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!