Bogota-what a city for a weekend Part 1

A complete week at the Embassy, really getting used to things now, the weather was beautiful but, sadly, gets dark before 6 so no long evenings enjoying it! Have adjusted to the altitude and the time difference and settled into Bogota, even going to a dentist to fix a broken tooth! It's pretty easy to find your way around as the roads are a grid system like

The week passed uneventfully enough and the Embassy shut up shop for a long weekend at lunchtime on Friday and left me ready for a weekend exploring Bogota. The weekend actually started on Friday lunchtime with Sarah, the Ambassador's PA, inviting me to join her for lunch. We walked home from the Embassy, dropping something off at the Ambassador's residence on the way. My goodness, I could only see it the roof and the tops of the trees from outside an 8ft wall but what an impressive place. It takes up a whole block with tennis courts and goodness knows what.

We walked round to Andino, the area where the hotel is, via a Pet Shop, as I've mentioned, the Colombians love their dogs, what a range of accessories for your pooch from toys to collars to food to, of course, an entire wardrobe of the perfect outfit for every occasion, including the dinkiest little toweling dressing gown for that just out of the sauna moment! Lunch was a huge seafood stew and a couple of Colombian beers, just to support the local economy of course. We then wandered off to the shopping centre being pursued up the road by a guy trying to sell me a fake Monte Blanc pen and loudly telling me he loved me several times!

For Saturday, I arranged to join a bike tour run by an American guy and which started downtown. I got up and had a large breakfast to prepare myself and then set off to walk to the city centre. What I didn't realise was quite how far it was and how long it would take, my walk was slowed down considerably by the terrible state of the pavements and the up and down of the huge kerbs. However, after almost an hour and a half I arrived at Bogota Bike Tours somewhat late for the arranged 10 am appointment.

However, two things were in my favour, firstly, the tour obviously started at 10:30 South American time-this could be anything up to an hour after the real 10:30! The bikes weren't ready and the phone kept ringing and problems needed to be solved. Secondly, I was the only person who showed up so set off about 11 with Mike, the tour leader and company owner! In my rush and much apologies for being late I forgot to ask either how much it cost or how long the tour would last-neither of these proved a problem as you will see.

We started off in a small square where, apparently, Bogota was founded. It was a lovely little place with very old buildings round the edge and a lovely fountain in the middle. We then headed up even higher than the centre, passing where Mike lived on the way. He had told me he had a dog and, sure enough, sitting in the sun outside his place was Pachita the terrier. Without much persuasion she came running over and took off after us up the hill. Our first stop was an amazing local market full of beautiful fresh fruit. Mike, took a knife and cut fruit after exotic fruit and offered it to me to try. I have no idea what half of it was but it was amazing. The bill after the end was about a pound and the entertainment was provided by Pachita barking at everyone who dared to come near to us!

After that, we headed down the hill past lots of original Bogota houses to the Plaza del Bolivar, said by some to be where the first mass may have been celebrated in the imposing cathedral on one side of the square. Also in the square is the Palacio de Justicia, the seat of the Supreme Court. There was a rather a sad and peaceful display outside where many breeze blocks painted white had signs on the front with the names of those who had died in the violence suffered in Colombia and also banners with the names of kidnap victims whose whereabouts was still unknown. It was a stark reminder of the underlying trouble which Colombia is trying to overcome. Some of the buildings round the square are old and some, where the originals were destroyed by guerillas, are modern. The square was full of people, hawkers and beggars and, wait for it, several llamas, saddled up for the children to ride and have their photo taken on!

Our ride continued through parks and through throngs of people at a market, stopping at another big square for a refreshing fruit drink. I not even sure what it was but, sweet, white and with chunks of white fruit in complete with seeds in which it seems it is acceptable to spit out on the street! We hadn't paid when suddenly the vendor asked for the money and started panicking along with all the other street sellers, we looked round to see the police van slowly trying to move through the throng as everyone grabbed their groundsheets or hurridly pushed their drinks cart away! The only one unmoved seemed to be the old woman whose wares were hanging round her neck. Can you see from the photo? Believe it or not it's rat poison!!

After a phone call, Mike announced that someone else would be joining us. How on earth he knew where Tommy, a young Canadian, would be waiting is beyond me but we suddenly happened on him and then we were three! Our tour continued until we reached the bullring. I had read about this in the trusty Lonely Planet which said it was only open from January to March. Mike, however, had other plans. We stopped outside a huge gate where, almost unnoticeable, there was a high bell on the side which Mike rang. A security guard came and let us in-it seemed that Mike had an arrangement that, for a small tip, the guard was happy to let us look around. We left our bikes safely inside the gate and walked into the bullring. I have very mixed feelings about the sport. It is very traditional and, I understand, an amazing spectacle but it is also a very cruel sport. This aside, the building is amazing especially with just the 3 of us being able to feel the atmosphere even with it completely empty and it was very interesting to sit for a while and talk about our views and feelings about bull fighting amongst ourselves.

By now it was around 2 and we cycled on, mostly on pavements which, it seems is acceptable, slaloming the pedestrians and through a lovely park. In the park we stopped to buy corn on the cob and little potatoes and drinks. You picked the corn you wanted from a range of part cooked ones and the front of the stall and paid depending on the relative size of your chosen goody-quite what EC Weights & Measures authorities would have to say about this beggars believe!

Our tour continued wending it's way through parts of Bogota I would either never have discovered or would never have dared to go to on my own. We went through a university campus where we had to stop at the entrance to complete a form detailing that we had 3 bikes. We had to hand this in the other end so the security guards knew we hadn't stolen the bikes from inside! We rode through streets which were, apparently, built by British bankers coming to Colombia to set up shop. Mike asked if they looked British, I said "yes" assuming you would build you house combining around 500 years of architecture in one building, from Elizabethan chimneys to Georgian windows! And, as if the tour wasn't amazing enough, Mike gave us the option of riding through the red-light district. He was very honest, he said it wasn't the best part of Bogota but he said they had never ever had a problem. Trusting his judgement, Tommy and I both agreed and, somewhat gallantly, the guys put me in the middle and off we went. Like everywhere in Bogota, you would not go there at night but, in the afternoon, it was thronging with people and just another fascinating part of the city. The statue here is outside the Police Headquarters and is made of thousands of melted-down weapons which have been surrended

As thunder rumbled in the background we wend our way back to the Bike Tours shop around 5. By this time I was a little worried that I wouldn't have enough money. I'd assumed the tour would take around 2 or 3 hours and had no idea I would be out for the whole day. I quietly, and slightly embarrassedly, asked Mike how much it cost..the answer...25,000 pesos. Remember the exchange rate in an earlier blog? This is around £9!!! For a whole day tour!

We got back just in time as the heavens opened. I asked Mike to call me a taxi but, because of the rain, he couldn't get one, so, my adventurous day continued. I've mentioned Bogota's mad little buses before but they also have a new, modern, bus system, the Trans-Milenio. This has dedicated lanes and runs around the city. In Mike's shop was a nice young chap, Michael, he was half American and half British with a Granny in Brighton! What a sweetheart, he walked me through the rain to the nearest Trans-Milenio stop-more of a station really, a long platform in the middle of the road with doors which open when the bus comes in. He helped me with the map, figured out which bus I needed and where to get off, sorted out paying and planted me by the correct door for my bus! It took me about 6 blocks from the hotel so a brisk walk got me safely back to the Andino Royal!

Weekend in Cartagena

The weather will be beautiful, it will be so hot, you’ll love it there...well at least the last part of that sentence proved right. Everyone we spoke to said you must go to Cartagena for the weekend and the Lonely Planet concurred. We could have flown to New York rather than 1000k across Colombia for the cost but it seemed a shame to come all this way (for free!) and not to see something of Colombia. Also, we found out that we could check out of the hotel in Bogota for the weekend and so not pay for that and I exercised all my negotiating skills to get a pretty good deal on the hotel I had found in Cartagena so some of it was grabbed back!

Having been warned there were roadworks on the way to Bogota airport, Roger, my work colleague, and I dived out of the Embassy very quickly on Friday lunchtime and arrived in plenty of time, so early, in fact, that we ended up on an hour earlier plane, brilliant we thought....read on dear friends! As I took my seat I realised I was sitting next to a British family, not only that, Daddy worked for the Embassy! This proved very useful, or at least his language skills did. They were (actually I presume still are!) an adorable family and Harry aged 8 and Isabel aged 4 kept me entertained marvellously on the short flight. I tried to look out of the window, from the aisle, but it was very cloudy-I soon found out why!

As we came towards Cartegena we dutifully fastened our seat belts and turned off our electronic devices and then....didn’t land! The captain made an announcement, there was an enormous storm over the airport, if we couldn’t land in 7 minutes we’d have to divert as there wasn’t enough fuel to keep circling. Bye bye Cartagena, hello Barranquilla! No, I’d never heard of it either (mind you I’d never heard of Cartagena until last week!). According to Wikipedia, it’s a city and municipality located in northern Colombia by the Caribbean Sea. Ah, by the Caribbean Sea-good, can’t be that far! In fact, it turned out to be only about 15 minutes flying time but, despite my next-door neighbour’s language skills, the captain wasn’t giving much away! We landed at what, I later discovered, was the first airport in South America. Everyone sat there as no-one, including it would seem the crew, knew what was happening. After a while everyone started leaving so I followed, asking the Brit family if I could stick with them as he understood Spanish. The heat was amazing but the terminal nice and air-conditioned and they brought soft drinks for us. We were told not to leave the room we were in and, fortunately, after less than an hour they put us back on the plane and we headed off back to Cartagena, into a taxi and to the weekend hotel.

What a lovely beautiful place Cartagena is. It’s a Unesco World Heritage site and the main part is an old walled city with gorgeous old buildings in a colonial style. The streets are lined with beautiful buildings, although some are a little shabby and in need of repair. The walled town is so atmospheric although outside is a different story, a real conflict of styles, looking south rows and rows of tower blocks containing smart holiday apartments and hotels whilst to the North are miles of what can only be described as shanty towns where, I guess, all the people who have to work to please the tourists live.

The hotel was two 15th century houses joined together. You went through a narrow entrance and behind the small street front house it opens up into three interconnecting courtyards open to the sky with tall palms, chairs and tables and even a swing! The rooms all open onto the courtyards so it was ideal to hear the hammering tropical storm on the first night! My little room (you didn’t seem to be allocated the posh rooms when you’d sliced the price right down!) was lovely with exposed brickwork and a big wetroom shower built into the eaves of the hotel. Despite arriving late I dumped my bags quickly and, as the storm hadn’t yet started again, went for a walk around with Roger. We found a lovely outdoor restaurant in a square with a cathedral where I ate the most yummy fish.

The storm continued through the night with the most enormous claps of thunder and I awoke to pouring tropical rain. Breakfast was eaten watching a river course down the street outside but, me being a Shrosbree, put on flip flops, shorts and a cag and, with Dad’s excellent folding umbrella which I seem to have inherited, I hit the streets. The picture on the left is the rain running down the street outside the hotel!

The first mistake I realised was, surprisingly, to wear a coat at all. The maximum any of the locals had was an umbrella and that was fairly unusual. It was brilliant fun walking through lovely warm puddles and having the streets and squares to myself. It seems you just get wet as you dry an instant in the warmth so, before long, the coat was relegated back to the bottom of my bag in the hotel. For a bit of a respite I visited the Museum of Modern Art (entrance £1) and the Gold Museum (entrance free and surprisingly interesting) and, yes, the little man on the right is made of gold, apparently, they made a wax mould and clay outside and poured the gold in, and this was thousands of years ago. By lunchtime I’d managed to have a lovely time and spent only 3,000 Colombian Pesos, just over £1!

I had a wander around the souvenir shops (guess what I bought you, Mum!) and I then decided to explore a bit further afield and found "downtown" Cartagena FULL of tat shops, marvellous! I kept walking, stopping at a supermarket to buy lunch, and suddenly found myself in a labrynthine market full of dead (and alive!) animals and fish for sale with everything imaginable for your eating or living pleasure hanging from every free spot. I didn’t read about it in the Lonely Planet until I’d stumbled across it and come out safely the other side! It turns out I’d unwittingly ended up in the Mercado Bazurto and, to quote the LP: “For adventurous souls only, it is both dirty and enthralling, an all-out assault on your senses. If it’s marketable, it’s for sale here!” It was great and I just made myself look big and pretended I knew exactly where I was going. Actually, being tall is turning a few heads and getting a few comments, Colombians are not very tall and I don’t think this part of the world sees many strapping great Europeans with blonde hair!! So far people have guessed Scandanavian and Dutch and been very surprised when I’ve come back with Yo soy Inglesa!

The whole of Cartagena was marvellous, full of all different kinds of people and things going on, health and safety and hygiene authorities in England would pass out on the floor! You could have fried plantain, yummy, and all sorts of dead things wrapped up in banana leaves, I looked at those but drew the line there! In one corner there were even people making sweets on the side of a square and selling them. Everywhere feels very safe. Colombia was, of course, anything but safe and, therefore, anything but a tourist destination over the years, but the Government is working very hard to make, and keep, it safe. They are doing a pretty good job. In Cartagena the presence of uniformed security guards and Tourist Police was everywhere. I think they tolerate the hawkers as they are really not invasive, you just say “no” and ignore them and they don’t hassle you like I’ve experienced in other places and everywhere feels very safe, everyone says Buenos Dias as you walk around and are very friendly and helpful.

Actually, the year of Spanish I did at school, the bits I’ve picked up here and there and a charity shop phrasebook have all come in handy. Very few people in Cartagena speak English but I managed to figure out that fresh lemonade from a guy with a big vat of it on ice which he ladles into a plastic cup costs 1,000 pesos and the guys walking around carrying huge polystyrene coolboxes and shouting “agua agua” will sell you a bottle of mineral water con or sin gas for 2,000 pesos. See above for exchange rate, basically 35 or 70 ish pence!! I even managed to haggle the price of a lovely bead necklace from a streetside seller down with much “quanto”, “no hablo muy bien Espanol, Inglesa” and holding up fingers to represent the price I thought it was worth! I did have trouble convincing the many many hawkers as I was walking around, that no, I did not need either a hat, a reclining statuette of a naked women, a t-shirt, salad servers made from a coconut, or, indeed, a box of cigars amongst many other irresistible delights!

After 6 hours of walking around I headed for the roof terrace of the hotel for a sauna, swim and Jacuzzi and a lie on a sun(!)bed where I caught up with Roger’s explorations of his day. Another kind of very cheap fish dinner followed when we then heard bangs and drums and saw fireworks. There were weddings and, it seems, you go to the church and then the bride and groom and the whole wedding party troop down the street accompanied by 3 or 4 guys banging drums and playing percussion. I was watching and a very drunk young American from the crowd started talking to me, it turns out his friend from Maryland was marrying a Colombian girl and moving to Bogota. All his mates had come over for the wedding! We then tracked down more drums and found a young group of boys and girls doing fantastic South American dancing and break-dancing for the boys in the square where I’d enjoyed a resting pause that afternoon. That inspired me into a few beers at a pavement cafe but I was soon ready for bed.

Sunday, dawned much clearer and warmer and I set off again. I decided to explore a bit outside the walled city and walked about 3k round the bay to where there are many hotels and beaches. Read above for hawkers but add sarongs, silver, suntan lotion rubs and massages. I didn’t have my cozzie but I can at least say I’ve paddled in the Caribbean Sea! It was very very hot though, about 35 degrees so I decided to head back before the middle of the day, another wander around inside the walls including just sitting in a few plazas and squares soaking up the atmosphere and I headed back to the roof terrace for a quick dunk before heading off to the airport.

A final barter was on the cards though, we’d paid 10,000 pesos from the airport-to stop the tourists getting ripped off getting a taxi from the airports in Colombia, you buy a ticket from an official booth which you give to driver and that’s what he has to charge you. The hotel hailed a taxi for us and when we got to the airport I gave him a 20,000 note and he gave me 5,000. Much laughing and him waving me bye bye and my holding on the door waving 5 fingers at him twice and he smilingly gave took the 5,000 back and gave me 10,000! Don’t feel bad, the actual fair was 8,600 so he still got a tip. What a shame for him he got a Shrosbree not a stupid tourist!!

Third day in Bogota and now figuring out how it works. Jump off kerbs, defy taxis and buses to run you down and use liberal doses of Buenos Dias, Buenos Tardes and Como estas. After that resort to "no hablo Espanol" or smiling stupidly! The buses are so funny, little minibuses, completely bashed up and people just stick their hand out and the bus shoots across 3 lanes and screeches to a halt to pick them up.

Last night I was at the BBC - no, nothing to do with TV, the Bogota Beer Company. The beer was yummy, bit like Speckled Hen and locally brewed. I had a very nice dinner although I don't really know what it was, I just picked something off the menu to try without understanding the description!

Am walking between the hotel and the embassy, about 15 minutes. I made the mistake on the first couple of days of wearing work shoes. That's now gone out of the window and they are firmly ensconced in a cupboard here at the embassy. The pavements are awful, all loose stones and holes. Even the manhole covers are broken and, apparently, you shouldn't stand on them as many of them are completely loose and there are many accidents where people fall through! This picture shows the corner of a manhole just broken...and this is a good one!!

Apparently, Bogota is really, really safe these days, just petty crime so really the same as any large city. I was told that the city is reluctant to downgrade itself because then there would be hundred of security guards, bodyguards and private drivers out of work! The big difference I've noticed is that no-one wears an iPod and everyone has really cheap mobiles and handbags. There are many armed police, military police and private guards everywhere, some accompanied by their sleeping dogs. They are, of course, all very visibly armed. Outside the embassy they have very chic, slinky long rifle things. You know how you get those red signs which are a circle with a line through, like no dogs for example. Here you have no loaded guns signs!

Talking of dogs, this is dog city. Many people have dogs and all the time you see professional dog walkers towing about 6 or 8 dogs. Yesterday there were about 6 dogs tied up outside an apartment, presumably while the walker went to pick up another one. One dog decided it fancied another and the normal resulted with the shagee (a small beagle puppy) being very unhappy with the goings on. The others all got involved in the barny until someone appeared from a shop with a hosepipe and sprayed water all over them!!!

Tomorrow is Friday and we only have to work half a day. We have booked a flight to the Caribbean coast for the weekend-tough huh. I'm travelling to Cartagena which is a World Heritage Site on the top North West corner of Colombia. The flight was really expensive but it seemed a shame to come all this way and not see something more of the country. I'm going with my colleague and hope it will be fun. Should be very very hot, maybe 30 degrees so can't wait.

I have been working, spent most of the day running a training course, good fun to nice people including one who swore that oranges were solid and only tangerines had segments! I also noted that the huge Union Flag in the Conference Room was upside down...ah, Her Majesty's Government at it's best!!

WELCOME TO BOGOTA!

Well, end of first day, actually not the end of first day as it's nearly 7pm and I've got around another 3 hours of work to do before I can go back to the hotel, ho hum! Still, means I'll get some time off to go sightseeing.

The city is pretty mad, the general idea of the road seems to be to drive as fast as you can in no particular direction and swap from lane to lane regularly. There are very few green men to tell you if you can cross and the kerbs are several inches high. I think the way to do it is to just jump off the kerb and hope the cars stop. There are zillions of little yellow taxis zipping around and they don't seem to stop unless they have to.

The hotel and embassy are in the north of the city and everyone at both is very friendly. I've had a wander around and thoroughly investigated the contents of the local supermarket! Contrary to reputation, the area is very safe, the embassy say you're probably in more danger in London! There are certainly loads of security guards in all the buildings and, at night, on every corner with a dog (although the labrador I saw last night seemed to be only interested in sleeping and didn't look very scary!)

Last night there was the most amazing rainbow, people were even coming out of shops to look. I had a walk around and there were people selling all sorts of things on every corner and, which seems very common here, there are loads of people selling mobile phone calls. Yes, I do mean mobile phone calls, people have mobile phones on chains on a box by the side of the street then people pay a small amount of money to make calls on them. Phone calls seem to be very expensive in Colombia so I guess many people can't afford their own phone and there don't seem to be many payphones, it's very interesting.

En-route to Bogota en Air France

Well, here I am revelling in Affaires classement en Air France! There’s no first class and I have only one previous Business Class flight to compare with, but this seems very very good. I am currently on the second leg of my day’s journey to Bogota, Colombia.

My big adventure started at 4am this morning, not such a good time to start an adventure but at least the taxi turned up on time-actually, 2 taxis, one to take me to Heathrow and one to take Ruud to Gatwick, surely Air France could have designed their schedule better so that we could have both flown from Gatwick! I had to fly to Paris to pick up the flight to Bogota and the Gatwick flight did not get me there in time. The flight from London was pretty non-descript although I got to use the Air France lounge where the coffee was nice but the croissants were cold-see how high my expections are already! The breakfast on the plane was awful, hard bread and Nescafe-my coffee-snobness hatred of instant coffee is well known!

The London flight was half an hour late and a huge queue for security at Charles de Gaulle meant that there was no time to experience the lounge there so I shall have to save that experience for the return journey!

I have a huge seat which goes up and down and backwards and forwards and even has a wibbly massage bit. It makes almost a bed so I have already had a half an hour nap but I found myself rather too excited to sleep. It has build in Sennheiser headphones and a reading light and you get a little baggie with toothpaste, comb and special ear covers for the headphones! I have my own little area courtesy of seatguru.com telling me this was a good seat-it certainly is. I also have my own personal pop up TV on which I can choose what a want-I’ve already started on Angels and Demons. The seat even has a power plug so I can use my laptop all the way, glad I remembered to put an adaptor plug in my hand luggage as Boeing don’t stretch to a UK plug!!

It’s around midday French time so they’re serving lunch-a little early for my tummy but it is very good, a little tablecloth on your very big pop-out table and proper china and full size cutlery. Salmon starter, followed by fish, followed by pudding and cheese and biscuits. Nice salmon, very overcooked white fish and nice pud! The bloke next to me is already on his second glass of red wine but it still being mid-morning UK time and very early Bogota time I’m managing to resist the lure of alcohol!

Am finishing this off now as just landing at Bogota...amazing, flying in over a plateau with mountains either side, I don't know what I expected it to look like but it wasn't this!

Training

Well, not gone anywhere yet...still waiting! Am in my second week of 4 weeks training before being let loose on the world!

Welcome to my Adventure

Am not very good with this blogging thing but hope I'll get better soon. I am writing this at the start of a 6 month adventure working for the Foreign Office travelling around the world to Embassies rolling out their new computer system.

I thought this would be a good way to keep in touch with people while I'm away, hope some of you read it but if not I'll bore you when I get home!