So I always do have to remind myself that blogging about what I've done is not a punishment for me, it's a good way to remember what I did, so that I can revel in it later, when I'm not able to any more. Hopefully that's like 40 years away at least. Anyways, back to it, since I have a few of these that I need to get under my belt before I completely forget about what I did in those countries. What's nice is that there is an itinerary of stuff that we did, so I can just follow along. Awesome.
I was invited to a friend's wedding, his fiance, now wife is originally from Colombia, so naturally they had two receptions, and one wedding. Rather than going to boring old Colorado, I chose to go to the one in Colombia. Not the most difficult choice in the world. It was confirmed by the fact that I was able to convince my work that I needed a business trip coming back from Colombia, since I had meetings in Germany to go to afterwards. Not bad, not a bad life at all.
So I arrived in Bogota a bit late on the 30th. A bit jet lagged, but not too much. I usually do pretty well with jet lag the first day, the second day is a bit rough, but usually you're so excited that you can't sleep. Nothing too crazy going through the airport, I was very glad that I spoke enough Spanish to get around. It does take me a day or so to remember and train my brain how to speak a different language. That applies to Spanish or Vietnamese. I always kind of laugh at myself when I get tongue-tied, and just babble in Spanglish, or Englamese. Ok, I made up the second one. The point still stands. The security was the most noticeable, big guns, and lots of drug dogs. Glad I didn't pocket that roast beef sandwich from the plane. Although, after a flight that long, I might have smelled like one, in which the mayo is going slightly sour. Delicious.
The hotel arranged a transport into town, which was nice. I didn't know what the price was, so I did the dumb thing and asked the driver. He gave me a number I'm pretty sure was a bit high, so I didn't tip him, and figured it'd work out in the end. After a well needed shower, I was able to meet up with the happy couple, and all the other folks who had just so happened to go to one of the famous micro-brews in Bogota. One that I would visit many a time, the Bogota Beer Company. Oh man, just thinking about it now just reminds me of how there were oh so many good beers. Fairly light on most of the flavors. Excellent reds, and a very luscious porter.
We had some good appetizers (some really good smoked sausages), and beer towers. Great way to relax after a long flight. Everything was within walking distance too, which really helped as well.
So the next day was market day, with an incredible number of shops, and wares for sale throughout the area we were in. Anything that you think that could be crafted was available. I didn't try to pick up too many souveniers, but I couldn't help by pick one up by someone who had made the best of what they had in life. Cool looking, and I think 5 bucks. Good cause, and pretty cool looking I thought. The walk just had a great look and feel. Plenty of things to drink, eat, and barter for. I found quickly that you can barter pretty much anything there, and not everyone in my group was willing to barter. Well, I say that. What I really meant to say is that they asked me to translate "how much?" in Spanish, and to me that meant "Ask how much, haggle down 40%, then go back up to 30%, then see if they'll do a volume discount, look sad, and then report back the final price. (But now you have to buy 10 of them).
Just remember all that fruit just makes my mouth water again. Not a single sour fruit to be found anywhere. Oh, and they also had straight up roast pork. Yup, you had me at pork. Eat your heart out. And I did. It would not be the last time that a pig would not go to waste on account of me. Actual pictures of that later. For the afternoon, some of the group split off, but most of us then did a tour in the historical district of Bogota, to "El Centro." I'm hoping you can sound out what that means, if not, it means Center-o. We went there, and went into the old district, known as "La Candelaria." We had a guided tour, a very jovial guy, a little quiet, which did not help my attention span, but had some pretty cool stories about every building ever in El Centro.
The highlight of the trip I think was seeing the entries in some of the grafitti contests. There's what we see in the US on trains, and there's true art on a wall.
The pictures you see here was just the beginning, we went for blocks on end to see some of the entries. The walk was amazing, if not just for the history, the vivid colors that you saw everywhere were just astounding. The weather of course was perfect as well, a little brisk, which is optimal for me when I'm walking around. We weren't even walking at 3:00, when we started seeing everyone start to enjoy drinking of course! The touristy drink to have was Chicha. This is what you get when you try to make beer out of stuff you have at home. In this case we're talking about corn. Corn, yeast, and sugar. Wait for a while, and you get Chicha. It's a bit think, chunky, and not for everyone. I had my share, but I would not ask for seconds.
I was invited to a friend's wedding, his fiance, now wife is originally from Colombia, so naturally they had two receptions, and one wedding. Rather than going to boring old Colorado, I chose to go to the one in Colombia. Not the most difficult choice in the world. It was confirmed by the fact that I was able to convince my work that I needed a business trip coming back from Colombia, since I had meetings in Germany to go to afterwards. Not bad, not a bad life at all.
So I arrived in Bogota a bit late on the 30th. A bit jet lagged, but not too much. I usually do pretty well with jet lag the first day, the second day is a bit rough, but usually you're so excited that you can't sleep. Nothing too crazy going through the airport, I was very glad that I spoke enough Spanish to get around. It does take me a day or so to remember and train my brain how to speak a different language. That applies to Spanish or Vietnamese. I always kind of laugh at myself when I get tongue-tied, and just babble in Spanglish, or Englamese. Ok, I made up the second one. The point still stands. The security was the most noticeable, big guns, and lots of drug dogs. Glad I didn't pocket that roast beef sandwich from the plane. Although, after a flight that long, I might have smelled like one, in which the mayo is going slightly sour. Delicious.
The hotel arranged a transport into town, which was nice. I didn't know what the price was, so I did the dumb thing and asked the driver. He gave me a number I'm pretty sure was a bit high, so I didn't tip him, and figured it'd work out in the end. After a well needed shower, I was able to meet up with the happy couple, and all the other folks who had just so happened to go to one of the famous micro-brews in Bogota. One that I would visit many a time, the Bogota Beer Company. Oh man, just thinking about it now just reminds me of how there were oh so many good beers. Fairly light on most of the flavors. Excellent reds, and a very luscious porter.
We had some good appetizers (some really good smoked sausages), and beer towers. Great way to relax after a long flight. Everything was within walking distance too, which really helped as well.
So the next day was market day, with an incredible number of shops, and wares for sale throughout the area we were in. Anything that you think that could be crafted was available. I didn't try to pick up too many souveniers, but I couldn't help by pick one up by someone who had made the best of what they had in life. Cool looking, and I think 5 bucks. Good cause, and pretty cool looking I thought. The walk just had a great look and feel. Plenty of things to drink, eat, and barter for. I found quickly that you can barter pretty much anything there, and not everyone in my group was willing to barter. Well, I say that. What I really meant to say is that they asked me to translate "how much?" in Spanish, and to me that meant "Ask how much, haggle down 40%, then go back up to 30%, then see if they'll do a volume discount, look sad, and then report back the final price. (But now you have to buy 10 of them).
 |
| He caught me not paying attention. |
The highlight of the trip I think was seeing the entries in some of the grafitti contests. There's what we see in the US on trains, and there's true art on a wall.
The pictures you see here was just the beginning, we went for blocks on end to see some of the entries. The walk was amazing, if not just for the history, the vivid colors that you saw everywhere were just astounding. The weather of course was perfect as well, a little brisk, which is optimal for me when I'm walking around. We weren't even walking at 3:00, when we started seeing everyone start to enjoy drinking of course! The touristy drink to have was Chicha. This is what you get when you try to make beer out of stuff you have at home. In this case we're talking about corn. Corn, yeast, and sugar. Wait for a while, and you get Chicha. It's a bit think, chunky, and not for everyone. I had my share, but I would not ask for seconds.
Continuing on the tour, we we to see one of the more obscure but famous Colombian artists, Fernando Botero. Botero is known for his paintings of, let's say round people. Basically softly drawing fat people. Feel free to interpret it however you like, perhaps it's social commentary on poverty, maybe it's a reflection of him being a starving artist. Maybe he just likes drawing like that, and he's good at it. Works for me. In either case, very cool to see, especially some of the sculptures.
In case you can't see that very closely, the sculpture features workers sitting on top of a loaf of bread, of a woman that has ants on her forehead, with a corn necklace. Yup. I don't know where or how to analyze that, so I'll just leave that to you.
As it got a little darker outside, we were going to meet up with a beautiful sunset, and some pretty epic landscapes. Before we did that though, we did visit a church, in which a sculpture of Jesus is dressed in military garments, depicting a general. I think it was called General Jesus.
As it got a little darker outside, we were going to meet up with a beautiful sunset, and some pretty epic landscapes. Before we did that though, we did visit a church, in which a sculpture of Jesus is dressed in military garments, depicting a general. I think it was called General Jesus.
The square is where we ended up for the sunset, in front of La Catedral Primada, which was a large church located with a gorgeous backdrop of the mountains behind it. It got cold quickly though (high elevation) and we made it a point to head back before it got dark (scary area apparently) and cold. We ended the night going to a very tasty burger place, got some ice cream, and reflected on quite a busy first day.
So the next day was mostly a travel day to Villeta, with some pretty cool stops on the way. If you look at the picture above, in the top left hand corner, there's a little white building. We got to go up there! Glad I'm not afraid of heights. We took a trolley up, where you could see almost all of Bogota in one view. The church was basic, and there was quite a bit of tourist shops. I bought some herbal "aguadiente" which was the liquor of Colombia, similar to uzo, or something with a licorice flavor. Not bad. We also had some fried pork parts as well. They had been sitting out for a while, not the best. We were able to haggle a bunch of expresso beans as well, which made it all worth it!
We headed finally to Villeta, which was a little bit of a drive, about a couple hours away. Since Colombia is so close to the equator, the micro-climates are much more apparent. In Bogota, it was fairly cool, almost chilly at night, as the elevation becomes a factor. Heading towards Villeta, we went down in elevation, and we could immediately feel the warmth. Perfect weather for a swim. The house was owned by one of the family in the wedding, so I won't post too much, except some of the nice views.
It was a great place to relax, for the families to catch up, and enjoy, as well as for us to eat the most amazing foods. Fresh fruits again were available every morning, delicious breads, all sorts of pork products, it doesn't get much nicer than that. We did do a walk into the local town, about an hour walk, nothing really crazy there, I did pick up some very potent motion sickness medicine in which I definitely would be using quite a bit on our adventures, we bought a large amount of beer (we tended to buy out all the beer in the local stores. Poker beer not only had a good name, but a good taste too!) Although it took a painful amount of hill climbing to reach, the most fun time was the interesting game of Tejo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejo_%28sport%29
Basically you throw a one pound stone about 40 feet away at a big square full of mud. This mud has a ring around it, and small packets of explosives on the ring, known as mechas. They are LOUD! And that's the way they should be! Since you're a good deal away, it takes a bit of practice to get good at the game, and worst case is you break something, because you just chucked a really heavy stone a good distance. It's all fun, and pretty manly. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures because my hands were too muddy, and I was having way too much fun.
After walking around a cave for a while, you do end up getting an appetite. There was an arrangement of a traditional Colombian food fest. This means pork, beef, more pork, and some starches. Potatoes or something like that. MEAT. Lots of it. The food was served on a sizzling plate, so you had to eat it quickly, or it would get tough and dry. Challenge accepted! Plenty of parts, including some fried Chunchullo, (i.e. fried intestines), sausage, chunks of pork, beef, and fried pork skin. It was a great time, and a great way to get full, and fall asleep on the bus ride into Villa de Lleyva, where the wedding would be.
Villa de Lleyva was a small little town built in the old colonial style. The roads are all cobblestone, and you can probably walk around the town in about an hour or so. There are quite a few places for exploring, including a bunch of shopping for home made goods, hiking trails, biking trails, horseback riding, four-wheeling, and quite a few places to eat and drink as well. We had a whole two days here, before the wedding, so we had plenty of time to look around and plan. The first day we walked around, trying to get our bearings in the town. Plenty of shops to check out and barter with. I got a hair cut, and learned fairly quickly that I don't quite know the words to get a great hair cut. I'm used to getting my hair cut by telling the person "medium." Apparently that doesn't really make sense in this shop, and a number was required. I picked a number that was one longer than the guy getting his hair cut. The proper answer was 2 numbers higher than the one that he chose. No worries, it ended up looking good. We also went to go get lunch, and did a round two Colombian eating fest. After the meat coma, we relaxed, with a night four-wheeling trip that night. It was pretty fun, no one got seriously hurt, which is always a good sign, although we did have one flip over. At the top of the trip, we were rewarded with some hot cider, spiked with the local liquor, aguardiente. The Colombia version of this was anise flavored, which tastes really similar to uzo, if you're into that kind of thing. Only it's a bit stronger. Tastes like burning. Not a bad way to end the first day. Ok, that's not the guy that we got the drinks from, but we can pretend.
The next day I went with some of the folks who went bike riding, a short little bike ride out to the the local winery, probably about an hour and a half outside of town. I hadn't ridden a bike for a while, so the hard seat and the cobblestones definitely made it a pain in the butt to sit down for the rest of the day. Literally. Some of the more hard core people did a much more difficult bike ride, about 15 km uphill, which I was not going to be able to do. We all met up for beers after cleaning up. This night was rehearsal dinner, so us non-invited took it upon ourselves to find something new to eat, There was a really good potato soup that was recommended near where we were, so we did that, and checked out a gorgeous sunset. Once the rehearsal dinner was done, everyone came back together in the square, and we had a few drinks (actually more than a few) and headed back, the wedding was the next day anyways.
The drive back was a bit slow, but it was made great by an awesome pit stop in a restaurant called Andres Carne de Res. It was our last chance for epic Colombian grilled meat. It did not disappoint! The juices were freshly made, and the meat was amazingly seasoned. We at our fill, said our goodbyes, and the folks who went to the airport made their way back home. I was there for one more day, so I had an opportunity to go to a few more touristy spots.
So I arranged a tour for the next day out of Bogota city. I went to a coffee plantation, and the gold museum. Everyone else had to go back to reality, so I was on my own, and I had to speak Spanish quite a bit more than I had all week. But like I mentioned before, I had already been speaking it on and off, so I was more used to speaking in Spanish. It was nice to be able to check into a hotel in Spanish. I was really proud of myself when the tour guide preferred to speak to me in Spanish, rather than English. The guide also took me to a pretty cool place for lunch, called casa vieja, where I got the cowboy lunch. Once again, so much pork, I was happy!
What can I say about Colombia. Just an amazing country, with whatever weather you'd like to have. The old history regarding the criminal past is apparent depending on where you go, especially with just the military presence you see around the area. On the other side, you have one of the most diverse areas for foodies I've ever been to. Everything I ate was just a party to all my senses. It was great to have some insiders help us out when we couldn't speak the language, to meet new friends, and it was a heck of a way to christen my first trip to South America.
So the next day was mostly a travel day to Villeta, with some pretty cool stops on the way. If you look at the picture above, in the top left hand corner, there's a little white building. We got to go up there! Glad I'm not afraid of heights. We took a trolley up, where you could see almost all of Bogota in one view. The church was basic, and there was quite a bit of tourist shops. I bought some herbal "aguadiente" which was the liquor of Colombia, similar to uzo, or something with a licorice flavor. Not bad. We also had some fried pork parts as well. They had been sitting out for a while, not the best. We were able to haggle a bunch of expresso beans as well, which made it all worth it!
We headed finally to Villeta, which was a little bit of a drive, about a couple hours away. Since Colombia is so close to the equator, the micro-climates are much more apparent. In Bogota, it was fairly cool, almost chilly at night, as the elevation becomes a factor. Heading towards Villeta, we went down in elevation, and we could immediately feel the warmth. Perfect weather for a swim. The house was owned by one of the family in the wedding, so I won't post too much, except some of the nice views.
It was a great place to relax, for the families to catch up, and enjoy, as well as for us to eat the most amazing foods. Fresh fruits again were available every morning, delicious breads, all sorts of pork products, it doesn't get much nicer than that. We did do a walk into the local town, about an hour walk, nothing really crazy there, I did pick up some very potent motion sickness medicine in which I definitely would be using quite a bit on our adventures, we bought a large amount of beer (we tended to buy out all the beer in the local stores. Poker beer not only had a good name, but a good taste too!) Although it took a painful amount of hill climbing to reach, the most fun time was the interesting game of Tejo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejo_%28sport%29
Basically you throw a one pound stone about 40 feet away at a big square full of mud. This mud has a ring around it, and small packets of explosives on the ring, known as mechas. They are LOUD! And that's the way they should be! Since you're a good deal away, it takes a bit of practice to get good at the game, and worst case is you break something, because you just chucked a really heavy stone a good distance. It's all fun, and pretty manly. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures because my hands were too muddy, and I was having way too much fun.
The nights included a pretty interesting display of dancing. In fact a large group of dancers came in to show off some moves, and there was a huge conga line (not really conga music, but the same idea) that lasted for quite a while throughout the night. But alas, the fun in Villeta had to end at some point. We had a wedding to go to!
So the next day was travel day with a couple stops in between, specifically for a pretty special salt mine, and then just more delicious food. The mine was located in a place called Zipaquira. It was a huge salt mine with huge caverns. Oh, and they were very devout Christians. Devout enough to make the stations of the cross, and to make a giant cathedral. The size of everything was astounding. To imagine these folks working all day, and then still having enough energy to build a church, and the crosses was fairly inspiring. The thought was that by praying and making the sacrifices, that the workers would stay safe. We made it through alright, so I was glad the divinity passed on to our group. From a more technical perspective, you could see the measurement locations, and stress points. It was kinda funny that everyone that was working underground had to wear helmets, including the people working the gift shop. If you're all about safety, you probably should have folks wear safety glasses too. Lots of glass everywhere.
After walking around a cave for a while, you do end up getting an appetite. There was an arrangement of a traditional Colombian food fest. This means pork, beef, more pork, and some starches. Potatoes or something like that. MEAT. Lots of it. The food was served on a sizzling plate, so you had to eat it quickly, or it would get tough and dry. Challenge accepted! Plenty of parts, including some fried Chunchullo, (i.e. fried intestines), sausage, chunks of pork, beef, and fried pork skin. It was a great time, and a great way to get full, and fall asleep on the bus ride into Villa de Lleyva, where the wedding would be.
Villa de Lleyva was a small little town built in the old colonial style. The roads are all cobblestone, and you can probably walk around the town in about an hour or so. There are quite a few places for exploring, including a bunch of shopping for home made goods, hiking trails, biking trails, horseback riding, four-wheeling, and quite a few places to eat and drink as well. We had a whole two days here, before the wedding, so we had plenty of time to look around and plan. The first day we walked around, trying to get our bearings in the town. Plenty of shops to check out and barter with. I got a hair cut, and learned fairly quickly that I don't quite know the words to get a great hair cut. I'm used to getting my hair cut by telling the person "medium." Apparently that doesn't really make sense in this shop, and a number was required. I picked a number that was one longer than the guy getting his hair cut. The proper answer was 2 numbers higher than the one that he chose. No worries, it ended up looking good. We also went to go get lunch, and did a round two Colombian eating fest. After the meat coma, we relaxed, with a night four-wheeling trip that night. It was pretty fun, no one got seriously hurt, which is always a good sign, although we did have one flip over. At the top of the trip, we were rewarded with some hot cider, spiked with the local liquor, aguardiente. The Colombia version of this was anise flavored, which tastes really similar to uzo, if you're into that kind of thing. Only it's a bit stronger. Tastes like burning. Not a bad way to end the first day. Ok, that's not the guy that we got the drinks from, but we can pretend.
The next day I went with some of the folks who went bike riding, a short little bike ride out to the the local winery, probably about an hour and a half outside of town. I hadn't ridden a bike for a while, so the hard seat and the cobblestones definitely made it a pain in the butt to sit down for the rest of the day. Literally. Some of the more hard core people did a much more difficult bike ride, about 15 km uphill, which I was not going to be able to do. We all met up for beers after cleaning up. This night was rehearsal dinner, so us non-invited took it upon ourselves to find something new to eat, There was a really good potato soup that was recommended near where we were, so we did that, and checked out a gorgeous sunset. Once the rehearsal dinner was done, everyone came back together in the square, and we had a few drinks (actually more than a few) and headed back, the wedding was the next day anyways.
The wedding itself was lovely. The ceremony was actually one of the shortest I've ever been to, which just leaves more time to celebrate afterwards. And did we ever celebrate. So much dancing! After a few drinks here and there, it seemed like we danced and pranced around for a good 3 hours or so. Well that's in whiskey time, so that might a bit exaggerated. In either case, the bride and groom survived, and we successfully survived the reception.
Both the tours were pretty neat, I went to a smaller coffee place, so you could tell that there was so much more attention to detail. The guy showed me how much beans it took to make a cup, and we went through and hand picked the beans that could be used. It was only 100 beans or so, but imagine having to make more than one cup at a time. Maybe it's just a farce to make it look more complicated that it actually is. It tasted really good, so I'll stick with the dream that it's super time consuming to do.
The museum was humongous, I just spent a few hours there, and still rushed through it all. Most of the exhibits were in spanish, so the audio guide I had was really helpful, especially with pacing as well. So much gold everywhere. So much detail and intricacy. I started losing the significance of it all probably an hour in, just because there was so much of it. Really cool though.
What can I say about Colombia. Just an amazing country, with whatever weather you'd like to have. The old history regarding the criminal past is apparent depending on where you go, especially with just the military presence you see around the area. On the other side, you have one of the most diverse areas for foodies I've ever been to. Everything I ate was just a party to all my senses. It was great to have some insiders help us out when we couldn't speak the language, to meet new friends, and it was a heck of a way to christen my first trip to South America.
