Bogota - el rico y el pobre
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2005
1
8
14
Trip End
Apr 02, 2006
Bogota,
Colombia
Sunday, June 5, 2005
My heart felt as if it was being tugged in a thousand directions... with eager feelings of anticipation, continuation and pursuit of the next bundle of surprises beheld in this grand adventure... with intense longing to keep close to my heart the love to which I had just begun to open myself in one "certain" relationship...with feelings of gratitude - that I had made such amazing friends and had become a part of such a wonderful family..
At the top of Cerro Monserrate
. with feelings of hope that I would encounter more spiritual and beautiful souls as I crossed frontera por frontera into a new chapter. My last night in Merida, I went for a "vuelto" (a drive) around the city... with Alberto and my other friends. Feelings and memories danced together through my heart as I looked up into the night sky full of stars... full of hope and dreams. The clouds were crying...but I could still see the moon and her little twinkling grandchildren. U2 softly played through the car radio... "Walk on... walk on... walk on......" Thatīs just what I was about to do... within hours, I would be "walking on". So much of me smiled and giddily laughed at this thought... and another little piece of me ached profoundly, wanting to continue to melt in the embrace of love... warm, safe, secure and solid.
But there was a world out there calling my name. En route to Ecuador, I planned to cross the Columbian border, spend 3 days in Bogota and make it to Quito within 5 days to meet up with my friends, Ray and Rachel before they left for the states. The wind from the Ecuadorian mountains whispered to me over and over and over again... "come, Tiffany... we will take care of you... you are safe...you are never alone...peace is everywhere... calmate, calmate, calmate... venga Tiffany, venga aca." My soul ached. Vinieron las lagrimas...the tears... they streamed from my face from memories of everyone who left their delicate footprints in my heart in the last 3 months..
Bogota on a Sunday
. Alberto, Nelis y Leo, Maria, Mappy y David, Laura, Kiko y Oswaldo, Vanessa, Ricardo, Carlos, Louisa, Luis, Lara, Evay. The tears drowned out any sound of conversation in the car. All was silent around me, but all was noisy inside. Silencia. Ruido. Una mezcla de emociones profundas. Was I ready? Would I ever be "ready"? What does it mean to be "ready"?Perhaps this locura in my head contributed to my 24 hour illness 2 days before my departure. Just when I thought I had made it through 3 months in SA without getting any type of illness, I came down with something horrible... who knows what little demon crawled into my stomach, but after having to jump off the bus to vomit in the middle of the street and in front of a grossed out vendor selling perros calientes (which, EWE, by the way are street hot dogs in crusty buns, loaded with mayonnaise, onions, and those little crispy thin potato strips that you used to eat when you were starving as a child!) Anyways, after 12 subsequent vomiting episodes, a number of bathroom sprints, 18 hours of solid sleep, chills, sweats, fever, you name it... I was back on my feet! (Quite similar to my ICU experience, Treger!... except there were no ICUīs near! Just a cozy little cama (thank god) en la casa.) With thoughts of getting on the bus at 3am the following morning to leave Merida, lets just say I wasn't pumped to spend 10 hours in an icebox on wheels.
Con un besito a Merida and a promise to return "someday", I left with Nelis, la madre, for the border of Columbia and Venezuela... Cucuta... Near there, in Ureņa, we spent a night at the Aguas Termales where I was able to regain my strength and patch up my torn heart with a nice long meditation and yoga practice. Nelis and I spent hours watching the sky...from dusk and into the night... llenaba de estrellas brillantes... we must have seen over 2 dozen shooting stars
Merida - Los Techos
. You can bet I made a wish on every one! Pero no te voy a decir los deseos!The following morning I hopped on a bus to Bogota... quite a locura getting from place to place cuz they speak SO FAST in Columbia! I spent most of the time saying "como?" "como?" "como?" "No entiendo, por favor hable mas despacio." Ha. Sixteen wonderful hours to Bogota... Good God, help me. At about 2am, of course on MY bus, came half of the Quechuan community, who, come to find out, don't really give a poop about those trying to sleep on the bus. NOISE everywhere! All around! Like the fricken USC band had just boarded! Nearly scared the crap out of me! As it was, I spent the rest of the evening watching the lights go by out the window. I also managed to spill my entire 2 Liter bottle of water all over myself, with no extra clothes to spare. Um, not such a good idea right before we were about to climb up into the high Andes in zero degree weather! Yeah, pretty damn cold. As I shivered my way to warmth along the windy roads, I was humbled by thoughts of The Motorcycle Diaries and how I was Really Fricken Glad that indeed, I was NOT on a motorcycle!
So by 730am, I find myself in this great big city of the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. A city with all luxurious influence of technology, fast foot and high risers combined with homeless 6-year old beggars, pick pockets, thieves and an oppressed population of saddened faces...
One of Boteros famous paintings...
. Bogota. Lonely planet puts it best - "Bogota is a city which offers every western convenience and suffers from every 3rd world problem - brilliant , splendid, vibrant and diverse with vast shantytowns, beggars, thieves, wild traffic and graffiti." The taxi drivers hounded me once again but I opted to take the bus into downtown (a little different from the buses in Merida cuz these ones had bullet proof shields between the passengers and the driver) Welcome to Columbia! I arrived at a previously recommended hostal and was relieved to find about 20 other travelers... all of whom spoke English. Wow! I can actually talk without thinking here!
I ended up in a double bunked room with three other cats: Jeremy, a student from Washington full of youthful energy. David, an Australian crackhead (literally) who, when I arrived, had been sleeping for almost 28 hours after having partied for 3 days straight! A classic dude with plenty of stories... one notably being held at gunpoint and thrown in jail, stripped and robbed all in the same hour while drunk in Caracas his first night in South America! After hearing that one, I decided I wasn't going to let him show me around Bogota. However, the fourth person in my bunk, David, was the most down to earth genuine guy from Espaņa. Full of positive energy and warmth... turns out he knows Alberto and all my friends in Merida! Quite a world, isn't it? He climbs, hikes, loves the mountains, does Capoeira and was planning to go to Quito as well! I also met many other wonderful travelers... Jos - a tall blonde Dutch gentleman who loved his coffee and roll in the morning hours, Alejandro, a sweet Italian with plenty of nice things to say, a pleasant demeanor and a contagious laugh, Roberto, a Uruguayan who grew up in Jersey with an awesome afro... a strong kid who spent the last year of his 19 year old life traveling South America - with a zest for life and a smile that Im convinced killed all the South American women that looked at him
The drunk Auzzie crackhead...
! Sin embargo, knowing that my stay in Columbia would be short, I immediately began packing all the activities in! Bogota has many wonderful sights, architecture and cultural beauty:
Museo del Oro - the most famous gold museum in the world.
Museo Botero - which houses the richest paintings in South America (Botero, Picasso, Renoir, Matisse, Monet)... However, Botero loved to paint fat people...seriously... and after looking at about 6 rooms full of well nourished naked women, I was desperately searching for some abstract art and sculptures!)
Cerro de Monserrate - with spectacular views of all of Bogota, the statue of Sr. Caido, (Fallen Christ) to which many miracles have been attributed.
Catedral de Sal - an entire cathedral made of salt
Esmeraldas - which contains amazingly gorgeous and pristine emeralds from all over SA
View from Ureña - las Aguas Termales
.Historically rich churches, parks, theaters...
Bogota is a grand city... music, theatre, art, culture, dance... but according to many natives, this is a cosmetic "front". For, underneath the mask of diamonds and pearls lies poverty, famish, social injustice, depression, oppression, war... Guerra. There are armed soldiers literally on every corner, guarded by shields and rifles and combat gear. There are daily riot warnings, sirens, alarms, fighting in the middle of the street, theft, rape, crime, crime, crime. The people desperately want... something. Material, physical, emotional, psychological satisfaction. Or perhaps they just want freedom. Wow. How fortunate and blessed I feel to live in a country and come from a family where I never had to and never will have to feel that pain and sadness. Bogota truly is what I call a "bi-polar" city. Beautiful here, ugly there. Brilliant there, dark here. Strong and disabled at the same time.
In the midst of it all, I still felt safe. I never once felt in danger. However, I did find difficulty in always putting my head straight forward and avoiding eye contact with a culture I so wanted to understand and know, hiding a smile that I achingly wanted to offer to the saddened eyes of the poor children. But as a female traveler on her own, I must ALWAYS know where Im going... (or at least look like it!) I walk briskly, with self confidence and assurance, eyes fixed, shoulders back, even though 75 percent of the time I have no clue where the hell I am. I wear my Venezuelan cap around a lot keep myself from being "gringa bait". Seems this hat actually helped me get 3 months in Columbia instead of the usual 1 month they give tourists! Ha, too bad Im gone in 3 days!
And yes, three days was plenty for me in Bogota... that is simply MY opinion. My traveling counterparts would beg to differ. Especially those males whom ranted and raved about Columbia... why? "Because they have the most beautiful women in all of South America!!!" I found that after being in little Merida for so long, I have some sort of phobia of being in big cities! Maybe Im just a little more sensitive to the RUIDO! Needless to say, I was actually ready to board my, errrrr, 23 hour bus ride to Ipiales and then catch another 5 hour ride into Quito. Ready for more adventure. Ready to climb mountains. Ready to enter the Amazon and visit the Galapagos. Ready for different people, a culture mixed with an abundance of foreign travelers, patient Ecuadorians and smiling Quechuans. Ready for a country that, little did I know, would offer me an enveloping peace that I never knew I had the ability to feel while submersed en un ambiente tan desconocido...
