Well, folks, this is the penultimate post before heading off to South America. (I’ve got the Thursday Short Poem still to come tomorrow, naturally. It’ll be an Auden favorite.) We leave late tomorrow night for Colombia, and will be in Bogota by Friday afternoon. We’ll be back on Sunday the 15th.
This will be our second trip to Colombia. We went exactly a year ago, visiting Bogota, Santa Marta, and Bucaramanga. This time we will be visiting spectacular Bogota again, and also traveling to my fiancee’s family’s remote ranch in a river valley in Cesar province (northeastern Colombia). Though I doubt that anyone who might mean us harm is likely to read this blog, I’m not going to be specific about the ranch’s exact location until after we have returned.
I felt perfectly safe last year in Colombia, but it is still a dangerous country. Prayers for our safe travel and return will of course be appreciated. Anyone who follows the news or does research on the internet is aware of just how troubled that country has been in recent decades. We will be taking all the basic precautions, of course, and have many contacts down there to help us.
If you’re interested in reading more about Colombia, check out some of the following sites in English:
The Colombian Embassy in Washington DC.
Colombia Week — excellent news and analysis with perhaps a left-of-center bent.
Z-Net’s Colombia page (a bit farther left, thank you)
Colombia Times, which collects various news articles on Colombia and other South American countries.
The Poor but Happy discussion board on Colombia. (This gets very interesting).
Amnesty International’s Colombia site.
Mennonite Central Committee’s Colombia site
COVIC (Children Orphaned by Violence in Colombia), a fine charity
The Lonely Planet Colombia Guide
The State Department’s Travel Advisory (Mom, don’t read this).
Our hotel in Bogota, which we stayed in last year and loved. It will make a nice contrast with the primitive conditions we expect in Cesar.
My Spanish is very poor. I can read it reasonably well, but can’t comprehend it orally. And when I speak, it tends to send folks into peels of laughter. (Colombians seem to laugh a lot.) My fiancee, of course, speaks perfect castellano, so she will handle the interpreting duties.
I’m very excited!
have SO much fun hugo! we’ll miss you.
Hugo, I have enjoyed reading about your trip to Colombia.
I have been married to a wonderful lady from Bogota for 10 years. For our 10th aniversary
we visited Colombia. Wow, what a wonderful country, I especially like Bogota. I read all the US State Department warnings before going, I showed them to my wife who thought some of the suggestions were loco. We rode buses all over without any problems, hailed taxis occasionally without problems walked countless miles without problems.
I am not saying Bogota is the safest city in the world, but if you stick to the good areas and try to blend in, walk confidentally and use common sense, you should have a great time in Bogota.
We didn’t swing for a swanky hotel like you did, we stayed at Hotel Dann Norte only $50 USD a night. The location is great, close to Unicentro, Hacienda Santa Barbara, Usaquen, and loads of nice places to eat. Carulla on the next block has an indoor ATM from which we topped up our funds, 100,000 pesos at a time, equal to $39 USD, this usually lasted us for 2 days.
I cannot wait to go back, the Colombian people are Colombia’s greatest asset, very courteous and friendly. Just be careful if you start a political conversation, Cachacos love to talk politics and are very well-informed on US politics too. They will keep you chatting all night.
Jim, I’m with you, Bogota is marvelous. We did look at the Dann Norte (and I’ve stayed in another “Dann” hotel in Bucaramanga.)
After two consecutive August visits to Bogota, I’m not an expert on anything other than the Zona Rosa. Oh, and the virtues of the Casa Vieja chain of restaurants…