The Bogota Bike Tour

Got to meet up with a former colleague from Burma yesterday. She is now working in Lima and thanks to Facebook we realized that we would both be in Bogota at the same time. It was great to see her and catch up on all the gossip, and also some recommendations. She told us that we should go on the Bogota Bike tour which is lead by an ex-journalist from the US. So today Laura and I decided to head downtown at 10:30 to start the tour...

Bogota has some forward thinking laws, one of which is mandatory helmets, so we donned our helmets and set out on the smog filled, congested streets of La Candaleria (old town Bogota). First stop is the Simon Bolivar Plaza. Yes, you have heard me talk about and seen many many photos of status of Bolivar because he liberated most of South America from the Spanish and is well respected and honored throughout the Continent.

Of course, in true commerical fashion the plaza has been turned into an ice skating rink which was supposed to be only for the month of December, however due to the nice profits and thousands of kids lined up to skate, the rink is still here.

Manuvering through the streets of downtown Bogota was not very pleasant, they city does a good job with bike lanes, but mostly to the north and not in the downtown area. The cars, taxis and buses did seem pretty respectful of a group of gringos snaking through traffic.

I guess the US screwed Colombia out of keeping control of Panama and for a "settlement" the US gave Colombia $20 million. The Colombian government used part of the money to expand the streets on this block downtown. Now this area is a huge "marketplace" for emerald dealers and here you can see men lined up buying and selling emeralds. I like the man in the brown suit holding the emerald up to the light.

Next, Mike, the tour guide takes us to a fruit market and the first thing we notice is that it's actually clean. We got to try lots of tropical fruits like dragonfruit, passionfruit, tomate de arbol, and other random strange fruits that I can't remember the names of...

The next stop was the bull fighting collesium. Starting this Saturday and for the next 6 weeks bull fighters from around the world will come to strut their bull stuff. The tradition is that at the end of the fight the bulls are killed and then the meat is sold.

People are as serious about this as Southerners are about NASCAR. After the bull fighter puts in his best effort and hopefully doesn't die, it is customary to take out a sword and stab the bull through the spine and into his heart. The bull dies fast and the crowd cheers at the tradition. Apparently sometimes the fighter doesn't get a clean cut and the bull suffers, but the crowd boos, unlike in NASCAR when the crowd cheers when there is a crash.

Of course we drove through their city park and I had to catch a photo of a pup.

A pleasant surprise of the tour was stopping at the city cemetery. Here is a huge statue when you first walk in and the story is that this kid drown and for some reason the locals treat him like a saint and often times you'll find flowers all over his grave.

Mike used to live in La Paz, Bolivia so we had some good discussions about Bolivia and living there. We were sharing about the oh so fabulous custom of men peeing in the streets. Well, Mike made sure to show us this canal sign and model for us.

In Bogota they don't want you to pee or poo in the streets. Very forward thinkers, like I said.

Our tour is turning into 4 hours and we're all a little parched when Mike asks if we like coffee. Um, helloooo, yes. So he takes us to a coffee processing place run by a family. This is a very very small business and the family bags each batch by hand! Come to find out the reason you can't find a decent cup of joe when you travel is because they export all the good stuff. They seriously roast separate batches and the high quality gets exported and the low quality is sold here. Don't worry, we made sure to by the export grade.

They bought this coffee roaster in the 1920's from Germany and still use it today! I had a fabulous iced latte.

The next and last stop on our tour was the red light district. In this Tolerant Zone prostitution is legal and the girls, whether they were born girls or are just dressing like girls, can sell themselves in the zone. We were warned not to take photos of the girls, but let me reassure you - ewww. It was the middle of the day and the scantally clad "women" were standing all around. I guess they get enough business during the day. This building, the Piscina Club, is one of the most famous brothels in this area. We didn't stop in.

That concludes the Bogota Bike Tour. Mike did take a bunch of photos along the way and he told us he would email them to us, so if I get them I'll upload some more. Just like most of our travel adventures, we had no idea what to expect, but were not disappointed at all.