Saturday, June 21, 2008

Paloma Plaza

Bogotá has some of the most shat upon statues I have ever encountered. There are an ungodly number of pigeons at large in the city and their presence is definitely evident, particularly in La Plaza De Bolivar outside of the capital building. The first time I saw one of the statues here I thought it had painted white hair. Nope. I started keeping an eye out for it and actually caught a picture of one actively crapping on a statue's head.

I think people must be selling birdfeed; I saw people throwing something seedlike at them. One little boy kept throwing food to get the birds concentrated in one area so he could charge at them more easily. Small children chasing birds is completely the most adorable thing, they really believe they'll be able catch them but if they ever did they'd be completely at a loss as to what to do next.

Bogotá

The bus got in to Bogotá at around 9 o'clock in the morning. Ordinarily I don't mind night buses but this time I had a cold so all the changes in elevation kept screwing with my inner ear and I couldn't get any sleep. I finally arrived and hopped in a taxi to go meet the family I'll be staying with. The accommodations are fantastic, I've got my own room with two computers and a printer in it. Oh yeah, and there's a maid. Homestays are completely the way to travel.

That night I finally got to really practice speaking with a big group of Colombianos. Carlos (the son of the family) took me to a karaoke party at a friend's house and, much to my delight, the combination of alcohol and terrible singing actually makes speaking Spanish much easier. I think it's because it's hard to look like an idiot next to a bunch of drunk people doing karaoke no matter how bad your Spanish is. Pretty soon I was chatting up a storm, and had such a good time I actually stayed for several hours after Carlos left. If this keeps up I'll make some real headway with the language before I leave Bogotá.

Friday, June 20, 2008

La Piedra del Peñol

For my last day in Medellín I went on a day trip with some gringos from the hostel to check out La Piedra del Peñol, supposedly the second largest rock in the world. From left to right you've got me, a Dutch lady named Patricia (although pronounced completely differently), Jeff, an Irish journalist who's really into heavy metal, a radical leftist kid named Jason who hails (unsurprisingly) from Vancouver Island, and Paul, the hostel owner from Seattle/New Zealand who took us on the tour.

No one knows where it came from, but the indigenous tribes believed it to be evil. Frankly, I'd have to agree, the thing looks menacing, and the unhappy looking statues of La Virgen Maria that people put up in it's crevices don't help at all. Anyway, by some engineering marvel, stairs were built into the rock. I'm not sure by whom, perhaps by the same people who wrote GI on the side of it in big white letters, whatever that stands for. They took forever to climb and with the thin mountain air I was wheezing again by the time we reached the top.

But man, was it worth it. The view of the surrounding lakes was absolutely spectacular. It was a beautiful day with bright sun and awesome cumulous clouds all across the horizon. There were even a couple butterflies who'd made their way to the top as well and were flying around each other over the names people enscribed within hearts on the tiles. One of the butterflies even landed on me, at which point I became so concerned I might be in a Disney movie that I accidentally scared it off.

Cleanliness is Close to Godliness

There is at least one of these cleaning ladies on every single floor in every metro station in Medellín I've been to. As a result they are all completely immaculate. I mean, like, Singapore style clean. I'm not sure why this is necessary, and at first I thought it might be a jobs program sort of deal, but now I'm wondering if it's cultural. I had mentioned to Vadir that Mangue claimed "everyone keeps their house clean around here" while chiding me for my unkempt bed at breakfast, and he said there's a belief that cleanliness wards off poverty. Then again, there are certainly plenty of other places in the city which are not clean at all, which does seem to shed some doubt on my theory.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

All Kids Dig Cameras

Every place I go, Asia, the Middle East, and now South America, the children there always and forever want to screw around with my camera. I always keep one eye glued to them in case they make a run for it but they never do and afterwards I always have lots of adorable kid pictures. This one's not as cute as usual, probably due to the size of this niño's backpack.


Parapentes

Because of its location, Medellín is said to be one of the best places in the world for paragliding. I developed a certain (possibly unhealthy) interest in jumping from great heights after I tried skydiving so this immediately caught my attention, and at a price of only $45 I was easily sold. I took a bus ride up the winding roads in the mountains outside Bella and got off at El Voladero. There was a narrow staircase leading up to the takeoff site and although it was only a five minute walk the air was so thin I had to stop to catch my breath. It was well worth it though, here is a picture I took from probably around a mile up in the air.

There were actually hawks flying around as close as 30 feet from me at times and the view of the city was spectacular. I also spotted farms and forest and a waterfall, plus a blue sky full of cumulus clouds (my favorite kind). There was a Korean girl in the air at the same time, and this blurry picture was all I could catch to show what paragliding actually looks like. Anyway, here's a video of the actual landing.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Caballeros

I was talking to a California backpacker who'd come here from Argentina about the differences between Buenos Aires and Medellín, and he said Medellín is more Latin. I was confused and asked him to expound. He told me B.A. feels like Europe, not just in the architecture but in the culture, whereas here things are more old fashioned. "Like, people still riding horses," he said.

At first I thought this a bad example, since horseback riding is a common hobby in the U.S. as well, although not quite so popular there are saddle stores in the malls like there are here. I found out later, much to my surprise, horseback riding is not just a popular pastime in Medellín; it seems to also a legitimate mode of transportation.

No Disfruta This Fruta

We went to a gigantic fresh local fruit market in a warehouse and bought a ton of stuff to make juice. I tried several while we were there and this was the only one that was really unpleasant. I've forgotten the name but it looks vaguely like a green orange. You peel it like an orange too but you have to slurp the insides, which are the consistency of boogers. Perhaps it'll taste better as a juice.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Amigos Colombianos

Everyone says the main attraction here in Colombia is the people, so I figured I should post a little about some of the Colombianos I've met so far.

This is my friend Jorge. He's from Bogotá but he went to film school in L.A. and is fluent in English so I've been practicing Spanish with him. He looks all thugged out in this picture but usually he dresses like a hipster. I took this picture in a bar underneath the call center he works for. He's also a DJ by night, and I went with some of his friends from work who also all speak English to hear him spin.

These are the friends, both of whom lived in the U.S. and are fluent in English. The one on the right, Claudia, is actually the boss, which is unusual in patriarchical Colombia. They sell extremely expensive memberships for an airplane parts locator website to businessmen in North America and Europe. Business has been bad lately due to the rise in gas prices though.

I met this guy one night at the hostal and nicknamed him DJ. He's a DJ too and has apparently played all over the world, so I asked him for a picture in case he gets famous. He promised me he wouldn't. I'll never find out either way because I only know him as DJ, which is definitely not his real name.

This is Vadir, he's probably my favorite. Everywhere we go he seems to know the people there already. He's endlessly patient with my terrible Spanish and I've met a lot of interesting people through him. I've also gotten a lot of good travel advice from him, as he's an experienced backpacker and well aquainted with Colombia and a lot of Latin America as well. We took this picture outside a show in Parque Poblado. Neither of us look too hot in this picture, probably thanks to the fact that drinking in public is quite legal in Medellín and beer is quite cheap in Parque Poblado.

There are more people who I'd like to write about but I don't have pictures of them yet. Perhaps when I get more photos I'll post a part two.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Smog

I went to a lookout point with Livia the other day to check out Medellín from up on high, and was startled to see L.A. style smog hovering over the city. Apparently the pollution here is getting out of hand due to a booming economy and an endlessly increasing number of cars. The traffic has gotten so bad they restrict driving at peak hours. It's reminiscent of the 70's oil crisis; you get to drive at different times depending on your license plate number.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Skinheads

Yes, that does say nazi on the curb, and yes, that is a swastika. I know it seems ridiculous seeing as Colombian people aren't exactly aryan in appearance. There actually are some locals here with blue or green eyes, and even fewer with blond hair so at first I wondered if perhaps they were the only ones who could be skinheads, but according to Vadir the skinheads are mostly mestizo. I'm endlessly amazed by what gets popular here.

Beer or Book?

I haven't heard any explanation for why this is the case but for some reason books are extremely expensive in Medellín. I discovered this in a local bookstore trying to find something written in relatively basic Spanish to practice with. As a result, counterfeit books are one of the products that street venders try to stuff through car windows while they're stopped at red lights. Livia's an avid reader in spite of this and this is a book that cost her 100.000 pesos. For frame of reference, a beer costs around 2.000 pesos. I wonder if this has an effect on how much people read here. I mean seriously, if you had to choose between a book or 50 beers, which would you pick?