BikingBakke: For the Love of Colombia

I love Colombia. I seriously can't get over how much enjoyment Colombia fills me with.

I love Colombian people. Colombians generally speak clear Spanish and fairly slowly. Everyone we interacted with was just generally busy loving life. We didn't come across anyone cross threaded with the world or having a bad day, maybe those people just go out in the jungle to be guerillas. Dogs like Bogota:

The comments I can make on work stuff have to be obtuse and thin here, but the group we were working with was pure quality. Here's a street juggler that was going out during red lights for a few hours, we ate at Restuarante Armadillo right near here:

No observation of Colombian people is complete with out addressing their national pride - the female half of the population. Good god, I had sort of forgot since last time down here. The other guys (and girls too actually) who were here first time were totally slack jawed. They must all be Shakira's cousins, and they walk around knowing it. You don't throw on sweat pants to run to 7-11 here; before walking out the door, you double check your "A Game" make sure your outfit won't let the country down. I'm sure Tori would totally dig the clothes shopping streets, and I'd actually think it'd be fun to tag along for some clothes shopping too, so much wacky different stuff.

I love the food. Frutas are copious in quantity and variety that puts winter edition California strawberries in Calgary to shame, beef is tender and delicious (Matrix like quote...). Our dinners were mind boggling in both quality and cost (or lack thereof). Ceviches of all description stood out. Empanada snacks containing 90% delicious and 10% spicy/tangy made my mid day snacks. Low processed ingredient counts combined with skill and passion produce seriously good meals. The availability of Argentine Malbec "at cost" or something close to it in my estimation... not to mention the don't appear to know what a 1oz shot glass's role is in cocktail preparation. The proximity to Peru and pisco was a bit of a problem though. There's a lot of people out for a good time on Friday/Saturday nights. Punchy beat dance remixes of every catchy tune of the last 30 years seem to be the Bogota preference, fun stuff! Weird dinner spot. 5 story building gutted out, decorated with nothing that matches, and it's kind of like a cross between a meal and Cirque du Soliel.

Colombian coffee... thank you Juan Valdez... need I even say more? Sure we're here looking for black gold... but with the office servers dropping by every hour to offer cafe or jugo refills, it dawned on me that the real black gold was in my cup, not kilometers below the surface of the middle Magdalena valley... (Side bar: if that oil play works, I should put Magdalena in as my vote for my first daughter's name) but good god is the coffee ever good. Jet black rocket fuel. This is one of the reasons Colombia and I need to spend a lot of time getting to know each other by bike.

The natural beauty of the geography makes me crave more exploration. The president of the company we're working with has an condo in a building at the edge of the city, with a view overlooking probably half the 8m people of Bogota - just a normal sized place in a 35 year old building. Nice view:

Edge of the city is the key - mountain forest is a stone's throw away. Or more like "less than half the distance that his 11 year old daughter can throw a stone". We hiked and got some geology lessons. For me to type out my understanding of the significance of this photo would take a while, but essentially it's evidence the rocks are upside down after folding.

It's like overlooking Manhattan but having Lake Louise off your back deck. There's one small catch - he carries a .38 caliber snub nosed revolver as there's a few random dog packs patrolling the hills, and yes it was handled but not discharged this trip as some dogs watched along the trail for a while. The 11 year old daughter wasn't super keen on that concept, but acknowledged the facts of the situation, and remembered last time dad came home after getting bit. Dad was drafted to the Colombian military and did years of target practice, but this little thing is his only firearm here, the sporting arms are in Houston.

Back to exploration, I also need a while down here with a mountain bike so I can head for the hills. Colombia has no shortage of La Ruta-esque steep jungle covered mountains and mountain roads with massive vertical. This is a bike mecca - Bogota shuts down major roads on Sundays so people can bike. Again - a city of 8mm people shuts down major arteries in favour of cycling! Picture that in the hierarchy of priorities, wow. This is Carrera 7 which goes much the length of Bogota and is one of the ones shut down.

We did a couple hours of hiking right at the edge of town where the elevation's effect on my breathing was notable. I'm told, and believe, that there's plenty of country roads around small towns in the mountains that aren't the areas of strife - I'm missing out on a gold mine of riding.

Talking to an 11 year old girl with a totally different view on planet earth was cool. One grandma and grandpa are in Spain, she likes Madrid but Majorca is boring. Other set is half in Omaha and half in Bogota, but just likes seeing them in Bogota. Uncle in Boston is fun, but Boston is cold, but not as cold as Canada. She likes skiing, but hasn't skied in Canada yet. She likes playing with her friends in Houston when she goes back with dad since they've now moved back to Colombia. School, home, and both mom and dad's offices are all within walking distance of each other. School, offices, home and recreation club all close but not all pictured.

She likes math and animals and wants to study animals when she grows up. She has a sloth that lives in Cartagena, a dog in Bogota, as well as a gerbil and a bird. She likes to try to get close enough to pet giant anteaters when you find them when you're hiking. Caymans are safe to swim with she tells me (they only like eating fish) and anacondas are hard to see and aren't really dangerous, they go into the jungle when they feel you walk nearby. Dad nodded in agreement on these observations, but I'll still let her go first on the different encounters... Her and dad are going on vacation when she's on her next school break, she picked the theme and the place - a week camping in the desert outside a small 500 person town in Utah and the theme of the week is to discuss in ongoing fashion "the universe". I'm impressed, before she told me what she picked that wouldn't have been my guess. I asked dad later and he confirmed that was all her pick, and he's happy as a geologist too to be able to hike around neat rocks (let alone have a daughter with those kind of vacation/life ideas). Family hike combined with geology trivia and good times:

Random bits of Bogotawesomeness we took in were the Fernando Botero museum (the guy that paints everyone "fat"), as in Hombre, Mujer y Nino below... although I can't remember exactly. Might be Padre, Madre y Nino too.

spent some time in the La Candelaria area which is the 400 year old part from colonization by the Spanish, toured around the town square where all the government functions are, took the tram up to the Monseratte mountain/church overlooking the city - very cool. Tram: