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Back at altitude with attitude again but I must be getting acclimatised. Great Bogota. Home to Bolivar’s greatest and lowest moments and still alive with a sense of history, passionate, proud and over populated with beggars.
A little scene setting, this morning I took off the damaged panier, you might remember from the dog crash ep, I took it over the road to a small ferreteria (hardware) and told them I needed to fix it….did they have drill, hinges, rivets etc, within 5 mins the boy, the boss and 2 passing bike riders had accumulated tools, bits and pieces, sent the boy off to buy bits, pushed me, gently, aside, after 3 hours, all panel beaten, new hinge and back on bike…we chatted for a while about the bike, the trip, life, the universe and everything…then I asked how much and they all backed off saying nada nada, I couldn’t even buy them a 6 pack and I’m still wondering how to repay this extraordinary generosity…and it’s everywhere in Colombia, people go out of their way to ask if I need help or directions just walking down the street, amazing…however, not far from my friendly ferreteria a few months ago, one
Fred and Sandy's Appartmentof the teachers caught a cab home from the shopping centre, the cab stops out on the road and 2 guys get in, stick a gun in his guts, work him over and he sits like this for a couple of hours as one takes his card and cleans out his bank account, then he’s dumped out on the autopista….others have been robbed, assaulted and etc, public and private security everywhere, armoured cars pull up and serious guys with pump action shotties, side arms, RPGs probably, dash into even very small stores to take the daily or weekly cash to the bank…all serves to remind that in this over friendly, sophisticated, modern city, really bad things are …how close?..just a shot away?

BOGOTA, BLOGOTA, BLOG TA TA

Bill Shum
2006-08-21 17:19:29

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a long city and I could see a big thunderhead and much rain down where the centre looked to be. Stopped and applied the wet weather gear…getting easier now that I slip the pant liners over the pants and the top liner over the armour, a 2 minute job! Previously a longer, hotter and more frustrating exercise.

Having only a small map of only part of the city and caught in horrendous traffic and pissing down rain I holed up in a park place to get oriented, I was lost, but the parkplace woman and her friends were v entertaining!.. Finally the rain eased and I made it to the area my map covered and found a hotel, Ha, it sounds so easy to say that, you’ve got no idea!) and, as always happens, at first you can’t find a hotel anywhere, then after finding one, you see them everywhere!

Next day I went in search of the BMW service centre, Ha, so straightforward on the map Ha, not so easy on the ground, but with multiple stops to question taxi drivers.........and they would always go on and on with the usual torrent of incomprehensible information, hey, what’s wrong with just saying, for example, 2 blocks then turn right? Oh no, it has to be a total explanation of every feature along the way, several alternatives, the party he went to last night, how to get to somewhere else etc etc however, I was able to get enough info at each stop to finally get there, I was stoked, ha, this city is not so hard!
In fact Bogota has a great system, the whole city is a grid (not always regular and straight but sort of logical, Calles from 1 to into the hundreds run vaguely East/West and Carreras North/South, addresses give the street number, the next cross street and then the building number, beautiful!

Eg my hotel is at Cra 5 13 - 46, BMW is at Cra 50 16 - 65. PS I just found out that the last number is actually the metres from the corner, this way any new building built later won’t stuff the numbering system, now that ...