Back to Bogota

I'll start this post with an advisory to anyone who may enjoy the photos more than the stories: there aren't many here. I was too excited to be back in Bogota, and having too much of a good time with everyone, to be bothered with my camera. In hindsight I regret this, but it was nice to fully participate in life as opposed to being stuck behind the lens for the last few days.

Between the ever-long busride and getting stuck in a cab during rush hour traffic, I finally rolled into Bogota somewhere around 5:30, which was 29.5 hours after I had left my hostel in Cartagena. Clearly, a shower was in order. Whitney materialized as I was getting ready, and we made the executive decision to eat some delicious Middle Eastern food a few blocks down Carrera 4. After that, we called Diego, a Colombian friend who works at Musicology, to meet us for drinks in El Chorro. Drinks, in this case, meant cheap boxes of sweet red wine. Between the three of us plus Whitney's new roommate Hazel, we had maybe 4 or 5 boxes of wine, and also lots of great conversation. Soon we decided to head to Rincon Cubano (I love finding the Cuban dance spots in Colombia, haha) and Whitney paired off with our new friend Carlos as I salsa'ed with Diego. After El Chan Chan played, Diego and I decided that more wine was in order, and set off to find some. Unfortunately, all the local stores that had been plying their wares were already closed, so we returned to Musicology for a few more nightcaps, and spent the night hanging out.

After breakfast with Diego the next morning, I met up with Whitney and Hazel, who were attending casting calls in the La Suba neighborhood of Bogota. We were all slightly unclear as to whether they were going to be in a show, movie, or what, but for a week of work as native English speakers they were going to earn the equivalent of about $700 US, so why not try? After reading short parts each, we hopped back on the inward bound bus, but stopped to check out the pet store district of Bogota, located around the 54th street stop on the Transmilenio. Whitney and I had notice this on my first full day in the city, being particularly amused by a store whose title in Spanish translated to "Seagulls and Canaries". We searched for this store to no avail- perhaps in the 4 weeks since it was first seen, the owners quickly realized that not many people were interested in seagulls for pets. Nonetheless, the puppies were adorable and we had a great time.

Back to the hostel for a quick nap and some dinner, then I was meeting back up with Whitney, Carlos, and Cesar en El Chorro. After a failed attempt at going to the reggae bar (it wasn't a good night by the

standards they know), getting a street arepa loaded with roasted veggies- mm- and some walking around, we all ended up spending the night hanging out at Whitney and Hazel's new apartment. Cesar is a street performer and we watched him do some juggling-type acts as we gazed out the windows over the city of Bogota. Around 2 AM, Cesar walked me home, I spent some time learning about soccer from Diego, and then it was time for bed.

Saturday morning I met up with Whitney and we walked around the city, just enjoying the gorgeous warm of the sunshine that does not always fall in Bogota. We also spent some time in this arcade where you can go and play any game on whatever gaming system you want- we chose Guitar Hero since Whitney and her friend Daniel (neither the Dan mentioned here nor the Daniel that I spent time with in Tayrona and Medellin) had scheduled a competition later that day. We met up with Dan and Raquel for lunch, and watched the first of the two semi-final games in the Copa America. Colombia lost :( After that, Whitney and Raquel headed for ice cream while Dan and I bought some wine and headed back to Musicology to watch the second game, since

Diego had already told me that he and his friends would be watching there and we were welcome to join them. Sadly, Argentina lost too. Two expected victors were down.

The rest of the night for me was spent drinking and hanging out at the hostel. Whitney, Dan, Raquel, and their friend Ani all decided to go out dancing, but I felt that it was beyond me at that point. I alternated between watching a movie with Daniel, and talking with Diego and his friend German. We ended up staying up and talking until about 5 AM, since we had excitement around 3 in the form of a girl returning to the hostel, vomiting and semi-hysterical. Diego, who was working reception at that point, had to call an ambulance, and it was a long ordeal, after which we relaxed by watching some Ali G and planning to see a movie the following afternoon. German finally had to sleep around 5 to get rest for his soccer game at 9, and I didn't last too much longer, but it was definitely a memorable night by any means.

After a brief nap (I only slept about 4 hours) I woke up and met Whitney and Dan. Thanks to the panaderia across the street from her house, we were able to have a delicious breakfast of fresh bread products (pan de coco, anyone?) and enjoy the morning. After hanging out with Whitney for a few hours, I made it back to the hostel, where I took one last nap in the hammock outside my door before waking Diego. We got ready and headed out on an adventure, to be detailed later since I am about to start moving!