Colombia

I´m in Bogota! I got in on Wednesday after some heart-pounding moments of travel from Los Angeles. Well, one heart-pounding moment, at least. I was in Mexico City for my four hour layover, but had arrived before 6 am from LA, so was tired, to say the least. Apparently I couldn´t resist the sweet escape of sleep while waiting at my gate, even though I had managed to stay alert for the first three hours... Well, I woke up to find myself completely alone. The hundred or so people who had been my waiting companions had all abandoned me, without even a friendly nudge to wake me up. Even the signs for my flight had been taken down. Needless to say, my heart rate went up significantly. I grabbed my bag and ran over to the door, where there were still a few airline employees... I knew there was a plane there, I just didn´t know if it was my plane (my lack of a working watch didn´t help the situation). Luckily, I was allowed to board (the last one on, but at least they hadn´t given away my seat yet!) and we left - but not before the "caution" light went on in the cockpit (the perfect way to calm one´s nerves) so we had to taxi back for some unscheduled maintenance. Apparently I succumbed to sleep once again, because I didn´t even realize that my flight arrived an hour late to Colombia...

But now, all is well. It´s the day of Mony and Peter´s wedding, so the rest of today will likely be a bit of a blur...

So far since I´ve been here, we´ve all gotten to see a bit of the city, both on a brief driving tour of the Northern areas, and a longer tour yesterday that took us to the historic center of La Candelaria. Besides the fact that our tour guide barely spoke English (most of the rest of our group doens´t speak Spanish) and didn´t provide any historical context for the sites we were seeing, it was a good day. Luckily, a friend of Mony´s family provided us with more substantial guide work. There were some beautiful sites though, and some amazing views of the city. Mom, I even saw the Supreme Court building and took some pics just for you! :) We saw the Presidential Palace (from the outside) and were lucky enough to be there for the changing of the guard, which apparently only happens every once in a while. The guards outside are very polite when they shoo you away from the gate with their AK-47s or M-16s whatever they are. Here´s a photo (thank you Google images) of one of the dirty sky rats in the Plaza Bolivar near the Palace... Yuck.

We also ate lunch at a traditional restaurant (their understanding of what constituted vegetarian food was expectedly different from ours) with two guitarists serenading our group of 25 throughout. It´s nice how appreciative people here are when they learn that I speak Spanish (and I´m amazed at how much I retained despite a year with very little practice). In other news, I think I now have my own personal Mariachi band because I talked to some of them while I was waiting on our bus at the end of the day... They liked a gringa talking to them, even if it was mostly miming through the window! They caught my gist, I think (I was asking them why they weren´t wearing their sombreros; even on break they´ve gotta keep up appearances!).

On Thursday night we all attended a cocktail party at Mony´s apartment which overlooks the city from the mountains to the east (perfect for sunsets, which we saw last night up there). There was schmoozing and music all night; afterwards a large group went to a dance club about a half hour outside the city and we all danced the night away.

It´s been interesting so far to see the city through a different lens, rather than my usual poor student method of doing everything as cheaply and on-the-fly as possible. Since I´m leaving a day after most of the rest of my Pgh group, hopefully I´ll get to see some more at the end of my week here. Until then, it´s wedding today, a BBQ outside the city Sunday, then a trip to Villa de Leyva on Monday, which is known for its crafts and its local villages. I can´t remember the rest of the plan at the moment, but I´ll try to get to a computer again in the next few days to update. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring my camera cord, so unless I find an internet cafe with one of those little card readers, no photos until I reach my home land again next month! But hey, at least I´ve avoided my tradition of having my camera stolen so far this year... Keep those fingers crossed for me.