First Impressions

Day 1:
Arrived at Paris only to find that my flight to Bogota was overbooked, so they gave me a hotel room and 300 euros and told me to come back tomorrow!
Day 2;
Arrived in Bogota without problem and was met by Irene's sister Julieta and cousin Andrea. Went to a hotel (Tequendana Residencia) where Irene's uncle has an apartment on the 25th floor.
Bogota is a fascinating place, a bit american in the way that there are lots of Pickup trucks and SUVs around, but there are also some really ancient looking buses and such. There are also many MANY beautiful colombian women everywhere - they certainly seem to have the right genetic formula out here!
Another thing you notice is how high we are here in Bogota. the city itself is in a shallow valley near the top of the andes, around 2600m above sea level. Carrying my suitcase up the stairs I felt like a 50 year old asthmatic! Then when I went to apply my roll-on deoderant, the ball popped right out of the casing onto the floor, and a similar thing happened with my shampoo!

We went out to a mexican restaurant with Irene's other sister MariaJose and their friend Manuel. I think the most surprising thing was the prevalence of security guards. The restaurant we went to had an armed guard for a door man, and they unlocked the door to let us in, then locked it again! Just about every restaurant and apartment building has similar guards out front, all armed with at least a pistol, if not a rifle. It's also permitted by law to run red lights after dark - in an attempt to stave off car-jackings! However, the security measures to seem to work to an extent, and I don't feel in danger, it's just a stark reminder of what it means to be in a country with a wide gap between the rich and the poor and a 30 year old civil war. On the day I arrived the peace talks that were underway with the main guerilla group (FARC) became halted,a nd for a little while it looked like war was imminent. An area of land the size of switzerland, just south of Bogota was conceded to the guerillas 4 years ago, but at the moment, colombian troops and helicopter gunships are massing on the border. However, apparently talks have resumed now, so the immediate danger is passed.
After the restaurant, went around the town a bit more and then to a bar/brewery where we had a couple of pints (at around £1.30 each!) to a background of a Thompson Twins CD...

Day 2: Was staying in a room with a friend of Irene's uncle (who was asleep when I got back). He got up at about the crack of dawn and I tried to sleep a bit longer. After a while, I thought it must be getting late, judging by the light outside, so I got up in fear that I might be late getting up for my 12:00 flight. I got up and looked at my watch. 730!
Today I fly to Monteria where Irene is staying. Apparently it is VERY HOT there. Bogota is around 15, but this place is supposed to be in the mid to high 30s! It's also a very small town (though it is the capital of the state or "departmento"), so it should be quite a contrast with Bogota. Irene's sister MariaJose is flying with me, along with 3 dogs! For the moment though, I'm quite enjoying sitting here watching the Jetsons in spanish....
Prices here are very cheap. £1 = around 3200 pesos. When they write prices, they use the american $ symbol, which leads to some briefly surreal experiences when you end up paying $15,000 for an enchilada or something. Petrol costs around $3,400/gallon and you can get a litre of rum for about $9000!
Day 3/4/5
Well, I'm in Monteria now and it is VERY HOT! It's seven o'clock in the morning and I couldn't sleep anymore. The bedrooms are air-conditioned, but like yesterday there has been a power cut starting at about 4 in the morning. It is a planned power cut as they are working on something at the power station.

Irene's uncle's house, where I am staying, is very nice. It's interesting in the fact that, since it never gets below around 25 here, instead of a back wall to the house there's just an iron fence, and all the way along the other wall it is open to the sky. Also, it's so hot here that they haven't bothered to get hot running water yet! Believe me it's not necessary - showers are just fine without it. Irene's uncle (Jaime) is on a business trip, but with us at the house is Irene's sister Eliana. Also, MariaJose flew back with me and she lives nearby with her fiancee Carlos. The three dogs I mentioned were three beagle puppys, two of which were for a friend, and MariaJose is keeping one. They've named him Nicolai, and he's adorable!

My Spanish is coming along fairly well - I still can't listen to what someone is saying and formulate a response at the same time, but I'm improving steadily, and everyone is being very patient with me.
When I arrived at Monteria airport my suitcase didn't show up. We described the suitcase to the staff and they said they'd look for it, but Irene and the rest didn't have much hope. They've had trouble with the airline before and since I didn't have a lock on it, they assumed that even if I did get it back it would be empty. But, naturally I 'pulled an Elliot' because the next day we found out that there was a bag matching my description in Bogota without a destination tag on it, and they brought it later that day and absolutely nothing was missing (luckily I didn't have anything very valuable in there).

Access to the outside world has proved a bit difficult. Jaime has turned off the long distance service on his phone because he ended up getting massive phone bills when friends used the phone too much, and he just uses his mobile for long distance. Yesterday we went into town and attempted to call my parents from a little shop with lots of payphones. Naturally we got the answering machine! I have no idea when I'm going to be able to send this email. Even if I were using America online, there's no local access number here, so I couldn't dial up. We may be going to Cartagena soon, however so I'll try to send it then.
While we were in the town yesterday we went for a walk along the river front and ended up taking the ferry across for fun. It cost $250 per person per way. There is no motor, simply a boat tethered to a cable going across the river. Simply by pushing off and turning the tiller towards the opposite side of the river, the current takes the boat across. (see pic 6).
The food has been interesting. For dinner on the first night we had cabeza de gato (literally head of the cat - don't ask me why...perhaps it has Monty Python connotations...) which is kind of a rice/couscous kind of thing made from platanos, the large green banana type things they have here. These also made an appearance the next day at lunch, being flattened and fried with garlic (patacones) very tasty. For breakfast the next day we had arepas (a kind of flat, crumbly bread type thing made from corn) and huevos revueltos (eggs with onions & tomatoes). On the first night we bought a drink called peto from a guy in the street. It's quite a tasty drink made from corn, sugar and cinnamon.

Well I guess that's it for now. Must say it's great to be here!