My Colombian Family
This entry gives a brief description of where I am living and with whom.
Five years ago I was lucky to stop and chat to a Colombian photographer while on top of a mountain in Peru. Although Jairo was returning to live in California, he gave me his family’s phone number in case I passed through Colombia.
I ended up spending nearly two months in Colombia, and all but the first night staying with Jairo’s family, traveling with his younger brother, Julian, and visiting other places recommended by them.
Julian picked me up from the airport a week ago and it was great to see everyone again. We then headed out the next day for a Colombian barbeque in the mountains overlooking Bogotá which was great fun. People often say that Bogotá is not a very beautiful city but I think there are parts, such as among these mountains and the colonial parts of the city, which are quite pretty.
The home of Jairo Snr, Myriam, Julian, Natalia and 7 very spoilt cats was always pretty busy but this year it has an additional member, 15 month old Maria Sue.
In addition to catching up with such good friends, it has been fantastic to share thoughts with Julian who now works for the Office of the President on a program against illicit cultures. In particular, he is responsible for alternative development initiatives (‘alternative’ to drug trafficking and extortion?!), including the monitoring and evaluation of projects. He tells some amazing stories of traveling all across the country, of negotiating with the paramilitaries, and of being shot at while flying by helicopter to various sites – apparently it is more effective to sit on top of your bullet proof vest than to wear it across one’s chest!
The house is, however, on 127th street (and my work is on 8th street) which means traveling for over an hour to and from work each day on public transport. As it turns out, Julian was thinking of moving so the two of us are going to rent an apartment around 60th street from this weekend. The trip to and from work has not been too bad but it will be good to have an extra half an hour or so at the end of each day.
Regarding the public transport system, I was surprised on my first day of traveling to work when an attractive Colombian girl offered to hold my satchel, but I put it down to me being a pretty irresistible bloke! This rather biased version of events was shattered the next day when another person offered to hold my satchel and I quickly realized that passengers with seats tend to hold onto the belongings of passengers who are standing. It is a really nice gesture that I suspect would never happen in Australia or in the US.
I also had an old man come up to me the other day and ask me for directions! Either I am doing a reasonable job at fitting in or the poor bloke’s eyesight was not too good. As it turned out, his question related to my bus stop so I was actually able to answer him correctly.
Finally, I put my name into the ballot for the NY marathon before I left the US so I am keen to arrive back much fitter than when I left. Unfortunately, the only park I have managed to find so far is not much bigger than a largish house block and which seems to have been claimed by a pack of dogs. I have, however, been getting up early and doing numerous laps until I get dizzy! Bogotá is also quite high at over 2600 meters above sea level which makes running difficult. Either that or I am even more unfit than I first thought.
Enough for today. I hope to give more details about my particular project and the people I will be working with in the next entry.
Tags: Travel
Mark_Richards