Second day in Lima

More Lima wandering. I met a guy my age from miami on his first solo trip. I spent breakfast explaining the ropes of solo travel and then we went off adventuring. He was great company, we bummed around town all day, got our selves lost a few times, saw thousands of bones in the catacombs of a church and ate tons of street food. It is amazing how quickly you can bond with a stranger while one the road. It happens several times on every trip, you get to know the all about each other and then part ways, often with out ever learning each others names. It's one of the best parts about traveling alone.

Lima

Lima is a very ugly city. Especially in the winter where the sun NEVER shines. Despite being ugly (and my hostel smelling a bit musty) I still like it here. The street food is good: giant corn and tasty potato and eggs (locals were laughing at me because I kept coming back for more). They have a great modern art museum, a really easy to use bus/fake subway system, and a spectacular view of the ocean. I ate a delicious meal at a boutique vegetarian restaurant  (that cost  more than two day at my hostel) and spent an hour talking with an insane Peruvian guy who says he keeps seeing UFOS! At first I though he was going to rob me, but once I realized he was just crazy, we were able to have a pretty interesting conversation.

Bogota graffiti

The city is covered in spectacular graffiti. Spent the last few hours before I left for Lima taking some pics. These are just the tip of the iceberg. There is a huge old dirty bastard wall piece somewhere, but I couldn't find it again for a pic.

Zona rosa

I spent my last full day in bogota hanging out in zona rosa. It's the yuppie area and feels like being in a completely different country. Fancy malls, gourmet restaurants, and luxury car dealerships. Not really my scene, but I found a huge public park filled with joggers, people doing yoga, and hundreds of dogs playing with their owners. I ended up going to the bogota beer company to watch the big football match. Soccer sucks, but watching columbians watch soccer doesn't. They yell and scream. Jump up and dance when they score with pride that you rarely see in any activity. They won 2 - 0 versus Bolivia so there was much celebrating. When I was getting ready for bed at around 11 pm I noticed the sound of drums coming through the window, so I threw my clothes back on to investigate. Followed the sound to a small private latin band playing in a closed restaurant. The music was great and there were two beautiful girls dancing wildly with a couple of funny old men. Only got to catch a few songs before they were finished, but it was a great way to end my stay here.

La Candelaria Night life

The place I'm staying is has some of the most insane night life I have ever seen. It is right by the university, so young people come out in droves as soon as the sun goes down. They sit everywhere and drink massive amounts of cheap booze out of paper bags. They also do insane amounts of drugs ( the green kind not the white) right in front of the cops. All cops do is periodically move people from one end if the square to the next. I haven't seen any violence or drama, but I have seen lots of music. It seems like everyone can play in instrument. I sat for over an hour in the cold and watched a rag tag band form. By the end there were two guitarists, two violinists, a drummer, a girl on maracas and another girl on recorder. They were incredible. I stayed with them until the cops chased us away. Shortly after I ran into a crew of rappers using these amazing home made boom boxes to play their beats. After a while I ran back to my hostel to get my vid camera and got a performance from a few of them. I shared some of my chicha ( home made corn booze that you buy out of a bucket!) and they showed me how their crew says hello and goodbye ( hand shake into fist pound, very urban). I wish I had pics of this madness but it is clearly not the type of scene where I can just pull out my dslr.

Day two

Was a little more cautious today after talking to two American grad students who's friend was choked out in broad daylight for her phone. Kept the camera in my bag most of the day. Went uptown to the national and the modern art museum. Neither were great, but still worth the trip. Passed by some pro government rally on the way but couldn't figure out what was going on so I left.

Random weird stuff:People chain cell phones to carts and charge 200 peso to use them.

I saw an ATM guarded by a guy with a shotgun.

I got backed into by a big truck. No damage done.

I was walking and a guy ran in front of me with a pistol in his hand. He had a backup guy with a shot gun. They were loading a brinks  like truck with money from a store. No one thought this was weird but me.

I took a cable to a church in the mountains. The view was great. I took a picture of 4 cute girls for them and the did the same for me. Only time in trusted my camera with anyone thus far. The pic they took was not very good.

Botero

Not much to say except I LOVE BOTERO! Fat women, fat animals, even fat still lifes. Plus a bunch of other great modern art too. And it was free. Some of my favorites:

Bogota in the day

I got up pretty early and spent the day exploring. Forget what I said about the city looking like Detroit. In the day all of the buildings open their doors,you can see the bright colors and the architecture becomes clear. There is certainly no danger in central area of the city. Families are out walking and no one hassles you (not the case at night, I've been offered coke a few times and everyone is as seedy as they come, kinda gives me the creeps). I went into a few old churches, managed to order a huge meat free breakfast, and found the Botero museum with absolutely no hassle. I felt so comfortable that I had a few drinks and lied down and read in a park. I Found a tiny veg restaurant, had an incredible dinner and a night cap at the heavy metal bar behind my hostel (there are 4 within a block radius, weird).

First impressions

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Just got checked into the hostel. Interesting building with friendly staff. I'm the only one here right now since everyone else is out partying. So far Bogota reminds me of Detroit. Lots of shuddered stores, no tall buildings, and amazing graffiti covering every inch. I'm going to wander a little outside the hostel tonight and try and not get mugged. So far I get a real good vibe. Once I assess the safety situation in the daylight I'll get some pics up. More tomorrow after I settle in.

Summer trip: take four!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning on my fourth annual summer trip. I originally wanted to head to the middle east, but political conditions and overall cost took it off my itinerary. I haven't been anywhere in South America yet, so I decided I'd give Columbia and Peru a try. I'm a little nervous for a couple of reasons: It is not necessarily all that safe, I speak zero Spanish, and I am winging it and have virtually nothing planned. I know that I want to go to the Botero museum in Bogota, Machu Picchu in Cuzco and to avoid the cocaine at all costs. Everything else including flights is up in the air. I am also taking my ipad instead of my laptop, so please forgive me if the format on the blog is weird, I haven't used it for blogging yet, but I think it should be a big improvement from the net-book that I have been traveling with for the past two years. Wi-fi should be pretty easy to find, so expect lots of pics and videos. I should be arriving at a cute pink hostel in Bogota around 9pm. Wish me luck and keep in touch!