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.

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

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

Trip down the mountain to Girardot-Peñon

The great thing of living in Bogota is that the weather is like spring and if you want it hotter than you just drive down the mountain until you encounter the temperature you like. In Anapoima (one hour from Bogota) for example the temperature is already around 25Celcius. This village with some nice private clubs and conjuntos (closed neighborhoods) has the best climate for me. Not too warm, but enough for the need of a pool.

The road down the mountain gives you some nice views of Colombian nature and you can make a stop in some great “Parilla” places where they serve the traditional Colombian plates with meat, patatos and platano (kind of banana).

Continuing from Anapoima, after a total of about 3 hours driving, you will arrive at Girardot. This is basically a hot and busy pueblo (town) and is not really attractive to stay at. Girardot and its surroundings (including Melgar) however have some of the nicer conjuntos you will find in Colombia. In Peñon for example you will be amazed by the humongous houses in which an interesting mix of the richer Colombian families (both on the good and bad side of the law) are  BBQ-ing by the pool, racing around with jet skis on the lake and driving around in their golf cars.

The whole place has a relaxed tropical atmosphere and when invited by friends we like to go for a few days to calm down from the big city with some extreme lazy behavior and if possible play some golf. As we do not have a handicap yet however, we are not allowed to play in the cool morning and the temperature, sun and mosquitoes in the afternoon make you desperate in hitting the little white ball as fast as you can to get back to the pool again. The heat in Girardot (30-35Celcius) sometimes is too much for me and as a gringo I burn far to easy. Besides that we get bored of not doing anything when staying too long, so more than 3 days I think we have not lasted yet.

If you have a chance to go there some day, let me know what you think. I am sure that most of the non-Colombians I know will not expect this kind of wealth in a “3rd world country”.

Btw. I forgot to mention my favorite part of the trip; this amazing ranch about 20-30 minutes before arriving to Girardot, make sure you don’t miss it:

When is the water going to stop?

Normally Colombia has some more rain than normal in September till November/December, but this year it is a LOT more than normal. Most days start out perfect with a bright blue sky and just a few clouds but in the afternoon or evening the faucet is turned on and the city is covered by water.

In Bogota we had some streets completely flooded already,

but especially in the Northern part of Colombia the damage and suffering has been a lot worse. The river Magdalena broke through dikes and left at least 50.000 people homeless, mainly in the city of Plato.

About 1.000.000 people are estimated to be homeless nation wide because of the flooding since September and 67 people were killed. Hopefully it will turn all back to normal soon.

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!