of sunday afternoon sleeping and fighting off the band of congo drummers that had taken up residence on the inside of my skull. I had attempted to use Sunday to look for motorcycles, but that would have to wait...
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Delana Eby
non-member comment
Wow.
Holy crap. This trip sounds so crazy and so much fun! I wish I could be traveling with you. But I just got back from Europe so I guess I got my share of fun too. Brendon! You got your camera stolen again?!?! I would have thought you had learned by now...I guess not.. :) Good luck finding a motorcycle but please don't die. Love you, Delana