Bogota & Hinterlands--safety GGT 4.0

[snooppuppy]

In October I visited N in Bogota and we decided to visit her brother and his family in Villavicencio. This is about a 3.5 hour bus ride from the outskirts of Bogota. On the way there we took a standard highway bus, which I would not repeat. N's brother, "Z" is retired from the military and had a small business transporting stuff in a small truck for hire. A job moving a piece of machinery had lured him into the countryside a couple hours away where a couple of guys tried to rob him. One guy pointed his gun at Z and pulled the trigger and the gun misfired. Z pulled out his gun and shot the guy dead. Z was in the military for 20 years and said he never fired his gun at anyone, and now as a civilian he killed a guy. The other guy ran away.

The weather in Villavicencio is great. N claimed it was too hot but they said it rarely gets above 85 nor below 65. Something I would like explained to me is why neither there nor in Bogota they don't seem to have many bugs. No one has screens on their window, doors are wide open, and yet you rarely see a fly and never a mosquito. We even went horseback riding on a big ranch, waded through swamps with the horses, and N was complaining because she had one mosquito bite. In Ohio, we would have been eaten alive. The excursion from the hotel included the ride to the ranch and some pretty nice horses (not lazy but not too spirited) for $24US. We stayed at her brother's house for a couple days and then stayed at a hotel for two more.

Dept of: Learning to ask the right question: When we booked the hotel, we asked if they had hot water and were answered in the affirmative. The correct question would have been: Do you have hot water 24 hours a day. Turns out they only turned it on for a couple of hours in the morning.

On Halloween night we went out to dinner and saw kids cruising the streets in costume for candy. I got a bunch of money changed into monera (coins) and when encountered them I would tell them in Spanish that I'm an American and I don't know about their customs, but I didn't have any candy, but would Colombian kids accept money instead of candy. Then we made them sing their Halloween song which is something like "Tricky, Tricky, Halloween, give us some candy, etc..."

On Saturday night we were sitting outside the house when a big bang went off in the distance. Turns out someone had talked a poor taxi driver into delivering a package which contained a bomb and then detonated it in front of the Army base, about two miles from Z's house. A couple of days later every taxi in the town turned out for the funeral.

The trip back we got front seats in a van at the bus station, and the views were spectacular.

We got back to Bogota and N and I shopped for English classes for her. She actually has a very good vocabulary, she speaks English with me and I speak Spanish with her. Her pronuciation is pretty bad, sometimes I will ask her to repeat something in Spanish because I can't understand her in English, which is pretty funny. We went to a couple of places and I talked with the instructors, many of whom spoke English poorly. Also talked with a couple of private instructors and then finally wound up at Berlitz. We talked with the director for some time and then they allowed us to sit in on a class. All of the instructors were either US born or had lived in the US for a significant amount of time. Only one had an accent, and it wasn't too pronounced. The class was pretty impressive and they had a well-developed methodology. When we first started talking to them the price was about $3,000 US, and somehow the price kept dropping as we brought up more objections. Because N's English is fairly advanced, they said she could enroll at a lower price, which finally ended up being about $1750. This worked out to be about $17/hour, and private tutors usually charge about $7-10/hour. I liked the fact that the curriculum should be pretty tried and true, and I have met many tutors who are tutors soley because they know English, not because they have any experience in teaching it or understanding how people need to learn a language.

We also enrolled N in driving lessons, so by mid December she should have her license. We have just sent in her visa papers so we still have a wait for the visa, but now she has the time to devote to English and learning to drive.

I would welcome any input from fellow experienced gringos: Was I crazy for going to Villavicencio? Do the guerillas kidnap random gringos on sight, or are these things planned out? My ex-novia told me I was nuts for going there, and I can say I didn't see many gringos evident in the town. Outside Bogota, where should you stay away from???

[LastLion]

I got no advice on Villavicencio, but I would trust in your girl. I was all over the surrounding areas of Cali and although many of them were definitely lacking tourists, I felt comfortable.

Snoop, I have been following your story and I am just really happy for you and your girl, it seams like you are a great example of what to do when trying to bring a girl home and how to prepare her.

Also I was in cali on halloween, what I heard from the kids was quiero paz, quiero amor deme dulces por favor!!!!! I want peace, I want love , give me candy , please.. like I said in my report sounds better in spanish!

[snooppuppy]

Thanks Lion:

When I am walking anywhere, I always am watching my back. The entire time I have been in Colombia I have never felt threatend by anything I have seen--but I think this may be a false sense of security. When you look at how rare these violent incidents are--N's brother experienced this once in his lifetime--but the key here is he put himself in a vulnerable situation where it was more likely.

The fact that we "feel" secure is probably irrelevant, I am interested in hearing other informed points of view so I can make good decisions about where I go and don't go. I tend to err on the side of not being worried. This attitude got me beaten up pretty badly once in my early twenties.

[Cap'n Jib]

Snoop,

I haven't really gotten a handle on the area outside of Bogota even after 5 trips. As they say it is a "fluid" situation. We took one of the busses and went through the traditional police search of the bus.

Mine was the only passport (showing the US Eagle on the cover) with all the other I.D. cards. Everythings went ok but there certainly was tension in the air. As Gringos, we are quite exposed in these situations. Most of the time nothing happens but.....

[aliendroid]

if you want some mosquito action come join me here in barranquilla. GaWWWD i wish I were in bogota right now.