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.
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