Colombia Day 2

Colombia Day 2, free walking tours

We started the morning with a super long taxi ride to the city center. Not good hotel planning on our part, but I blame my sister for that. It is a 32 minute taxi ride with no traffic, but at that time of day it is over 50 minutes, so we barely made it to our free walking tour in time. Luckily, taxi rides are fairly inexpensive so it only cost us $26,000 (about $8.68) and a lot of worries to get there. Thetwinsontour do not like to be late, nor do they like to miss out on free tours.

We chose to go on the Spanish tour rather than the English tour because it was a much smaller group (6 people instead of 30), but boy did that put my Spanish to the test. Our guide talked so fast! I understood what she was saying, but there were a few times I had no idea what she was talking about. But maybe I would have been confused in English too because she was talking about politics, and leftists, and assassinations. All in all, I would say my comprehension level was about 90-95% (Mom, all that money you spent on my college education was worth it.)

our favorite Colombian Artist

They call it a free walking tour, but of course tips are much appreciated. I think their website says the average tip is $5-10, but at the end of the tour they leave off the $5 part. But $10 for a three hour tour of any kind is pretty good. I challenge you to find a better deal anywhere.

We just had about an hour and a half for lunch before our next free tour. Our guide had recommended several to us that are right next to the Cathedral. The one that we wanted to go to had a line out the door, so we were worried about time. We went to the other that had no line at all for a typical Colombian meal. We decided on the soup with potatoes, carrots, pork, and finely cut beef belly. We thought it was just a bad translation because never in a million years did we think it was really tripe. That thought never once crossed our minds. Not once! Who would eat a big ass bowl of finely cut stomach? I tried one piece before I realized what it was. It was soft and chewy and disgusting. I spit it out into my napkin. I couldn’t even swallow it. It is a culinary abomination! That being said, the broth was actually very good, so we tried to eat around the tripe, but there was just too much to avoid. The potatoes were also finely chopped, so they were too hard to find. We ended up ordering a tamal off the breakfast menu. It’s way different from the Mexican tamales that you know. It’s huge, and wrapped in banana leafs. The corn meal isn’t as dry. It’s really moist with pieces of corn and supposedly carrots, but I only found one of them. It also has a large piece of shady looking chicken that is really easy to eat around. What a lunch adventure! Not to be repeated.

After our traumatic lunch experience, we were ready for our second free tour of the day. We love free stuff! This time it was a graffiti tour. I was really worried because there were close to 50 people there for the tour, but it worked out just fine (except for the rude people that would stand right in front so that no one could get a good picture). The guide had a speaker so we could all hear, and then I took my pictures as we were walking to the next stop.

It was fascinating. Graffiti is legal, so long as you have the owner’s permission, so they actually have artists that come from all over the world. We saw a couple by a guy from Los Angeles. Some of them are commissioned by the building owner, like one next to a Mexican restaurant that is a luchador. Others are allowed by the building owners because they are tired of “tagging” and murals are a good way to cut down on that. So there’s all different kinds of graffiti. There is tagging which is what we are used to seeing. That’s someone writing their alias on benches and sides of buildings. That’s actually a sign of expression, but not to be confused with hooligan tagging which is gang names where they cross out the name of a rival and paint their name next to it. Also stencils are a form of graffiti. Some stencils are more complex than others. You can see the same stencil all over the city. And finally stickers! Yes those stickers on stop signs are a form of graffiti and self expression. Who knew? Needless to say, we now have a new appreciation for all things grafitti.

But, now it was 4:30 and we were downtown with nothing to do. We could go stand in line to get into the Cathedral and see some miraculous painting of the Virgen. If we wanted to wait an hour or more. The Pope is coming to Bogota, and he wanted to see this Virgen for himself, so they brought it in special from some Podunk village a few hours away. So everyone in Bogota– all 9 million of them– are waiting in line to see this painting. Evidently what’s good enough for the Pope is good enough for them.

We opted instead for dinner at La Puerta Falsa since we didn’t get to eat lunch there. We had the brilliant idea to eat at a restaurant and then have them call us a taxi. Pure brilliance. We have read some horrible stories about taxi safety in Bogota. Things so bad I can’t tell my mother, or even your mother. Things that would have my mother on an airplane to Cartagena to rescue us faster than Joan Wilder came to rescue her sister. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, I don’t think we can be friends anymore. And if you say you think it’s an episode of Family Guy, I will scream.) So with a firm plan in mind, we set out to enjoy a true culinary delight. There were no menus, so I started pointing at what some other people had on their tables. Sometimes that is the best way to get something yummy. We had hot chocolate that you dip soft cheese and sweet bread into, and some sweet corn thing wrapped in corn husks. It was so delicious! Dessert for dinner! That’s what thetwinsontour are talking about!

So as we were paying we asked the lady downstairs if she could call us a taxi, but she said all of the roads are closed in anticipation of the Pope’s arrival, and we should just go up to the next street to grab one. However, as we mentioned we told the lady that we had heard that it was not safe for foreigners to do that. Luckily our taxi guardian angel was paying at the same time. Just like my mother would do, she said my daughter will call a taxi on the taxiapp for you. But she couldn’t get it to work. There weren’t any available on the app. So she had us call the taxi company so she could translate, and give them our location. But the taxi company didn’t answer. Nor the next one. Nor the next one. During this time her daughter was still trying to get the taxiapp to work to no avail. So they decided they could escort us to the plaza to find a taxi. Then we tried calling again, but no answer. Then they realized that they were going to a pizza place near a hostel owned by their friend, and surely she could help us because she does that for her guests all of the time. So we walked with them around town (through areas we had covered on our free walking tour that morning) in the hopes of getting a taxi. So she delivered us to her friend at the hostel who spent about 15 minutes trying to find us a taxi. There just weren’t any taxis in the area because of the road closures, but there are millions and millions of taxis in Bogota, until you need one. Thank goodness for our taxi guardian angels, or we would still be looking for a taxi. We made it back to the hotel in the 32 minutes Google maps said it would take us.