Bogotá re-visited - 4/8/13

I must have fallen asleep right away, don´t even remember waking up until 5:30. I toss and turn for a while, not feeling ready for the cold outside my bed. Shortly after seven I surrender and head for the shower. One of those electric showers with open wiring that know only two settings: a relatively warm trickle or a cool splash... Not really ideal but considering the cold that has crept into my body I opt for setting one.

Then a light breakfast in the patio: coffee (hot!), bread and jam and fresh pineapple. There is a light drizzle but that changes the moment I leave the hostel - then it starts to tip with rain. I stroll to the centre to see if it´s still there and also to buy a Colombian SIM-card for my mobile. I´m glad to see that the beautiful Plaza Bolívar is still there and appears to be unchanged but soon realize that it´s too early to buy anything but bread. Or to go anywhere - the museums don´t open before 10 am. The streets are teeming with joggers, rollerskaters, cyclists and skateboarders - it´s Sunday and that´s when for half a day hundreds of kilometers of streets (even the big ones) are closed for motor traffic. Despite the nasty weather Bogotanos people the streets by the thousands.

One major street turned Ciclovía

 

To get out of the rain and the cold I decide spontaneously to get on one of the modern red Transmilenio buses and am very proud of myself that I´m  finally able to work out the complicated system of lines and stops. It takes me the better part of one hour to go up north, because I´ve got a date with my "Chilean sister" Fran in the northern neigbourhood of Usaquén. Once more I underestimate the distances in this huge metropolis.What seemed really close on the map was a 30-block hike. At least I pass a shopping centre on the way to Usaquén, where I can buy the SIM-card. Not a moment too soon, because Fran I both have some minor problems finding a) the central plaza of Usaquén and b) each other. But in the end problems a) and b) are resolved and thus we have time to explore the nice little handicraft market in the village-like neighboorhood that must be quaint and quiet when it´s not Sunday. 

Especially around noon it gets really packed and so we decide to take a bus back to the more down-to-earth centre of Bogotá and 45 minutes later we find ourselves enjoying lunch at the local Crepes & Waffles joint, a company that only employs single mothers. Eating and having a good conscience at the same time. Because we don´t really feel ready for the cold and more rain showers followed by short sunny spells we also treat ourselves to dessert.

Loved each and every calory!

To burn some of the many calories we continue to walk the streets. The rain has stopped almost completely and the sunny spells grow longer. The light is fantastic and highlights the gorgeous mountains that rise right behind the colonial centre of Bogotá. And all of a sudden the grey disappears and Bogotá becomes positively radiant. Magic!

Plaza Bolivar

At the Museo del Oro bus station we meet with Bekki, a German colleague of mine and her newly-wed husband. They are spending their honeymoon here in Colombia (guess who is responsible - at least to some extent - for their choice of destination...). We walk down busy Calle 19, where Fran hopes to catch a bus home, but there is no bus that would take her where she needed to go. So she takes a Transmilenio while Bekki, her husband and I stroll to my hostel and then on to a nice Italian trattoria in La Candelaria I know from last year. We spend a happy few hours talking, drinking beer and eating, of course.

Back home I write my blog and then hide under a pile of blankets that still only makes me feel less cold but not really snug.

Day 1 in Colombia is over!