More Ciclovia – Biking Ways

As I noticed that many people are looking for information and pictures about the Ciclovia, I am posting some new pictures I took this last Sunday. For those who do not know what Ciclovia exactly is (even after watching the pictures), please check this earlier post.

Celia Cruz – La vida es un carnaval (Music)

Celia Cruz (Cuban) was worldwide known as the queen of salsa and had an impressive career with 23 golden albums to her name. She unfortunately passed away in 2003, but many of her songs you can still hear in Latin parties around the world. This particular song is actually the only one I know so far. It is translated into: “Life is a carnaval”, life is a party and it is one of the songs that gets me moving easily.

This video comes with subtitles that I think are made with some online translating site as there are some mistakes, but you get the idea:

Oiga, Mire, Vea – Orquesta Guayacan (Music)

A pure Colombian song from Tierra Caliente (Hot Land): Cali. The video shows some nice images of the city, which I have not visited myself yet so I do not know too much about it. Enjoy!

Bodyguards, blinded cars and convoys

One of the things you will have to get used to living in Bogota are the people driving around with bodyguards in their armored cars with blinded windows and possibly a guy on a motorcycle two meters behind them.

Regularly you will see one or more Toyota(s) or other brand of SUV with some blinking lights and/or a siren to warn you to get out of the way (or get run over hehe).  These cars are normally used by high police or military officers, politicians, diplomats or by rich people. For “normal” people  there really is no need (or money) for these cars but I imagine that if you have a lot in the bank or are important in some way, it might not be a bad idea to get some extra protection on the road. Even if it would be just to frighten that idiot driving in front of you that does not want to go out of the way. The added benefit is that you do not have the limitation of car use called pico y placa that everone else has!

So, now that our “fantastic” mayor Mr. Moreno has decided that we can not use our car two full days during the week, I was looking on how to get around this issue so I would actually be able to go places. A friend told me that me being a foreigner would probably make it relatively easy to get a license to armor my car, but at the same time it would damage my car due to the remodeling and the sheer weight of the special glass, it would make it hard to sell my car, my gasoline consumption would go steeply up and besides that I have the impression that I would actually draw more attention to myself than makes any sense. If you want to stay out of harms way, it might be a better idea to stay out of its sight first!

So no armored car for me and also no bodyguards. Besides not having the money for it, I simply do not need it and if I would feel that I would need special protection to be able to live here, I would leave right away. Ah and for getting around this pico placa nonsense, I have some other ideas that I am going to try out!

ZOE Restaurant – my kind of eating

Just before going into Carrefour for some products we can not find in “our own” supermarket, a strong hunger feeling lead us to the third floor of Centro Comercial (Mall) Santa Ana. Here you will find my favorite:  WOK, but also Crepes & Waffles, El Corral and some others that are less famous.

This day we decided to try something new and walked into ZOE, a fresh looking place with the kitchen in the middle of the guests. As it was a very beautifull day with blue skies and sunshine we took a table at the windows and enjoyed the view of the city while waiting for our limonada natural (lemonade).

ZOE serves salads, sandwiches, wraps and I think I remember some heavier plates also. We choose the smoked salmon wrap and a fallafel wrap, which both turned out excellent. After finishing with the fried yuka (kind of patato) that the plate came with, a waiter drove up with a little car with some deserts. We choose the capuchino flan which was nice and fluffy and good of taste. All in all we really were impressed with the place, the decoration is modern and of great style and the food was up to par with WOK, which means a lot in my book.

ZOE, calle 110, 9a-70, 3rd floor, tel: 6124581

Btw. the pictures are not the best as there are taken with my phone…

Full 80´s – party with the A-team and Bon Jovi

Saturday night we went out with some friends to a bar called Full 80´s, which has two locations in Bogota. The theme of the bar is obviously the 80´s but also music and intros from famous series from the 70´s and 90´s is used to entertain the customers. We started the evening with some picadas (fingerfood) like empanadas and quesadillas combined with some mojitos and whiskey.

Seeing the intros in the background and hearing some of the tunes of our teen years, memories that were almost forgotten came up and we had a great laugh about all the stupid things we did and wore back than. One strange difference between me and the Colombians I have noticed is that I have NO clue who Chips is or are! Two guys on a motorcycle does not seem to be that big of a deal people!!

After a steady consumption of drinks we moved inside from the terrace to step up the party and it took off. Being not too sober anymore, we danced like it was 1999! Unfortunately the place has to close at 1am and we were politely kicked out. We decided to go to our place with a cousin and his friend we met in the bar and somehow the hours passed rapidly from there. With only 3 hours of sleep behind us we got a wakeup call to  go to San Victorino with my parents-in-law…

Full 80´s; Av 19 118-48 and we have seen it around Calle 13 with 96 (not 100% sure), tel: 2138066

Sombrereria San Francisco – hats since 1945

In one of the side streets of Plaza de Bolivar, the square in the center of Bogota where also the President lives, already for 64 years the same family is selling all sorts of hats for men and women.

Don Ernesto Ayarza and his wife Rosita sold their house to start sombrereria San Francisco in a time that most men in Bogota wore hats and have increased their store to almost an entire street of hats for sale ranging from 10.000COP (4USD) till 30.000.000COP(15.000USD). The last made of some rare snake skin with rubies and only available on special order. A good quality, well shaped cowboy hat costs somewhere around 150.000COP(60USD)

A lot of vaqueros (cowboys) come from far to buy their hats here but also city people use them, especially in their fincas (farmhouses) outside the city. In our family most men have one and for my birthday my parents-in-law gave me my way of fitting in on the farm.

This time we passed the store, as we were coming from San Victorino and my wife wanted to buy a hat. It kind of looks like a flying soucer in this picture I made but on her head it looks really fresh and modern.

San Francisco sells all kinds of hats (even baseball hats) and can be found at Calle 11, 8-28, tel: 3365623

The Dollar and Peso are at it again!

One of the strangest phenomenons you will find in corporate life in Colombia is the movement of the Colombian Peso against the US Dollar. Changes of 10% in a day and even 30% over a month are not strange to me anymore and dealing here with international business feels like playing roulette. There seems to be absolutely no logic behind the changes. When things should theoretically go up, they go down or not…however the wind blows basically.

Today for example you get about 2550COP for 1USD, last year august that was only 1800COP per USD. An increase of almost 50%!!!

Something that goes hand in hand with this, should be the exchange houses that give you more Pesos for your Dollar than any bank will give you. Also they give you more Dollars for your Peso…should be a business there no? I have not thought about it that deeply yet but maybe it would be a good idea to give it a closer look.

exchange house

So why do these two phenomenons occur? Supposedly it has to do with the difference in inflation between Colombia and other countries and the economic growth, but do not ask me to explain as it will require me some hours of study and boredom…

One good quote I found in a article about the predictions of the exchange rate:

A general once told his weather-forecasting team;

“I appreciate being informed that your forecasts are no better than random, but please keep sending
them on, as the army needs your predictions for planning purposes.”

Happy Colombians

While reading this text, listen to this song please:

Have you already noticed that most Colombian music is very positive, happy, uplifting? After my teenage years were over I started to dislike all the dramatic music & movies and other drama in whatever art form. Life really is too short to add artificial drama to it! Maybe that is also what attracts me to the life and lifestyle here. Of course people are not 100% happy all the time, but they prefer to forget about their worries and live life to the max.

In various studies over the recent years it has shown that Colombians are amongst the most happiest people in the world.  Surrounded by far wealthier countries like Denmark, Canada and my own birthplace The Netherlands, Colombia took the bronze medal in a research done by Businessweek:

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2008/gb20080820_874593.htm

An outtake: “Today it’s the world’s third happiest country, but “cocaine” and “cartel” are traditionally more easily associated with Colombia than “carefree” and “contented.” The change: Surging tourism and economic growth have accompanied the South American country’s efforts in recent years to reassert control over its decades-old rebel violence and lucrative drug operations. Even though per capita income is far lower than in the top 10 countries, Colombia’s literacy rate is 94%, well above the world average. And the ethnically tolerant country supports thriving coastal communities of Arabs, Jews, Italians, Germans, French, Portuguese, and Roma descendants.

In daily life I notice that people do not look that far ahead as in the Netherlands, they take things more per day and enjoy as long as it lasts. I read this afternoon a nice phrase: put two Colombians together and you have a party!

Btw. the song played is “Quiero verte sonreir” from Carlos Vives and translates to: “I want to see you smile”…enough said!

Wholesale shopping in San Victorino (Bogota)

The neighborhood, San Victorino, has the fame of being the largest confection sales area in Colombia or at least Bogota. It is also known as an unsafe place where there used to be a lot of junkies and people getting robbed, especially  “outsiders” meaning foreigners and people from the more wealthy areas.

Leaving at home our phones, watches, bank cards and camera, just taking some money for the taxis and the things we wanted to buy, we decided to give it a try and see what we could find there. It started out properly as the taxi driver that took us there decided to “rob” us from some change and “forgot” to turn on the meter. Normally we are very keen on these sort of things, but it must have been the early hour that we missed it. So after negotiating with him the price to a reasonable one (about 5USD for 30 minutes) we arrived to busy streets filled with people, shops, merchandise, stray dogs and some bums/junkies. I am not sure if it is always the same but this day (Saturday) it was very busy and with all the people around we actually felt quite comfortable.

Walking towards the main square, we passed many different shops with all sorts of merchandise. It seems that besides clothing you can find here almost everything at a lot lower price than where we live. From office supplies, to suitcases, from washing machines to party utilities can be found, all new and normally grouped in a street together based on the kind of product. As we are planing a party for my suegra “mother in law”,  whom is turning 60, we were on the lookout for some Mexican looking party items, like sombreros, piñatas etc. 

One of the stores on a national holiday I imagine…

After about 2 hours of searching we found all we needed and just wandered around some more to see what else we could find. We were offered some good white T-shirts at 5000COP each, about 2USD. Jeans at 10USD each and so on. Cheap and reasonable quality but in some cases you have to buy the product in volume, a dozen for example.

After a successful and cheap shopping experience we decided to head back to the North. In Bogota normally it is not suggested to take a taxi on the street however. Instead you should call one, which will register your trip with the taxi company and they use a security code to make sure it is really the taxi of the company you called. Taking a bus with some of the larger stuff we bought (can not mention what as my suegra might read this) was not an option however as it would get crushed by the overload of people stuffed in the bus.

So we decided to walk a little out of the area and take a taxi there. That was the worst idea of the day! As soon as we left the masses of people, the neighborhood turned kind of ugly and we started to pass some people sniffing glue bags, smoking crack and others sleeping on the sidewalk. The police has done a great job at clearing the shopping area from most “problems” (or at least you don’t notice them with so many people around) but you really need to do an in-buy-out by taxi or bus to make sure you come home with the things you bought!

So, San Victorino is a very interesting place to go and we will definitely go back soon again, but you have to take care and watch your stuff!Ah and if you are interested in buying artesanias (the typical tourist memorabillia), you should go to Pasaje Rivas in this area which is a small warehouse filled with little stores full of this stuff. It is at 10th with 10th, or just ask a local.