This trip got off to a unique start for me. Normally, I spend my time on airplanes and buses staring out the window, romanticizing about my upcoming adventure or biting my lip, trying to stop from grinning like a fool so as not to completely creep out the people around me. I'm filled with adrenaline and have long conversations with whoever the hell is nearby.
This time, though, was different. And difficult. It was so hard to leave Rio. It's always hard to leave a place but somehow this one completely destroyed me. The fact the I hadn't slept the night before didn't help with emotion control either...but still. I somehow spent the whole day without smiling or talking to anyone. I was just sad to leave my crew, my dude and that beautiful city.
I got some cathartic journaling in on the plane and watched some Friends, two things which always help. Then, as soon as I got to the airport, things really started looking up! The first reminder that I wasn't in Brazil was the lack of bureaucracy. My god...the line in Customs moved. We simply went to the counter, got checked in and moved on. So not the Brazilian way. Then, as I went down the escalator to baggage claim, the sound of reggaeton filled my happy little ears. Yep...things were looking good!
I took a taxi (for six freaking dollars) to get to the house where I was going to couch surf. I'm staying with a girl name Laura and her mom and they are amazing. They both hugged me when I got here, showed me to my room (yes, I have my own room, a giant bed, and even my own bathroom!!) and gave me a tour of their beautiful apartment. Laura had two friends over, a friend from childhood and a Venezuelan that she'd met the week before on couchsurfing, and we all went out to grab some food together.
Of course, when Laura asked me what my plans were, I told her I had none. Anyone that knows me knows that I hate to plan this kind of thing. 1. I'm too lazy. 2. I think it sucks the fun, adventure and spontaneity out of the trip.
She recommended a 5-hour bike tour that goes all throughout the city of Bogota so that's what I did with my first day here. I showed up almost half an hour late (okay, I should've left earlier but the traffic in this city is insane) but the people in charge of the tour were nice enough to ride with me to catch up with the rest of the group. Right away, I was terrified. I grew up in Ohio where you have all the space in the damn world to ride a bike. Here, though, it's a giant city filled with cars and mostly lacking bike lanes. We were squeezing through spaces between cars and curbs, just like crazy motorcyclists do--that, by the way, is something I now know I never want to attempt. We made it to the group and I pulled up next to a girl toward the back. Once the guide finished explaining whatever he was talking about and I stopped breathing like a damn hippo (we're at 2,640 meters/8,660 feet above sea level here), I said something to the girl next to me.
It turned out she and her cousin (that was there, too) were American. These girls were awesome (as was everyone else I met on the tour) and we hung out all day. The tour was incredible. The guide, also an American, has been living here for 17 years and is hilarious and extremely knowledgeable about Colombian culture, its history, politics and everything else!
We packed a lot into that five-hour tour:
We played Tejo, Colombia's national sport which, for you Ohioans, is like an intense version of Cornhole. You take a heavy disk and lob it underhand towards an angled box of clay that has a circle of cases filled with gunpowder. If you make it into the middle of the circle (which I did once!), you get two points. If you hit and explode one of the little gunpowder cases, you get one point. I'm dumb though and thought that the goal was to hit the gunpowder. That was what I was actually trying to do when I got it in the middle and got two points! But okay...whatever works!
We played Tejo, Colombia's national sport which, for you Ohioans, is like an intense version of Cornhole. You take a heavy disk and lob it underhand towards an angled box of clay that has a circle of cases filled with gunpowder. If you make it into the middle of the circle (which I did once!), you get two points. If you hit and explode one of the little gunpowder cases, you get one point. I'm dumb though and thought that the goal was to hit the gunpowder. That was what I was actually trying to do when I got it in the middle and got two points! But okay...whatever works!
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| Our guide teaching us the rules |
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| Setting up the gunpowder cases |
We also biked through the Redlight District. (You're not allowed to take pictures...which was fine by me.) Prostitution is legal here so there's no reason to hide it but child trafficking is a problem anyway. Speaking of children and prostitution, I found it a bit odd that school children walked either through or right around the area. There's also apparently a whole high-end prostitution market here in Colombia and it's extended to other countries, as well (often the U.S.). This whole topic is super interesting and I learned a lot about that yesterday, too, but I don't know if anyone wants to read about it.
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| the factory |
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| With my new American friends in the cute little cafe |
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| We went to a market and tried TONS of fruits that I had never seen before and everything was delicious. I think Colombia even beats Peru as far as exotic fruit goes! |
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| "El agua vale más que el oro" (Water is worth more than gold) |
We saw a lot of the many beautiful graffiti murals around the city and they're incredible. Not only are they beautiful, but they send incredible messages, often criticizing the government. But here's the best part--they're usually funded by the government. The government here, knowing that the messages will often be critical, gives artists space on the walls to paint. They even pay for the material a lot of the times, too! It's definitely one of the things that makes Bogota uniquely beautiful.
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| "Sembra Sano & Cosecha Las Ideas" (Plant Healthily & Harvest the Ideas) |
The guide also told us lots of stories in each place and we stopped a few times to get some snacks. Colombian street food is AWESOME! So far, I've only tried some soursop (I just google translated that--I've never heard of it in English but it's called guanabana here) juice, their corn on the cob (which is grilled so it's sort of between eating popcorn and the choclo they have in Peru) and a hot, spicy drink soooort of like a cider that they spike with their Colombian liquor. Omg. All delicious.
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| My tasty $2.00 drink Coconut Milk, Banana & Pineapple |
After the tour, a few of us (a girl from Israel, a girl from Switzerland, an Australian couple and me) decided to get dinner together and we went to a famous (yet still insanely cheap) place for dinner. We talked politics, culture and traveling for hours before we finally parted ways (of course after exchanging facebook/whatsapp since we'll all be traveling around this country for a while and can meet up again).
At night, Laura and her two friends that I'd met the night before had decided to drive up one of the mountains here so they took Myriam (the Swiss girl I met on the bike tour) and me with them. We sat on little plastic chairs with warm drinks and looked down at the lights of the entire South Zone of Bogota. It was pretty incredible.
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Laura and her mom are the sweetest people in the world and have been feeding me breakfast every morning, making sure I'm safe and that I know where I'm going and sharing in wonderful conversation with me! Laura's mom even lent me some money the first day I was here before I could go to the bank.
This is how it is, though. People are amazing. Everyone helps each other without even asking for anything in return and, that way, we know we can trust in other people to help, too. Last night, Myriam and I ran into a Canadian guy who couldn't get cash out on his card. He didn't speak Spanish so Myriam translated for him but in the end, his card wasn't going to work. So what did we do? We gave him the money.
People have done that for me on a number of different occasions. When I've gotten sick, people have gone to the hospital for me. When I didn't have enough work, people have lent me money. When I've needed a job, people have helped me find students. People are freaking amazing and nothing teaches you that more than traveling. For anyone who has trouble finding faith in the world or other people....just travel. Nothing that I know of will fill you with more love, gratitude or empathy for the human race.
On that note...I was also reflecting yesterday on how it's not the place that matters. I could be in Rio, Seoul, Bogota, Lima or wherever...you name it! It's traveling. Traveling is amazing and traveling is my home.
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