Walking Across the Border

Hola everyone. Saludos from Bogotá, Colombia. Much has happened since my last entry. I spent a little more time in Caracas before heading out for a couple weeks on a road trip with my friend Danilo, who travels around the country selling architecture books to architects, professors, and students. We went to Puerto la Cruz, Ciudad Bolivar, and Puerto Ordaz, all of which were really hot. My friends say that the petroleum spots are always hotter. All of the places were really cool. We checked out the colonial section of Ciudad Bolivar. The central plaza was beautiful (see pic to the right). On the way out we stopped for a couple pics of a river, which I forget the name of, but starts in Colombia and flows into Venezuela. In Puerto Ordaz we spent one Sunday in a couple of parks which were amazing. We saw little monkeys playing in the trees and running around like little dogs on the ground. The trees had huge bases. And in Parque Llorizna we felt the spray of the river as it crashed over the rocks, and saw a ton of huge fish eagerly awaiting the doritos and crackers that the local and international tourists through in. A US tourist was standing next to us at one point and said "Buena vista, verdad?" in a thick gringo accent, and I answered him in Spanish for fun. Those moments of passing for a local are always entertaining. After the road trip, I spent a week more in Caracas, with the most notable event being that I was able to buy my absurdly expensive growth hormone medicine for a less absurdly expensive price in Venezuela (normally $2,000 a month in the US without health insurance).

After realizing that my 90 days in Venezuela was expiring a couple days earlier than I had thought (May and July having 31 days threw me off), I took an overnight bus from Caracas to the Venezuelan-Colombian border. It normally takes about 12 hours, but with Friday night traffic and a slow driver we got there in 15. I caught 3 sub par movies in English. It probably would have been nicer if they didn’t show us Final Destination at around 10pm before we headed off into the dark unknown. A friend met up with me in the border town, San Cristobal, and we took a cab to actual border (about 30 minutes I think), where I got out and got my passport exit stamp without a problem. We then took a bus to the Colombian Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS). The customs worker initially gave me a 60 day tourist stamp by accident, but after asking with a smile he smudged the 60 days out of my passport, redid it, and gave me the 90 day maximum stamp that us gringos norteaméricanos are allowed, accompanied by a comment by the next guy in line who said “Anything is possible in Colombia.” I can extend it for one month more at the embassy if I choose too, probably for a small fee, but the initial 90 days are free. After leaving DAS, we literally walked across the border, the first time that I’ve walked into another country. Unfortunately my camera was packed away in my suitcase.

I spent a few days in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta, where it was a sweating 40 degrees Celsius. At night it was beautiful though, and the city is pleasant and pretty. I saw the Colombian movie Soñar No Cuesta Nada, which was good and I could understand most of it. I also checked out the city center and bought a rip off cologne for nice and cheap. After that I headed to Bogotá on another equally long bus ride with my friend Yasmina. The road was very bumpy and curvy given our treck was through the mountains. I got to Bogotá 5 days ago and reunited with my friends María, Tania, and Jose Danilo, all siblings. I’m currently staying with them in their apartment while we await the arrival of their parents and perhaps some other visitors in the next week or so. In the meantime we’re looking to buy the family a computer, complete with pirated operating systems and software, which is basically necessary down here because the people generally can’t afford the expensive licenses that seem so standard for us in the States. In one of the commercial centers there are literally about 100 businesses clustered together, all of whom assemble computers based on the purchaser’s desired specifications. The major problem is making sure you don’t get stuck with used hardware when they assemble it, so we’ll have to be vigilant.

Today is a national holiday, although the few Colombians I have asked don’t seem to know much about it except that it is a free day from work or school. So, I will have to start my job search tomorrow. I may have an opportunity to get a full time volunteer post working in the office of an ecumenical social justice network, perhaps with some opportunities to do the human rights accompaniment work I have been interested in for awhile, but I’m not sure if I’ll financially be able to make it unless I give a few private English classes on the side to some of the richer university students in the neighborhood. I’m also thinking of doing some fundraising if the opportunity works out. If not, I’ll probably look for jobs teaching English, which seem to be available here judging by the classifieds section in the newspaper. Other than that, I am getting to know the city. I got my city map from one of the artisans’ street markets in the city center for a buck or so, along with some other goodies. The city center was nice, and I’ve already walked around twice, once with Yasmina and then again yesterday with my friend Pei, who I initially met in Mexico but who I randomly met up with in El Salvador and now here. We might check out a couple of museums later this week if I have time. Bogotá is famous for its emeralds and flowers among other things. The country is loaded with natural resources. Perhaps one day they’ll have a more stable political situation to benefit from them more.