Lis and I recently discovered a ping-pong club just up the road. I love this city. To be trite about it, it's like a shaggy but loveable stray dog, sometimes you worry about fleas and germs, but mostly it's just fun times and love. That extended metaphor is so bad I'm going to leave it there. It needs to be an example for others....
The ping-pong club is a dream of mine come true. Most of you know this already, but we had a ping-pong table in our last apartment. I loved it. I miss it. But not really so much anymore. Now I have this club. We went last Friday afternoon and it was bustling with the afterwork crowd. They have games to occupy you while you wait for a table. They have the cheapest beer in town. I'm in love. Come visit so we can play.
This club is a great example of why I love Bogota. There are so many random things here tucked into every corner and crevasse. I'm sure there are hundreds more cool things like this to discover. And I'm sure I'll discover them in the same way. Walking back from a meeting, taking a different route home. There are so many routes and so many streets. I'm excited about the treasures out there waiting to be discovered...
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Cartagena - the good, the bad, and the ugly; some thoughts on Bogota
The misses and I took a trip to the Caribbean coast last weekend. We met up with a few of her colleagues who were in Cartagena for a Latin American technology and education conference. This didn't have much to do with our weekend, but we did meet some nice professors from Mexico, our North American brothers and sisters, if you will. We had a great time in Cartagena. It's a very photogenic city and we came back with a few hundred pics. Say what you will about the Spanish, but they knew how to builds some walls. My highlights:
Walking along the walls at sunset. They overlook the Mediterranean (most parts do) and while most of the city is hot and muggy, there's a great breeze that comes off the water at night. There's also a couple of overpriced bars on the walls. Which is all well and good for hanging out with Gringos, if you haven't seen any in a while. But the walls are a nice place to chill. Dozens of kites and lovers. My personal favorite. Bunches of Costenos come out to the walls in the afternoon to enjoy the breezes and the sunset. It makes for very nice kite flying and the kites flying together make for a pleasant sight. And a different couple takes each piece of the wall - to sit on and do couple things. Alone, maybe they wouldn't be so interesting, but walking along the walls and seeing dozens of couples is an interesting thing. It's almost a gallery of relationship possibilities. I found it funny, seeing 10 different guys looking at their galls in a differnent way (for some reason the guys face the sunset and the girls face the city).
Arepas de Huevo. Arepas - the national fast food dish - come in many different styles. This has been my favorite so far. It's basically a deep fried empanada with an egg inside. Very tasty.
Salsa dancing. Got a couple of brief lessons. I'm a bit poor at it, but it's 4x4 time, so not terribly difficult for my anglo brain. We went to a club famous for playing classic salsa from the 50's and 60's. Loved the music. Had the fortune of a thunderstorm while we were there. The club had a nice balcony, so I could sit there with my rum and smell the sea air and the rain and listen to the music and watch the dancers. Loved it. The dancing was fun too. Rum makes it all okay.
The Lion of Bavaria. Turns out this bar is in the Lonely Planet. But it just happened to be around the corner from our hotel (chosen by our Colombian friends for us, it was a remodeled hacienda with a pool and a pleasant courtyard, a bit more on this later). The only place in Colombia - that I know of - where you can get a litre of beer. We had a lovely time chatting with the owner and watching pop music videos. Best beer I've had in Colombia so far too. For me, sometimes it's not just about doing the local things but finding weird and out of context places like this.
A few thoughts: the seafood was okay. The specialties are Sea Bass and Red Snapper. I found them to be decent, but nothing blew me away. We looked far and wide for places twice and went to what were reportedly the two best places in town (according to a few Colombian friends and locals). I have no reason to doubt that they are or at least that they are upper eschelon and can be taken as representative. The fish soup that I had, however, was pretty phenomenal. When in doubt go with soup.
There were a ton of buildings like our hotel. As I walked through the city I got the impression that there was an entire world of interesting things - especially great archetecture - hidden behind boarded up doors. Sad, in a way, that so much beauty should go unseen or unused. And I'm disappointed to think of all I probably missed.
Cartagena and Bogota are nearly different worlds. There are the things you would probably guess: size, population, weather, clothing. But also there's a very stark divide in Cartagena. The racial makeup of that section of the country is much different that that here in Bogota. Afro-Colombians make up a small portion of the overall population of Colombia but a very large percentage of the costal populations. Everywhere in the world there are, of course, divides by race and economic class, but in Cartagena it was intense.
One afternoon, we took a trip to a fishing village for lunch. We ended up taking only a tour because we couldn't find a restaurant that looked sanitary. As we drove from Cartagena to this village (only 4 miles or so down the road) we passed a large development with dozens of high-rises containing exclusive condos and then literally on the next block we came to the entrance to this village. The road was just a hard packed bit of beach and even that was washed out every few hundred meters. The village had some poverty issues. That was obvious enough from sight - it was really just a collection of shanty houses strung along the beach. With "restaurants" in front of each one all the way along. These restaurants were just thatch roofs propped up over some plastic tables and hammocks.
We also talked about it as we drove along. The village has run into a horrible bit of economic irony. Cartegnans stopped eating there because conditions were not sanitary. Now there is no money coming in to improve conditions. And all the best restaurants moved away or closed. This all leads to a disturbing phenomenon: whenever a car enters the area swarms of young men descend, trying to stop the car and force it to their restaurant. Most of them fell away as our cab continued on but two of them chased the taxi for the entire length of the beach. There's no money coming in so these's guys literally have to chase it.
The feeling in the taxi was impotence. There were 5 of us in the cab. Myself excepted, there were 4 people who work at the poorest university in Bogota. Who dedicate themselves to educating the kids who can't afford to go anywhere else, who dedicate their lives not only to their teaching but to improving education in their country and in latin america as a whole. These are people who also volunteer and research for the underprivileged and the disadvantaged - the good guys - if good guys can exist, these are they. And yet here was this feeling of nothing to be done. This is a problem, here, there, all around the world, without any ready solutions (at least, that is, for regular folks. I won't go in to whether the powers that be could do something about it, that's not my point here).
I've always found some sort of solace --sick as it may be, it's a fair coping mechanism -- as I travel around the world and I see people who have a hard plight, that I could do more, that I could spend more of my time to help and to change. Well, here I was with a group of people who are doing all they can. Who have no more time or energy to give and that rationalization just didn't work. It wasn't true. Life is just fucked up. Maybe in years and years things will be different and better (could be, well again, that's a different discussion, one for my anarchosyndiclist blog), but it wasn't going to happen for these people of this village -- and they just one of hundreds of thousands around the world. It's a depressing thing. Sometimes, my friends, I just don't know. Well, that's not true. All the time, I don't know. Sometimes it hurts more.
I have to say that one of the things that I love about Bogota is that it doesn't hide its poverty. I find the myriad ways that cities of the world hide and isolate their poor disturbing. I've seen a lot of it and it's always a source of shame for me. Bogota of course has some of this. But the greatest part of the city - the heart of the city - has homeless people all around. There's trash everywhere. I see informal recyclers on every street corner. There's no attempt - at least that I've ever seen - to shew these people or to remove them from the company of the homed. Also, there are quite a few buskers and quite a few informal artisans hawking their talents and their wares, and Bogotanians -- as I have seen it -- have shown not only generousity towards these people but acceptance. From what I can see, from what's on the surface, the populace has a very gentle and empathetic heart. Life is beautiful and horrible all at once, I suppose. But then you already knew that - and these are just a few observations and an emotional response or two...
Walking along the walls at sunset. They overlook the Mediterranean (most parts do) and while most of the city is hot and muggy, there's a great breeze that comes off the water at night. There's also a couple of overpriced bars on the walls. Which is all well and good for hanging out with Gringos, if you haven't seen any in a while. But the walls are a nice place to chill. Dozens of kites and lovers. My personal favorite. Bunches of Costenos come out to the walls in the afternoon to enjoy the breezes and the sunset. It makes for very nice kite flying and the kites flying together make for a pleasant sight. And a different couple takes each piece of the wall - to sit on and do couple things. Alone, maybe they wouldn't be so interesting, but walking along the walls and seeing dozens of couples is an interesting thing. It's almost a gallery of relationship possibilities. I found it funny, seeing 10 different guys looking at their galls in a differnent way (for some reason the guys face the sunset and the girls face the city).
Arepas de Huevo. Arepas - the national fast food dish - come in many different styles. This has been my favorite so far. It's basically a deep fried empanada with an egg inside. Very tasty.
Salsa dancing. Got a couple of brief lessons. I'm a bit poor at it, but it's 4x4 time, so not terribly difficult for my anglo brain. We went to a club famous for playing classic salsa from the 50's and 60's. Loved the music. Had the fortune of a thunderstorm while we were there. The club had a nice balcony, so I could sit there with my rum and smell the sea air and the rain and listen to the music and watch the dancers. Loved it. The dancing was fun too. Rum makes it all okay.
The Lion of Bavaria. Turns out this bar is in the Lonely Planet. But it just happened to be around the corner from our hotel (chosen by our Colombian friends for us, it was a remodeled hacienda with a pool and a pleasant courtyard, a bit more on this later). The only place in Colombia - that I know of - where you can get a litre of beer. We had a lovely time chatting with the owner and watching pop music videos. Best beer I've had in Colombia so far too. For me, sometimes it's not just about doing the local things but finding weird and out of context places like this.
A few thoughts: the seafood was okay. The specialties are Sea Bass and Red Snapper. I found them to be decent, but nothing blew me away. We looked far and wide for places twice and went to what were reportedly the two best places in town (according to a few Colombian friends and locals). I have no reason to doubt that they are or at least that they are upper eschelon and can be taken as representative. The fish soup that I had, however, was pretty phenomenal. When in doubt go with soup.
There were a ton of buildings like our hotel. As I walked through the city I got the impression that there was an entire world of interesting things - especially great archetecture - hidden behind boarded up doors. Sad, in a way, that so much beauty should go unseen or unused. And I'm disappointed to think of all I probably missed.
Cartagena and Bogota are nearly different worlds. There are the things you would probably guess: size, population, weather, clothing. But also there's a very stark divide in Cartagena. The racial makeup of that section of the country is much different that that here in Bogota. Afro-Colombians make up a small portion of the overall population of Colombia but a very large percentage of the costal populations. Everywhere in the world there are, of course, divides by race and economic class, but in Cartagena it was intense.
One afternoon, we took a trip to a fishing village for lunch. We ended up taking only a tour because we couldn't find a restaurant that looked sanitary. As we drove from Cartagena to this village (only 4 miles or so down the road) we passed a large development with dozens of high-rises containing exclusive condos and then literally on the next block we came to the entrance to this village. The road was just a hard packed bit of beach and even that was washed out every few hundred meters. The village had some poverty issues. That was obvious enough from sight - it was really just a collection of shanty houses strung along the beach. With "restaurants" in front of each one all the way along. These restaurants were just thatch roofs propped up over some plastic tables and hammocks.
We also talked about it as we drove along. The village has run into a horrible bit of economic irony. Cartegnans stopped eating there because conditions were not sanitary. Now there is no money coming in to improve conditions. And all the best restaurants moved away or closed. This all leads to a disturbing phenomenon: whenever a car enters the area swarms of young men descend, trying to stop the car and force it to their restaurant. Most of them fell away as our cab continued on but two of them chased the taxi for the entire length of the beach. There's no money coming in so these's guys literally have to chase it.
The feeling in the taxi was impotence. There were 5 of us in the cab. Myself excepted, there were 4 people who work at the poorest university in Bogota. Who dedicate themselves to educating the kids who can't afford to go anywhere else, who dedicate their lives not only to their teaching but to improving education in their country and in latin america as a whole. These are people who also volunteer and research for the underprivileged and the disadvantaged - the good guys - if good guys can exist, these are they. And yet here was this feeling of nothing to be done. This is a problem, here, there, all around the world, without any ready solutions (at least, that is, for regular folks. I won't go in to whether the powers that be could do something about it, that's not my point here).
I've always found some sort of solace --sick as it may be, it's a fair coping mechanism -- as I travel around the world and I see people who have a hard plight, that I could do more, that I could spend more of my time to help and to change. Well, here I was with a group of people who are doing all they can. Who have no more time or energy to give and that rationalization just didn't work. It wasn't true. Life is just fucked up. Maybe in years and years things will be different and better (could be, well again, that's a different discussion, one for my anarchosyndiclist blog), but it wasn't going to happen for these people of this village -- and they just one of hundreds of thousands around the world. It's a depressing thing. Sometimes, my friends, I just don't know. Well, that's not true. All the time, I don't know. Sometimes it hurts more.
I have to say that one of the things that I love about Bogota is that it doesn't hide its poverty. I find the myriad ways that cities of the world hide and isolate their poor disturbing. I've seen a lot of it and it's always a source of shame for me. Bogota of course has some of this. But the greatest part of the city - the heart of the city - has homeless people all around. There's trash everywhere. I see informal recyclers on every street corner. There's no attempt - at least that I've ever seen - to shew these people or to remove them from the company of the homed. Also, there are quite a few buskers and quite a few informal artisans hawking their talents and their wares, and Bogotanians -- as I have seen it -- have shown not only generousity towards these people but acceptance. From what I can see, from what's on the surface, the populace has a very gentle and empathetic heart. Life is beautiful and horrible all at once, I suppose. But then you already knew that - and these are just a few observations and an emotional response or two...
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