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.

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

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.

My favorite restaurant in Bogota! WOK WOK WOK WOK

I am not an easy eater and most dishes are completely disregarded by my tongue, but WOK is something else. Every time we have a craving, are happy and even when we are sad about something, we go to this Asian oriented restaurant where they play nice lounge music and serve the best food in the city. Comfort food at its best!

Of course I should have written about this place a long time ago, but I always forget to take a camera so do not have any pictures. Luckily Google sometimes helps so thanks for the pics my friends!

WOK at Gran Estacion (have not been there)

WOK has a very extensive menu that is actually a small magazine nowadays. They have the best and most creative sushi I have eaten on any side of the world and if you go you need to try at least the spring rolls, gyozas, some of the rice paper wraps and the coco juice! For about 50.000COP (20USD) we always have a great meal and feel great when walking out again.

There are several WOK´s around town. The ones I know are at Parque 93 and Avenida 19 with about 120. Please try it out and let me know what you think!

WOK on poles at Av.19-120

Flash them all!

It seems that Bogota is getting more full with cars every day and the traffic jams are evolving into a very large showroom of cars and horses.

To me it is unbelievable that there are basically no rules in traffic. Taking over on the right, speeding, passing in a red light, parking on the right line of a street or a even the highway, picking up customers with your taxi or bus while parked in the middle lane of 3, using the lane for oncoming traffic to by pass the trancon (traffic jam), even it is pretty normal to see both oncoming lanes also used and last week a taxi that I blocked for doing so, decided to take the sidewalk just as easy.

Again I have to write to Mr. Samuel Moreno, Mayor of Bogota and I want to address myself also to the police chief in charge of all the traffic controllers and police officers on the streets:

CAN YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING USEFUL WITH THE LAWS THAT THIS GREAT COUNTRY HAS???

With me, all my (Colombian) family and friends, would like to know why you only care about people driving in the middle of the day without lights while outside the city? How many accidents or deaths are caused because of that?

Ah and of course Pica Placa (basically a limit of driving depending on your license plate). I like the idea, but when you see 5 cars passing through a red light and one car that is 5 minutes into the limited hours, does it not make more sense to give a ticket to the ones that actually are a danger to others????

I know it is not easy to organize this all and possibly we need more money for it, but I have a great suggestion to start with.

Lets put some cameras on poles that register automatically the ones that speed, drive through a red light, use the wrong lane etc. The great thing of this idea is that these camera poles pay for themselves and than some. In Holland there are many of them and annually with only 17million inhabitants that actually drive pretty decently, we manage to raise 550.000.000 EUROS!!! I bet you that we could raise the same amount in one month in Bogota!

With that money, we can pay for more policemen and finally repair all the holes that Bogota now is getting more famous for again. Bogota still is the second city (after Mumbai I think) with the most holes in the streets per capita! What a disgrace! Please Mr. Moreno go and have a look at the street at Autopista Norte with 106 or something…a big hole has been created of about 100meters long and nobody is fixing it, its like being on a safari but without the pretty animals…really a disgrace for the city and its people. (UPDATE: seems that my plead helped; this particular street is now fixed, but as always the quality of the roads are amazingly bad, after 2 days there are already bumps appearing! Mr. Moreno, please fire these incompatent constructors or supervisors, it will save us a lot of money again!)

Back to the plan. Put the cameras and the money will come. Besides that, train the police officers so that they actually help traffic and not make it worse. Right now many of them are just standing talking on their phones or blowing a whistle and waving that really does not serve for anything. Give them training on how to manage traffic flows and how to write tickets for people that mess up the city! I know you are convinced that there will always be traffic jams, but that is not a reason to give up completely on solving some of it!

I beg you…

Ps. for anyone reading this, please do not mistake me for a foreigner that thinks he knows everything better, ask any Bogotanian and they will complain about the traffic and the police not doing anything useful to help.

Ps 2. I just learned that if you google “trancon” (traffic jam), the first thing you will see is a picture of traffic jams in Bogota!

Juanes back in Bogota!!

After several years of not playing in Bogota, Juanes is in town for four concerts in Coliseo Cubierto, a closed stadium next to the soccer stadium El Campin. My wife was fast with buying the tickets and with some friends we arrived an hour before the show would start. Strangely enough there were no lines at all to get in and it seemed kind of empty walking through the door. Entering the “dome” to find a seat it was clear; everyone was already there except for us. Luckily we found a friend in the middle of the masses that had been waiting since the early afternoon and she arranged 3 seats for the 4 of us.

The show started with a to me unknown artist that introduced herself as Jimena or Ximena. Still nobody seemed to know who she was (except for three girls dancing their asses off)  but later we found out she used to be from a group called Pepa Fresa…ahhhh that one!

After this short but impressing performance it seemed like we were going to be send home. The roadies apparently did not realize that half the city was peeing in their pants of enthusiasm to see their near-god and it took them about 45min. to set up the mic for Juan Esteban (real name). The stadium kept cheering and booing in the meantime, the first to get Juanes to come out and the second because of probably the most annoying marketing campaign of a powder-juice-drink that thought it was a good idea to run the same commercial seriously 43 times on the big screens.

When Juancho finally came to stage, I could even hear the toilet lady scream her lungs out from the back of the building. A superb, highly active and great sounding concert followed with as always a Juanes that cares about his fans, about the people and the country, trying to stay humble and down to earth (which should be hard assignment for him). In the encours he even played some salsa and offered his services as a party band that plays any kind of party music, including vallenato, merenque etc.

Driving home, the only thing that was on the radio was people talking about the concert. A great night!

Three seasons in a day

Being Dutch I am used to talking a lot about the weather. Not sure if it is because we hope everyday that the sun will come out so we can have a drink at a terazza, or maybe because politics are that boring that we prefer to talk about the possibility of rain over the next few days.

When my friends or family ask me about the weather, 99% of the time I say that it is the same as yesterday or the last time we spoke. Even though at first it seems that Bogota does not have any seasons and the weather is always nice, lately I have adjusted my idea about this. Bogota actually sometimes has three seasons in one day!

In the last few months I have seen several days in which I got up with spring, while driving to work went through autumn and spent a summer afternoon in the office. The weather really can go from rainy, grey and cold (around 10 degrees Celsius) to hot, perfect blue sky and sunburn in the time frame of a few hours. I imagine that the surrounding of mountains is the cause of these fast weather changes.

Anyway winter is always far away and normally the weather is the best I have seen anywhere, between 15 and 24 degrees Celsius, blue skies with some clouds, a lot of sun and never the need for a jacket. Just a sweater at night. When looking for apartments here, I found out that the houses do not have heating nor cooling! Amazing…

English language magazines & books in Bogota

For anyone that is interested in finding magazines or books in English: BIBLOS at Avenida 82 No. 12a -2. Bogota, Tel: 2181831, 6211529 or www.bibloslectores.com

I just ran into it on Sunday and had a quick look inside, but maybe someone else knows more about the quality of their offer???