Bogota
I sure was worried all day about the guys not showing up last night. I went out this afternoon and went to the Museum of Oro (gold) and they have a very impressie collection of gold and other artifacts. I took quite a few photos but I have not looked at them yet. I worked my way back to the hotel and found that the guys still hadn’t showed up yet.
I went back downtown to see about getting another email to Anna and see if I could get some phone numbers of her husbands family that may be here, speak English and would maybe able to help me if the boys never did show up or if I needed help getting out of Bogota and getting helpful info for travel.
I walked way up town as all the local internet shops were closed as were a lot of shops on a Sunday evening. I finally found one and started hitting the keys when I noticed a guy stacking up all the chairs and in the middle of an email message I was writing they shut the damn thing down and I guess that email went into the air someplace never to be read. Dang, I actually had two emails going at the same time and I lost them both. When I get back to a computer and hook up I will see if they were sent but I cant imagine why. Things work different than the USA around the world.
When I returned I got a message from the desk guy saying I had a message from an amigo. I had him call the number back and finally got Sacha on the phone. He said that they had met one of Evan’s cousins and they have been out drinking all night and day. Evan was supposedly passed out from too much alcohol and they would be in sometime they thought to get showered and fresh clothes. Damn them anyway for scaring the shit out of me.
12-20-05
Well they showed up that night just long enough to pick up their gear and head out again. I really didn’t like it but I don’t have any say what they do. I certainly was and still am totally worried about the bikes coming in as I don’t have the flight number or the shipping number or anything about my bike.
I did have a nice day after they left with Anna’ husband Oscar’s brother Juan, his wife Monica Victoria and their two kids Santiago and Monica. Santiago took me in the afternoon along with one of his friend’s sight seeing by taking a sort of hanging cable car (like a ski lift car) to the top of a mountain not far from where I am staying. It was too bad that it had to be cloudy that day as I guess from the top you can see all of Bogotá. There was a little restaurant at the top where we had a little meal. Santiago wanted me to experience some real Colombian food. We had several different things and all was really different and good. Later that day we went to pick up his dad and we all went to their home, which was in a nice neighbor hood and up maybe on the eighth floor. I can’t remember but the view of that part of the city was great. This is a huge city, I hadn’t realized how big it is, I learned later that it is somewhere between 8 and 9 million people. Yow!!! I had a nice meal with Juan at their home and a good visit with Monica Victoria about traveling south toward Ecuador. They got a map out and we sort of figured the distances and the towns I should stay at on my way to keep traveling safe.
Today I got up and walked around this part of the city some more. I went into a small church that I had walked by before but hadn’t noticed that it was different than the one I went in next door. Wow, what an old church. I don’t know how old but an oldie for sure. They don’t have any info about the buildings on them like some places do. The woodwork on the, what do you call those places along the side where they have statues of the saints (?) was terrific. The detail and size of those things is amazing. One thing that I saw that really surprised and dare I say, outraged me, was that instead of people putting candles in front of those saints or who ever they are along the sides of the church, they have these really dumb sets of fake lights that are supposed to look like a candle burning. The deal is that you put a coin in the little slot in front of the little light bulb you want to go on and I guess it lights it up for a set length of time. You can’t imagine how awful it looks with these little lights sort of flickering away.
Electric candles X
Gee as I write this I have realized why they are doing this. I figure that they must be trying to eliminate the smoke from the candles that are making the churches all dark and dirty inside. I know that some of the old paintings in them you can hardly see. Lets see, from what I remember from buying candles back in my hippie days in San Francisco, the candles used in the church had to be at least 50% bees wax or they couldn’t be used in the church. In the old days they used a lot of tallow candles and they smoke like hell and turned everything black. If they were 50% bee’s wax, they wouldn’t smoke so much.
Just before noon Lucy (Oscar’s sister) had a cab pick me up and take me to the place where she works. Lucy is the one sister that came to see Oscar and Anna get married on our farm in Montana. She is a lot of fun and we really enjoyed having her stay with us. We went for a walk around town and were fortunately lucky enough to find the, or one of the BMW bike dealers in town. They had four new BMW 1200 GS bikes on the floor. Lucy found out that they cost $28,000 as the tax they put on the bikes pays for everything. Wow, I think that they sell for $16,000 or so in the USA. That is a heavy tax and I guess they must get people to pay it otherwise they wouldn’t have four on the floor. Lucy said that they tax cars that way too but not on the ones that they produce or put together in Colombia. There are a lot of little cars here and very different ones than I have seen up north. There are a lot of cool little Renaults and lots of small delivery vans and trucks. They say that gas is expensive down here even though Colombia does produce and export oil.
A typical cargo bike X
We walked around quite a bit and finally ended up at a really nice restaurant where Lucy ordered a meal common to Colombia. Just after she ordered her husband walked in and I met Carlos who sat down and had lunch with us. Carlos is a MBA and runs a consulting service. Lucy just got her MBA yesterday and I was so pleased to congratulate her on all her hard work. We had some time to chat before the food came. It was a really nice bowl of beans with a side of rice and something I have never seen before. It was a strip of sowbelly about an inch wide and they had cut down to the skin through the bacon every half inch or so. The whole thing was sort of deep-fried. All you had to do was tear off a hunk and eat along with the beans, rice and some sort of small round balls made of corn flour that are baked.
Lucy and Carlos had to go back to work so they left me in their apartment that they had just remodeled. It is also in a very nice part of town and Lucy can walk to work from there. I had a chance to take a nice nap before Carlos came back and took me out for a walk. The part of town where they live is really nice and I can finally see some of the beauty that I have heard about but not seen down in ‘my’ part of town. He took me to a really nice little park where he used to come to relax and read. It reminds me of an oriental garden with small water ditches and ponds. There was a nice looking old building there and I saw that it said that it was a museum. I asked Carlos what kind of museum it was. He didn’t know but when we went up we were let in and took a tour with a nice lady who told Carlos all about it. She didn’t speak any English so I didn’t get any of it other than a few things that Carlos passed on. The building was built in the 18th century by a couple that were ranchers, farmers and evidently made a lot of money in land. They traveled extensively around the world and brought back lots of stuff and built this place. When she died she left the place complete and the wishes were that it be a museum and that the grounds around it be kept a park. The collection of fine furnishings and household stuff was amazing. They lived a very elegant life. I guess the guy wasn’t that well educated and when he was writing something about his acienda someone made fun of him not knowing how to spell hacienda. He told the person that he had seven acienda’s and wanted to know how many haciendas that guy owned, which shut him up.
The house is amazing with lots of tile work and really everything in it is of the highest quality. There is quite a few pieces of oriental art and pottery or china and maybe that is why the garden might be along those designs. If you ever get a chance to go to Bogota please try to visit the Museo Mercedes Sierra dePerez “El Chico” you won’t regret it.
We walked back to the place where Lucy works and called the guy I was riding with and has the papers to get the bikes out of the air cargo. He was supposed to get copies of the airfreight and drop them off at my hotel but of course he had not. He says that I should meet him at the air cargo place in the morning at 8:30 and we will pick up the bikes. He believes everything is going to be ok and I guess I have to start thinking positive and start believing that it will be there.
After much discussion it was arranged that Carlos would pick me up tomorrow morning at quarter to eight and he would take me to the airport and help me get the bike out of air cargo. I really appreciate the help but at the same time I sure do hate needing help. There was a lot of discussion about the safety of traveling to Ecuador and they think it is ok to Cali but not from there on. Lucy has a friend that knows about that sort of thing and they are checking on how best I should go. I sure hate to worry them as I know others have gone before me and have not had problems, but I will surly listen to them.
I took a cab home. Actually there is a big problem with some of the cabs here in town and Lucy says that they are not safe to ride in. She uses a special cab company for her company that is safe for foreign travelers to use. This is the cab I took home.
12-21-05
We made it to the airport and finally chased down where the air cargo place was and found out that the bike would not be coming in until noon today. Carlos had a good discussion with the woman at air cargo and she told him that we wouldn’t be able to get the bikes out until maybe three but five would be \better. While we were there Evan showed up and didn’t even acknowledge that I was there. I guess he is pissed at me for wanting to know the information on the airfreight number and anything else about the bike. I don’t have anything so I had asked him for copies of everything. I guess he has been on a five day drunk and he isn’t in the best of moods. While we were getting our bikes ready to ship his bike was leaking coolant like mad. He had said that his little light that warns about overheating had been coming on but he thought he hadn’t ridden it that much with it on so he probably hadn’t hurt his bike. He couldn’t find where the coolant was coming from and it sure wasn’t from the hoses so it looks like from underneath the bike. He added water to the bike and since it didn’t leak any more figured it was ok. I told him that it builds up pressure when it gets hot and forces out the fluid and it isn’t going to leak when it is cold and just sitting there. He seems somewhat clueless about mechanics.
Carlos said that he was really rude to the air cargo gal and seems really pissed off which I am sure he is as he planned to take the bike to the BMW dealer and have it worked on before he made the ride to his fathers place. Carlos says that it is a 12-hour trip at least to his fathers place. We left him there and headed to a place where they make these bright orange vests that have your license plate number on them in reflective material. It only took them about 20 minutes or so and the thing only cost about ten bucks. It is necessary to have one when riding a motorcycle in Colombia. I also got some stick-on letters and numbers for my helmet in reflective tape. Also required. So now I have a vest and helmet with DZRTK9 on them. If you don’t have this, you get a ticket.
After the vest deal we went to a large convention type place where they have Colombian artists and indigenous people displaying their wares. It was really nice to see the variety of crafts and artwork that is done down here. I looked especially at the silver and gold jewelry and I think it is the best I have seen.
Gold X
There were a lot of really good artists displaying their glass, pottery, jewelry, baskets, rugs, weavings, woodwork and all sorts of unique stuff. I took this one of the teasel pods that one guy that was selling wool blankets and wool yarn used to comb his blankets so they looked good. The teasel pod has been used all over the world for wool processing for hundreds of years. It grows wild now in the US and is considered a bad weed.
Teasel X
He was selling the funky spun yarn for what I would call a hanging door of yarn.
Yarn door X
There was a guy playing some hot guitar and when I got up there I had to take a photo of him for my music buddies. He had quite a display of unique instruments that I guess he had made and was selling.
Guitar X
We came back to their house and I took a quick nap before we headed out to the airport again at five. We learned that they bikes had just arrived an hour or so ago and it would take five or more hours for us to be able to get them. Carlos talked with her for quite a |while and was real nice to her. He figures that the best bet is to show up in the morning and maybe then I will be able to get the bike. He found out from her that it shouldn’t be a problem with the paper work being in only one persons name, so that is a real positive as I have been worried about that all along. Yah never know until it is all over though…..
We decided to get the hell out of there before Evan and Sacha showed up as for sure Evan is going to be really pissed off. I sure hope he doesn’t do something dumb and screw things up for us all. When we were there we had to walk by a soldier with a drug sniffing dog. That dog really didn’t like me and to tell the truth, I didn’t like him much either. If Evan gets rowdy, there are a lot of police and army guys to control him along with the damn dog if necessary.
Oh, another thing Carlos found out was that I would need to head over to another building and do some paperwork that I guess has something to do with customs. It should be another interesting day.
I have had a really good time with Carlos. He is a well-traveled man that was born and raised here in Bogotá. Since he has been in the city all his life, he likes cities. He decided he wanted to go to school in New York and he went there for I think it was a year. He said that when he got there the first thing he did was go to the statue of liberty. When he got downtown he said he felt like he knew every street and it was wonderful. It is so hard for me to imagine as the thought of being in New York City just scars me. He rented a car just to go to Boston and see the city and the schools there. He loves cities and went to Spain for a year to finish his masters in a school that was in English only. He loves to travel and loves big cities. It is so strange as I am so freaked out about cities and cant wait to get into the country and away from them.
Evan invited me to stay in their place several times and was in the process of getting me a place to stay with relatives that were gone from their places. I finally asked if I could stay in their apartment rather than try to find a hotel near by. They have two floors and their bedroom is on the top floor and there was plenty of room on the floor downstairs. There is a bathroom there too so that is nice. He said sure but they would have to get a mattress for me to sleep on. I have my thermo-rest air mattress and I said that I could do just fine on it as well as my sleeping bag.
We went to meet Lucy at her work building and went across the street to the World Trade Center and went up to the roof restaurant. Lucy says that this is the finest restaurant in Bogotá and I can surly imagine it is. The entire room is surrounded in glass and the room moves very slowly around so you get a 360-degree view of the city. It is very impressive as is the fine furnishings that are made to look like it is a ship with the waiters all dressed in sea captains uniforms. The food was excellent and they picked out some interesting appetizers as well as a shrimp meal with rice that had coconut and raisins and fried banana. It was really well displayed and so good.
12-22-05
Lucy gave me a ride to the air cargo building in the morning. We got there a little after seven. After standing around for a while we were able to talk with one of the guys in the cargo area and were able to get in the cargo area and saw the bikes. Oh, did they look good after so many days. Lucy finally went off to work giving me assurance that everything seemed to be ok. Both Evan and Sacha finally showed up and we began the wait. It seems like it takes forever and in reality it does. We had to go over to the other side of the airport to the customs area and fill out papers and they had to explain over and over that we were not importing these bikes into Colombia we were just passing through. Finally they got the message and started the paper work but then there was the problem that only Evans name was on the air freight papers. After much discussion and finally a nice lady that seemed to know what she was doing, we got the paperwork started.
Lets see here someplace we had to go look up one of the immigration officers that stamped our passports with a stamp that said we came to Colombia and we brought bikes and we made copies all around of our paper work so far.
The next problem was getting the bikes split off in each of our names which took some more time. There was a lot of waiting but finally after a little more than an hour we got the papers all in our own names with multiple copies and countless staples in our papers. We charged back across to the air cargo again to wait again. We needed the customs officer to look at the bikes. A lot of waiting because the guy just walks around the air cargo area and he doesn’t have a uniform or jacket to identify him. Evan ran around and talked with everybody and finally found the guy in the cargo area where our bikes were. After much discussion and a body pat down search by a lady we got in to see the bikes again along with the customs officer. We handed over piles of damn paper we each had and after much writing and copy of numbers we were given the papers. Then all we needed were the bikes. Not all that easy or quick we found out. There is supposed to be only one guy that is authorized to drive the outfit that would take our bikes out of the cargo area and put them outside the police station a quarter mile away. Carlos showed up again to see how I was getting along. We were sacked out on the steps of the cargo building and I was taking a nap right out there with motorcycles, trucks and planes making lots of noise. It didn’t bother me any. We waited and waited and I guess we hit is at lunch time or something as nothing was happening. Someone would go in and check now and then but nothing was moving.
Finally the word was passed out that the bikes were being moved out to the police station and that we should go there and pick them up. A long walk but it was going to be worth it as the bikes were going to be there. Wrong! How about another half hour wait and then it started to rain. I figured that they were just waiting all day for it to start to rain for them to release our bikes.
It was nice to get our hands on our bikes again and get them unloaded off that damn pallet that they were so poorly lashed to. My bike was in good shape though and I have not noticed any damage after a quick look at it. The rain let up and I got the battery hooked back up and installed the windshield and mirrors. Carlos hailed a cab and off we went with me following the cab as close as I dared. If you don’t follow close and protect your lane someone will squeeze you out because they figure you are just a moto and should be riding between lanes anyway. You wouldn’t believe these moto guys around here. They squeeze through traffic with barely an inch on each side and weave in and out with ease. They all do it too and not just the few. That is the way it is done down here. Motorcycles really are the way to get around if you want to make time.
We made it back and I have the bike parked in the garage under the building. It is guarded and I think it is safe where it is. I slipped the cover on it as soon as I parked it and it sure makes it look better that way and more secure I think from casual theft. Everyone says that you have to be careful down here so I am. We got back here at four o’clock so it was a nine hour day. The prediction was two hours last night so I guess a safe way to figure things is to double the time and double it again and add a little bit and you should be close. It took two days total which seems a little extreme but then we are just moto guys and were in Colombia.
Life is good again with the bike under my butt.
After Carlos got me here he went back to work. I took a little trip down around the building and got a snack as I had nothing but part of a sort of cookie or bread thing that Sacha bought but didn’t like so he gave it to me.
They live in a really nice area and there was a grocery store that I checked out. I bought some granola for breakfast and some granola bars to have in my pack in case of a hungry attack. I took this photo of potatoes that were in another grocery store. When I grew potatoes in Nevada we grew 77 different varities of potatoes and I think we grew this kind or one very similar.
Potatoes X
I am sitting at the desk looking out the window at part of the city. I am on the eighth floor and the view is pretty good from up here. There are a couple of buildings that are taller across the street but most of them near by are only four or five stories. IN the distance I can see lots of huge buildings. This city is so big that there are skyscrapers all over the place and not just centered in one place. One of the drives we have been making has been over a hundred blocks and it is city all the way with big apartment building and huge business buildings everywhere. Carlos told me that about 80% of the population is poor. I have not been any of the really poor parts of town fortunately. Where I was in the rat hole hotel was on the edge of a pretty tough part of town but it wasn’t a slum. There was some redevelopment happening near by and it might turn out to be nice if money comes I and they fix up some of the old buildings.