Discrimination

So yesterday I learned what it was like to be gay. Well... at least discriminated against as gay. The rest still remains a mystery.

Louardi and I were trying to find a taxi on our way back from work and we had crossed the street so we could get a cab going the right direction. One factor that we hadn't considered was that on this side of the street, we would be outside of a motel.

Now, a motel in Colombia is not the same as a motel in Canada. In Colombia, it is a place where lovers go to get away from their families and have some fun. It is NOT a place to sleep.

Anyways, it was about 2am and here we were, 2 men outside of a motel. We tried to flag down a cab and 8 empty taxis drove right by us. Eventually we realized what we looked like and decided to cross the street again to the original side. Now that we had distanced ourselves from the motel we tried to flag a cab again. The first empty cab stopped for us!

Anyways we had a good laugh.

Museo del Oro

Last Saturday we went to the gold museum. This place had so much gold that yes, it looks like there is something about that El Dorado legend. There were four galleries, the first talked about the metalurgy, the blends between gold, silver and copper, and the manufacturing methods. The second talked about history (biggest and most boring). The third talked about the religions. Apparently the shamens used to use the cocoa plan to go into trances and see the world from a different perspective. They also used to use it to transform into different animals. I think they were just always high! The final gallery was just a ton of gold! Here are some photos:


This is what they used to wear, a breastplate. Massive earrings, and that thing covering his face is a nosering. Yeah, heavy nosering! It is supposed to look like a aguar.There I am with something shiney!

The last room was called the offering room. You walk in and it is dark, then doors close and it is black, then lights start revealing silhouettes of motifs that you have seen throughout the museum. A light show continues and soon you see that the silhouettes are gold. There is soooo much of it! This is the centerpiece. There are several layers of gold and there is a huge emerald in the middle.

Monserrate

I've put off writing this post because I needed to get pictures from one of the guys with us. So here it is.

One day we too a walk to a place called Monserrate. This is a church on the top of a mountain overlooking Bogota. There are four ways up. First there is the Gondola, Second there is the Funicular, third there are the stairs. Finally, for the really devout, you can go up the stairs on your knees. The elevation gain is about 2000 feet.
The top is at about 10500 feet and you can actually feel yourself get out of breath pretty quickly. We took the gondola up and the funicular down.
Looking down was a little scary, Man was it steep!
Behind us in this picture is a massive statute of Jesus overlooking the city on another mountain. Sort of like Christ the Redeemer in Rio I guess. Pretty cool anyways.

Here are a few more photos from the top:


Mmmmm, lunch at the top. This is the kind of stuff we eat here. Lots of fried Banana.
This is the funicular to the bottom.We passed this on the way home and I love the picture! I once again dedicate this to my vegetarian sister.

Paper

What I will do for some paper.

I needed 10,000 sheets of pre-punched, 3-hole, letter-sized paper. That wouldn't be too difficult to find in Canada, but in Bogota it was nearly impossible. We asked our sponsor for an address of a place and they sent an address and some contact info. I got into a taxi with the address and was a little worried when the taxi driver said over the radio that his passenger only spoke English. I almost expected to be driven to some back alley. Half an hour later I was there, safe.

The first issue when I got there was that I didn't speak Spanish and nobody at the store spoke English. We ended calling the woman who gave us the address so she could be a translator for us on the phone. It was a little embarrassing, but it got the job done. Next I was told that I would have to wait for half an hour for the paper to be punched, it didn't come pre-punched! I went upstairs and watched as a guy used a drill-press to drill the holes in my 10,000 sheets. Not only that, but it took him an hour and a half to do it!

Okay, so that was done and they even helped me carry the 40lbs (2 boxes) of paper to the curb. Next I had to get back to the site.

I had forgotten to bring the address with me, but I knew the name of a well known landmark across the street. It has been tried, tested, and true landmark for all of the other team members so far on the project so I figured I would be okay. I'm not sure if it was my accent or what, but I gave the name of the landmark and the driver started driving. About 5 minutes of going the wrong way I realized that the driver had no idea where he was going. I told him "Norte El Dorado" and this kind of surprised him.

After arguing a little, he stopped the car and told me to get out. I owed him about 5,000 pesos but didn't bother paying. I was now in a back-road with 40lbs of paper and no idea where I was. It took about 5 minutes before another taxi came buy. I decided to talk to him this time before getting in. As soon as he realized I only spoke English, he drove away.


Another 5 minutes past and I finally managed to get another taxi. This time I jumped in before talking and then just said "norte" (north). He started driving to where our site was, under my directions. Now I don't actually have the city memorized and had never really paid attention to directions in the car. This was incredibly frustrating.

I made us take sooooo many wrong turns. I think the driver was getting a little frustrated. Eventually we passed the right road by accident, took a U-turn about a kilometer away, and then passed the road again. The driver pulled over and pointed to his watch as if his shift was over. I refused to get out this time and we continued. We made another U-turn about another kilometer away, and then finally got to where we needed to be.

We stopped at the gates outside the complex and a security guard came up (I had never actually been stopped here before). He asked me for my I.D. and I gave him my company badge. He noticed that it didn't match the IDs for the rest of the people working there (we are on a contract for that company). Once again the lack of Spanish was a problem. He eventually radioed to someone and gave them my name. They radioed back that it was okay (I never actually gave my name to anyone so I don't know how they knew me). After an hour and a half with this taxi, the ordeal was over!

I never want to put that much effort into getting paper again.

A night at the circus.

So here I am, in Bogota, on a Friday night. What do I do?

I started off looking for a place to have dinner. I walked around the commercial area and couldn't find anything and so I headed over to the bull fight arena where I was sure there would be some restaurants. I found myself walking down a dark street and suddenly no one was around. I knew it was time to get out of there so I headed to where I heard some loud music. It was a bar, so I figured it sounded friendly enough and walked in.

A man greeted me at the door and offered me a beer which I gladly accepted. I walked into the bar to find that there was no one in it. The man who offered me the beer remained outside and it was a little weird. It was the kind of place I would expect to see a Colombian mobster hang out. This was way worse than the dark street so I drank my beer as fast as comfortable and left.

Learning from my mistake, I quickly headed to where I heard the most noise. I found myself on a crowded street which was closed to traffic. The first thing I came across was a volleyball/soccer match. Someone had put a tennis net across the street and people were playing volleyball without using their hands. It looked like anyone could join but I stayed on the sidelines as they were insanely competitive.

I found a pizza place on this street and had a beer and pizza while watching the festivities. The next stop I came to had some really good jugglers. These guys (and girl) had a ton of makeup on and were completely in the clown costume. They juggled knives while on unicycles and balancing glowing orbs on their heads. I was mesmerized by these guys for about 20 minutes. Now I know where Cirq du Solei originated from.

A few feet later I met a mime. This is the first person I have met in Colombia who actually speaks my language. He gave me a sticker and so I gave him a couple of coins.

The next thing I came across was a jump-rope competition. There was a rope for adults and a rope for kids. Anyone could jump in whenever a round started, then whoever messed up had to leave the rope and the rest remained. Some of these guys were really good!

I eventually started heading back and on my way back I met a guy with a leather jacket and a really cool mohawk. He said something in Spanish which I think had the word 'coca' in it. I said "no hable espanole" and he replied "wanna smoke something?". I said no thanks and walked on. I guess I should expect to be propositioned for stuff like that while in Colombia.

My last stop was when a guy with dreadlocks in a ponytail, a handlebar mustache, and oversized clownboots grabbed my arm and wanted to teach me how to ride a unicycle. I politely refused as I have no idea what he is saying.

It was a fun and cheap few hours. It would be great if I found more streets like that in Canada. Man, I'd be there everynight!

Malta

In my continuous desire to try new things when I go to new places, I found a soft drink that I had never heard of. It is called Pony Malta and was easily the worst drink I have ever bought. It had this sweet molasses taste and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. When I made a terrible face after my 3rd or 4th sip (I can't believe I made it that far), someone commented: "That's beer!". It sure didn't taste like beer. Upon further consideration, we realized that it was wort, the first step in making beer.

Now it made sense. I like to home-brew and usually taste the wort before I pitch the yeast and this was a similar taste (although I think mine is better). I can't believe they would make a drink like that! It must have been a mistake that someone decided to market.

After a little more research I found out that there are around 100 brands of Malta. I don't get it!

Anyways, enough on this subject...

Another Crazy Night

So we had another one of our infamous nights last night.

The night started off at the hotel bar. We started off as 6. I was the new guy on the turf and the others had been working here for about 6 weeks. They are all the blue collared types and are all huge, rough looking guys, so they are definitely the type of people I'd want when walking around at 3am in Bogota. The 6 of us all met up and then found some other English businessmen and had a drink with them. One of them was named Ziggy and apparently they drink a few beers in the taxi on their way home from work every day. Anyways they gave us a good laugh and kept us entertained for a little while.

So we started getting bored of the hotel bar and wanted to find something fun to do. We asked the bar manager, who was happy to make some suggestions and asked if he could come with us. Having a local is always a good idea and this guy seemed like fun so we said yes! Next one of our friends had found himself a girlfriend in his 3 weeks here so he called her up and two more of her friends. So.... 6 Canadian dudes and 4 Colombians.
(sorry about the pink, I think my camera has almost had it).

We found a neat restaurant downtown. It was 9:00 at this point, so it is a good thing that we had that bar guy with us because he was able to talk his way into getting a table for 10 without reservations. I had no idea what to order so I asked him to get me something Columbian. He ended up ordering some sort of bite-sized fish fillets covered in a spicy vinaigrette kind of thing for appetizer and then some sort of pulled meat, with really good potatoes, fried banana and avocado for dinner.

During dinner, the music was a little louder than it would normally be at a restaurant and I noticed that it was run by a DJ on a balcony. They were playing 80s music and after a few drinks these tough Canadian guys started singing along with the songs and moving to the beat. I have to admit, I may have joined.

Before I knew it, the music was so loud that we couldn't speak, no one was sitting down anymore, and the place had turned into a night club. I have to admit, the music in South America is so much better than it is in North America, it is a lot more fun! So after a few more drinks and a few hundred thousand pesos we closed up the bar (yes, we were the last to leave). The one guy said goodbye to his short-term girlfriend with lots of tears (as he left the next day) and half an hour later we found ourselves in the cab on the way home. We arrived back at around 3:30am.


Now the next morning was a bit of a panic for me. I woke up 10 minutes before our shuttle left for work and had to run. I made it on time according to my watch, but couldn't find anyone. I called the guy that missed out on the night before and he informed me that I had arrived about 70 minutes early. Somehow during the night I must have set my watch 70 minutes fast (possibly in an attempt to make it in the same time zone as my wife). Anyways, that is another mystery.

Arrival in Bogota

Hi All,

I'm back and in Bogota, Colombia. I've been here for about 12 hours now (including sleep) and I haven't been mugged once! Arriving at the airport was pretty standard except that the line for immigration was about the length of the terminal. Fortunatley those guys were fast and I was out in 10 minutes.

I was a little nervous getting into the taxi as there were two drivers. The taxi had my hotel's name on it and they were both wearing suits so it seemed legit. I was expecting them to turn around and mug me once we got to a sketchy area. I think one of them was there for security.

Security here is funny, About 25% of the people you see on the street are dressed like soldiers and are carrying M16s. One of the guys I am with said that if I don't see a soldier nearby, I should not go to the ATM. Fair enough. The other funny thing I saw was an add for tourism in Columbia. The slogan was "The only risk is wanting to stay". Oh man...

On the drive we went to the complete opposite side of the 9 million person city, but only went through about 2 or 3 traffic lights and made it in less than 1/2 an hour. I love how places like this seem to manage their traffic without lights better than we can with lights. I noticed a few other funny things about driving here while we were on the road. For example, all drivers and passengers on motorcycles wear this bight yellow vest which has the licence plate on it. Also, all commercial vehicles have their licenceplates on the back, painted on the sides, and painted on the roof, but not on the front. Strange?

The city itself is quite nice, It's surrounded by mountains and is way up at around 8500 feet. I want to do some more exploring, but I probably shouldn't leave the city. There is a funicular somewhere around here that would be fun to take up one of the mountains.

As I continue the trip, I'll keep you posted!