Need for Speed (Above Ground 2)

Bogota's streets are litterally filled with busses in all sizes, ages and colours. The ratio busses cars is about 10 to 1 and they all drive like crazy. There aren't many busstops in the city so everyone flags down the bus they want to take wherever they're standing. Because of the heavy traffic and the speed, the busdriver will often fail to notice passengers that want to jump on the bus, so sometimes you have to get half accross the road, jumping up and down while waving your arms to get the drivers attention. The price is invariably 1200 pesos during the day and 1250 pesos at night, no matter if you travel from terminal to terminal (which takes up to 2 hours) or just one square. To know where the busses going you have to find the right neigbourhood on the signs in the front window which look a little like this:

GERMANIA

10 Cle y 7 K Candelaria

Galerias Cali

K 26

So to find the right bus you'll have to read all the signs quickly, hoping that your bus is not just overtaking all the other busses on the third lane, or if he is, that the driver notices you anyway after which he will dangerously swerve in front of the other busses to allow you to get in (if you still feel like it after watching the driver do that).
Because of the many accidents and deaths, now all the bus companies have to show statistics at the counter which say how many accidents/wounded/deaths they had last month and accumulative.
The alternative is taking a taxi, which is a lot more expensive and probably not a bit safer either as these drivers are just as loco...

How a/no camera changes your life

Well, not really... but somehow, seeing stunning views is directly associated with "take a picture !".
I guess from now on I'll have to work on my visualizing writing :-).

Last week I visited Salento, a little sleepy town (population 1500 ?) a good 8 hours busride from Bogota. It's located high in the mountains and you get there through curvy little roads that show you rough, green surroundings with the Colombian National Landmark, a palm tree that`s up to 35 meters high (the one you find on the 50.000 pesos bills). The view is so different from anything I've ever seen, not only because of the palm tree that tower high above all other vegetation, but also because there seem to be not one single plane that's very large. To my primitive geological understanding, it seems as these are very young hills.
The town itself is also constructed in the typical Calle/Carrerra square layout even when there`s only seven by seven streets. Because there is a fish-farm just up the river, you can get delicious fresh trout (trutcha) in every restaurant and when another traveller who came back here just to eat the fish insist on us coming along, we all end up in a nice little place and everyone orders a variation on the same main ingredient.
The centre of the village is a large square with some restaurants, a grocery-store and the police headquarters. All the buildings are painted in various colors, giving the whole square an almost fantasy-like appearance. From our hostel, called "The Plantation House" (even the locals use a Spanish pronounciation of the English name), there is a splendid view on the hills and I only have to walk 2 minutes down to feel completely surrounded by the birds, trees and ants (who's sting hurts).

Restricted Areas

You can't just walk everywhere in a city like Bogota. Some areas are to be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately there are no signs warning you when you are entering (or leaving) such an area. The city is structured just like an American / designed city. You have Calles (Streets) and Carrerras (Avenues). A helpfull person told me 17th,16th,15th,14th Avenue: Dodgy; 13th and lower: Don't go there... Great ! My hostel is in the 15th, so from 7 pm I stay inside and even during the day, the door is locked most of the time. It didn't look that dangerous to me though...
The second day I was there, I was attracted by a building on top of a nearby hill. The climb was so steep that they constructed a cable-lift with two cabins that hang almost vertically in the air. A stunning sight. I started to climb a couple of stairs but only after 10 m up, I was out of air, which surprised me since I've done may tracks before. Later I realized it must be lack of oxygen because of the altitude of the city. I was about to turn back when two guys walked past me and one said "Monserrate ?" which I figured, was the building on top of the hill. So, I anwered "¿Si, es lejos ?". They said "No !" so I started following them. Only after 10 meters, suddenly the guy in front of me turned around and said "Give me your money, mottafukka !" while they other one pointed a knife at me (he held it in a strange way though, with two of his fingers between the blade and its sheeting, so that, when it would fold, he would cut himself). So I took my wallet, first took out my bankcard and put in the pocket of my trousers and then handed over about 30.000 pesos. In the mean time the other guy took my backpack of me (I was so stupid to carry that around) which contained my laptop, my camera/phone/mp3 player/flashlight/alarm clock and my passport. The one guy had my backpack lying at his feet so I jumped forward and tried to grab my backpack in an attempt to run off with it, but I missed. Seeing that I was going to make trouble the guys started backing off and I started following them shouting to give my backpack back (I hoped to alarm other people and the police). The person with the knife threatened to throw stones at me, which he eventually did since I didn't let go of them. One heavy stone hit me in the knee and the other hit me at my ankle. Some people that were living there were watching the scene and I asked on of them what to do (he was an older guy and not likely to interfere). He told me to run down to get the police which I immediately did but by the time we came back, there was nog sign of them anymore, of course.
After searching for 1,5 hours, the police gave up and I went back to the hostel. A few hours later I started feeling dizzy in my head (I had a couple of scars from the knife) and I was afraid I might have gotten an infection from the knife. Apparently I also strained some muscle from my knee up to halfway my back, so I was limping like an old man through the hostel.
The owner arranged a friend of hers to go with me to the hostel where they desinfected the wounds and said everything else was ok (but why was I so stupid ?)...

Shades on, shades off; pants off, pants on...

The feeling that the two Finnish girls I was travelling with wanted to get rid of me, became more solid when we arrived at Bogota, the capital of Colombia (is it?). They met up with a friend they've already known from their previous visit and they didn't even try to see if there was a place to sleep for me too. Somehow glad I was on my own again I found my way into the center of the city in a hostel called "Hospedaje Cacique Sugamuxi". Everytime someone asks me where I'm staying at, I blank out at trying to remember this dragon of a name. It's significantly colder here. It put on my long pants and even a long sleeved T-shirt for the first time in 4 months. It's no surprise as the city lays about 2.300 m above sea-level.
Everyone here has a cell phone, but no-one ever has credit. Some smart-ass Colombians quickly made a business out of this and sell minutes on the streets. Walking around with a big sign, sitting down at a temporary stool or in a permanent place, they have several cell phones secured with chains where you can make calls from. It's a funny sight when people use their own phone to retrieve the phone number to type this in the "public" one.

Drifting

"Have we moved closer to Venezuela ?" I asked. Yesterday we had arrived in this little beach village "Taganga" after coming from Cartagena, the hottest city in the Americas.
"I don't know", came the answer. I remembered passing through Barranquilla, so it must be. The busride, which was said to last for 3 hours, which was then extended by a passenger to 6 hours and later corrected by the bus attendant to 1h20 more than the current duration (which was 3 hours), lasted 5 hours so we arrived around 9 pm in "La Martha", the bigger city about 10 mins from here.
Now, seated on the beach, I decide to go for a swim and plunge in the warm but cooling, flat, pearl-blue ocean water. Trying to by as hydradynamic (as in aerodynamic) as possible I swim with slow, long strokes and I enjoy the water, softly swirling away from my body as a massage o so gently. Drifting backwards I slow down my breathing, bobbing up and down as I a breath in... and out...
(I can't really drift, my feet sink :-) )
Responding to my sinking feet after holding still, I arch my back and head backwards to make a perfect bow. Through my closed eyes a very subtle gradient of red and orange fills my vision in a total, all encapsulating manner. Holding my breath I sink and release all the tension in my body. I drift a few seconds with my arms pointing down, my knees and head slightly bend and in an utter relaxed state. Next I fold my hands over my now contracted knees and I touch them with my nose. The gradients in my sight change to a less brighter but still radiating deep blue with a hint of purple. The swirling water make me loose all sense of direction but the pressure in my ears tell me I'm still sinking. Gently I touch the bottom, still in crouched position and with a soft push from one of my feet I rise slowly trying to breach the surface. Shortly after I recognize the pressure raising anew, I touch ground again. This time I push harder and I stretch my body fullout. I Swim closer to the coast until the water level reaches my armpits. While still a little dizzy, I look at my feet and wonder how clear the water is, when I white plastic spoon drift 10 cm in front of me from the left to the right, followed by a condom that, in it's inflated state, could be mistaken for a deep-sea jelly fish of some kind. In the same 5 m radius I can also see a peacefully floating bag of chips, a beautiful blue plastic bag and some empty coke bottles...