Presidente Uribe

I met up with a couchsurfer from Cartagena named Rosi who is also visiting Bogotá for coffee and a little Spanish practice and, surprise surprise, she's also against Uribe. It's got to be an age thing, all the old people love him and all the young people hate him. According to her, he's trying to privatize all the public universities (including hers) saying there isn't enough funding for them. Of course whenever someone says there isn't enough funding for something, what they mean is that they'd rather fund something else, but I'm not so sure he's as bad as she thinks. She also claimed the country didn't get safer during his administration which is definitely not true.

Alvaro Uribe Vélez was born in 1952 to a wealthy paisa rancher, got a law degree, and started working in government. He was the Mayor of Medellín, then a Senator, then a Governor, then President. He's one of the best liked politians in Latin American history, with consistent approval ratings of above 70%, probably due to the increase in security. He was so popular that he was able to get a constitutional amendment allowing him a second term. It passed not long after the AUC, a terrorist paramilitary organization, was disbanded and sent to rehabilitation programs.

However Uribe's also been involved in several scandals. He's been accused of involvement with narcotrafficking several times, including by Pablo Escobar's former lover Virginia Vallejo and by a declassified American intelligence reports. More recently, links were reported between his whole family and paramilitary groups; he was even accused of helping orchestrate a massacre and it's been dubbed the parapolitics scandal. Furthermore, congresswoman Yidis Medina stepped forward just a few months ago accusing him of bribing her to vote for the amendment allowing his re-election. On the whole though I haven't yet seen any real proof so far.

Feliz Cumpleaños

It was Teresa's birthday and everyone went out to a Viva Brazil to celebrate. I forgot to bring my camera so this photo is actually from the internet but it looks similar. It's a Brazillian thing, they come around with big skewers of a bajillion different types of meat and slice about a slaughterhouse worth onto your plate. My digestive tract actually begged me for mercy. I ate maybe half of what was served and still felt sick. It is just not a good idea to eat multiple pounds of meat in one sitting, I do not understand the appeal. They even had a skewer of chicken hearts (must've been like 50 of them on that thing), but I was only able to force down one. If it'd been my birthday, I would've been so pissed.

Colombian Dancing

I met up with Rosa and a group of her friends to go clubbing and accidentally got sloshed on aguardiente. Aguardiente is a sugary, anise flavored liqueur that's extremely cheap and extremely Colombian. It's the most potent liqueur I've ever encountered (probably 55 proof).

I think it helped me learn how to dance like a Colombian though; I asked for lessons from the girls and apparently wasn't bad. Colombian dancing is actually a lot like frotteurism. You bend your knees a little and straddle your partner's thigh so your groin is right up in their business, then you sort of gyrate from the hips in a manner which all too closely resembles dry humping.

fourth of July

What? Oh, right, I mean yeah, happy birthday, nation....No, I can't make the party this year either, I won't be around....A present? Uh, I mean, not exactly but I'll bring you something when I get back....Yeah but this time I will though....Oh come on don't be like that it's not like I completely forgot.

It's the fourth of July (lowercase f) and, just like last year in India, nobody gives a damn. If I hadn't gotten facebook invitations I might really have forgotten. At least this year it's on a Friday so people will be partying anyway. Here Independence Day is the Twentieth of July, but of course I'll have left Colombia by then.

Ladrones

I needed to see the nightlife here in Bogotá so met up with some people from couchsurfing. It turned out to be Silke's birthday, a German couchsurfer in town for the week (she's the one with the cake). After singing Happy Birthday to her in both English and Spanish we went clubbing in La Candelaria.

I compulsively my pockets to make sure I have my everything so it didn't take long after we got to the club for me to realize something had gone missing. This same thing happened last year. Why do I bother having a cell phone? It never works anyway, it's just one more thing for people to steal. It's true the dance floor was crowded but I'm still impressed they got it out of my FRONT pocket without me noticing.

Mi Casa Propia

Juan and I went to a CieloMamá (Mother Sky) concert and I think they played the best song I've heard here. The band is from Bogotá but apparently their style is very Pacific coast. They do a fantastic live show and their big hit is called Mi Casa Propia (My Own House). It's a really fun, energetic song, Here's the music video. Start the player at 1:45 to skip the interview if you don't speak Spanish. I also took a short clip of the concert to show their enthusiasm, but the video quality is pretty terrible.

Freed Hostages

Big deal news just broke here in Colombia. Every single news channel here has been looping the footage. The guerrillas just lost fifteen hostages, including their four high profile bargaining chips: French citizen and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and three American military contractors. the other eleven people were Colombian military and police. The military announced the rescue on TV.

They are saying the guerrilla group was infiltrated and possibly bribed (lower level guerrilla members have killed their own leaders for rewards before, and desertions are more and more common). John McCain happens to be visiting Colombia right now and says he's been speaking to President Uribe about the American contractors, making him seem awfully presidential. That won't be hard for his campaign to spin well.