Anniversary and Great Expectations
Today marks three years since Chris’ passing. I’m sad, but I am also grateful that the last year went so much better than the previous and I expect the same patterm to continue. I went to the top of Montserrate in Bogota. Montserrate is a mountain whose base is right in Bogota’s downtown. It rises very steeply and is crowned by a church and some restaurants. It opens at 6:00 AM and the Bogotans (?) flock to it by mainly walking up the road. My foot has bothered me with all of the cobblestones in El Capitolio and Bogota (another el capitolio) and I want it right by time I get to Galapagos in a week so I decided to take the cable car. A funicular is a third option. I could not believe the amount of people up there before 8:00 AM – 99% Colombian. The tourists party late here as do I assume the young Bogota residents so I didn’t even notice another tourist. The views over the city are stunning and the walk down the road through the forested slopes is nice albeit crowded mainly with more people flowing up.
Pre-conceptions about places will bite you, but great expectations can also do the same. For me, Cuba was my number one to-do for Latin America. I think my expectations were so high that as soon as I experienced some reality, the balloon was popped. Cuba was the first country where I really missed not having Chris with me. I know we would have laughed so much at the ridiculous situations, we would have overlooked the bleak parts. Well, I’m not totally sure about the overlooking part, more laughter… definitely.
My expectations for Bogota were very in-check and guarded. It’s turning out to be a great city. No one told me that it would have some real beauty, but it does especially with the old section and the surrounding mountains. I believe 7 million people live here and I am meeting some very friendly people especially for such a large city. There was a nice play off of Cuba yesterday. I went to the see the Botero collection (a painter I am now crazy about) which is truly a world-class museum. Funny that Lonely Planet’s Colombia book is low on hyperbole compared to Cuba edition. Afterwards, I decided to get a cup of coffee at the cafe in front of the museum called Juan Valdez. Yes, Juan truly exists in Colombia! It is a very high tech set up where they have to get your order in the cash register to get a printout before someone makes it. Well, they had a problem with the register so nothing could happen. The woman next to me says something and I laugh because I know she is saying that this is frustrating even though I did not catch all the words. More talk and she knows I speak English so she starts speaking English and we get some good laughs about the major improvements high technology has brought to this cafe. We get up front and she helps me order because the coffee menu is truly complicated (she didn’t know what half of it was about!). Then she tells me to put away money, it’s on her. We’re not in Cuba anymore, Toto.
Four of us (her friends included) sat outside in the cool afternoon drinking the coffees and talking about Colombia and Cuba. They had heard all about the big downsides of Cuba (same with every person I have talked about it with since leaving – all of us with constant stories about prices, poverty, attitudes, etc.). They are electrical engineers struggling to find jobs. Carolina has gone back to school for a mechanical engineering degree hoping that will lead to more job opportunities. The economy is OK, but not great. As I had read, Colombians have a great rivalry with Venezuela and the Colombians who are pretty sophisticated don’t think very highly of the Venezuelans. This has been going on for ages. They consider Uribe to be a puppet of USA and they are not fond of the War on Drugs and what it does to the indigenous people of Colombia. They told me the most beautiful women in Colombia are in Medillin, but a US guy who lives here later told me that they say that because they like the lighter complexion of the Medillin women and he believes the most beautiful are here in Bogota. Sounds like something that I need to personally confirm. The engineers had some frustration about the current state of affairs in Colombia, but they are optimistic people. They told me that Colombians let things slide and become problems, but they are very talented at fixing problems. They told me that as sophisticated and European-like the large city-dwellers appear, the country folk are the exact opposite. I told them I knew I was in a cultural mecca when I noticed the shoe fashions of the women. They take their shoes and clothes seriously. This is a first for me in Latin America, but I bet Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio will be the same.
My only high expectation for Bogota was the Museo del Oro where the surviving pre-Spaniard gold from the Colombian indigenous societies is kept. I canned the expectations when I arrived. The beauty of the thousands of pieces of gold formed into jewelry, ornaments and other objects was fantastic. I especially liked that they tie in a lot of history and the shamanic beliefs that the latter societies held. When the shaman goes into a trance to communicate between this world and the other he becomes a bird so many of the gold pieces had human, bird and other animal themes. The workmanship was beyond anything I could expect. I had heard about how the “show” ends, but when I got to the end it wasn’t there. I was drifting towards the exit stairs when a guard told me to wait. The wall then peeled open and a hundred people in a tour who had raced through the exhibit poured out whooping it up with moronic tour people talk.
I walked into the room with five others. The room is cylindrical and the doors slid closed. It was dark. The indigenous music highlighted by a flute started to play. The floor was a donut and the hole in the middle lit up showing a couple of dozen beautiful pieces. And then the walls started to light up and there were thousands of pieces of gold similar to what we had seen in the rest of the exhibit. Except they are hanging in mass in the shapes of birds and bird-like images. The lights changed with the music and I was just staring. The lights went out, doors slid open and we went out. No one in line so I went back in to enjoy it again. This time I really got into it and laughed at it all. Mueso del Oro lived up to and far exceeded my highest expectations.
I carry some very high expectations for Cartagena which I fly to tomorrow night. It is suppose to be the crown jewel of the colonial cities. It sits on the Caribbean and most of the plundered gold from South America was shipped from Cartagena on its way to Spain. Galapagaos and Machu Picchu also have my expectations as number 2 and 3 to-dos in Latin America and those will come in the next 3-4 weeks. I’m doing well with shedding the pre-conceptions, but I don’t plan to drop the great expectations. The optomist in me can’t do that and besides they usually play out just right.
Tags: colombia, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
Wow Rick, what a beautiful way to spend the 3rd Anniversary. I just spent time going though the various photo albums and other memorabilia. I am so glad that you are having these experiences abroad. Love ya