Bogotá
I Arrived to Bogotá last Thursday, and tried to get a place at the Platyups, but I found it was full and booked for the foreseeable future. So they directed to the only close by hostel with space available, the Plaza hotel. It turned out to be a Jewish hostel, the workers wore T shirts with the David star on them, Hebrew writings decorated the walls and all doors had Mizuzas on them. Anyway it provided me with a bed and good shower, and I could still go and hang out at the Platypus, where I could socialize with the other travelers.
The Plaza hotel seems to be a kind of meeting place for some of Bogotá Jewish community, the hotel has a Kosher restaurant, and on Saturdays there is a Shabat ceremony, that included dinner, and religious chanting, I wasn't bothered really, as I just used the place to sleep and shower, and spend the rest my day at the Platypus.
The Playtups is where all travelers to Colombia pass at some point, and where all backpackers try to stay, owned by a German (or is it Swiss?) friendly guy, located in the Candelaria area. The travelers one get to meet here, tend to be more interesting people than in the rest of south America, they are people who are not immediately put off but the outside image of Colombia, being a dangerous and unsecure place. Some are long term travelers, traveling from a few month to a few years, some are working for aid or other non governmental organizations, some found jobs here teaching English, taking Spanish classes, or doing both at the same time.
Most people here have a very interesting background, and one is almost always rewarded with an fascinating story when making the effort to start a conversation. A partial list of the people I met : Marc and Australian Jewish lawyer who spent two month in a Kibutz not far from where I live, Katheryn a law graduate doing her fellowship working for a human rights organization, helping internally displaced people in Colombia, Shiva a half English half Indian, lawyer from England. Emily a photographer and a graduate in International relationships from New York, who traveled around Africa. Shayne a Cambridge graduate who then went on to start his construction company, then left it in the safe hands of his partners, to travel around the world. Troy a ship builder from Australia, who traveled all around the middle east and north Africa, including countries like Yemen and Sudan. Troy is also a great guitar player, with an unorthodox playing style using only three fingers, and he plays lovely music he makes up himself. Justen is another talented guitarist from Colorado, playing country and classical music. I am always in the mode for a good live guitar performance, I always find the sound so much richer than anything coming out of any speaker system. And if thats not enough this place also has free WiFi.
Drugs are quite cheap and readily available in Bogotá, and all around Colombia, especially coke. Some travelers do the drugs for the experience, others already have experience with it back in their country, and can't resist the temptation of the low price, so do loads of it, knowing that they will not be able to have it so cheap back in their countries. I found that Coke generally makes people more aggressive and obnoxious, I guess its like being sober with a group of very drunk people, it does not work out well. Some don't know when to stop and take too much of this stuff, they mess up their nose and feel bad all the next day, I have seen it again and again going out with young lads, especially from England. In the Playtpus though there are no drugs, and generally people do itin the toilets of the clubs, sometimes even on the bar, without even bothering to hide what they're doing.
I am trying to take advantage of the time I am traveling to look for a job for after my trip. I had a phone interview scheduled for Friday morning, and was supposed to arrive in Colombia on Thursday afternoon, my plan was to buy a mobile phone as soon as I arrive, and use it to for the interview, the delay in the flight endangered my plans, but I decided not to give up, I woke up early Friday morning, and went looking for a phone to buy, but it was too early, as shops don't open until nine, then the first shop I went to did not have any prepaid modules immediately available for sale, and they directed me to the main office of one of the cell phone companies ,there I quickly picked a phone that looked alright, and had a reasonable price, and tried to buy it, alas they wouldn't sell it to me, I did not have my passport for me, and I was told I could not buy a cell phone in this country without an ID. As the interview time was approaching and I still did not have a phone, I decided on a new course of action, I found an internet cafe with Skype , and I just called them myself, and it worked perfectly fine. I did not give up on the phone though, I had more job interviews coming, with a couple of companies in the UK, and I needed to be reachable. So I went back to buy the same phone, this time with my Passport with me, but they were not completely satisfied yet, they wanted a Colombian resident ID card, or some other ID which has finger prints on it, I told them I was on a tourist visa here, and that we don't have IDs with finger prints where I come from, they ended up giving me the phone but after taking my finger prints themselves, and a photo as well. The phone cost me 92,000 pesos, which is a about 40 US Dollars, the display price was 79,000, but it turns out that they quote the prices without VAT in this country, anyway 40 US Dollars is still damn cheap, and that comes with 20,000 pesos of airtime included.
The Plaza hotel seems to be a kind of meeting place for some of Bogotá Jewish community, the hotel has a Kosher restaurant, and on Saturdays there is a Shabat ceremony, that included dinner, and religious chanting, I wasn't bothered really, as I just used the place to sleep and shower, and spend the rest my day at the Platypus.
The Playtups is where all travelers to Colombia pass at some point, and where all backpackers try to stay, owned by a German (or is it Swiss?) friendly guy, located in the Candelaria area. The travelers one get to meet here, tend to be more interesting people than in the rest of south America, they are people who are not immediately put off but the outside image of Colombia, being a dangerous and unsecure place. Some are long term travelers, traveling from a few month to a few years, some are working for aid or other non governmental organizations, some found jobs here teaching English, taking Spanish classes, or doing both at the same time.
Most people here have a very interesting background, and one is almost always rewarded with an fascinating story when making the effort to start a conversation. A partial list of the people I met : Marc and Australian Jewish lawyer who spent two month in a Kibutz not far from where I live, Katheryn a law graduate doing her fellowship working for a human rights organization, helping internally displaced people in Colombia, Shiva a half English half Indian, lawyer from England. Emily a photographer and a graduate in International relationships from New York, who traveled around Africa. Shayne a Cambridge graduate who then went on to start his construction company, then left it in the safe hands of his partners, to travel around the world. Troy a ship builder from Australia, who traveled all around the middle east and north Africa, including countries like Yemen and Sudan. Troy is also a great guitar player, with an unorthodox playing style using only three fingers, and he plays lovely music he makes up himself. Justen is another talented guitarist from Colorado, playing country and classical music. I am always in the mode for a good live guitar performance, I always find the sound so much richer than anything coming out of any speaker system. And if thats not enough this place also has free WiFi.
Drugs are quite cheap and readily available in Bogotá, and all around Colombia, especially coke. Some travelers do the drugs for the experience, others already have experience with it back in their country, and can't resist the temptation of the low price, so do loads of it, knowing that they will not be able to have it so cheap back in their countries. I found that Coke generally makes people more aggressive and obnoxious, I guess its like being sober with a group of very drunk people, it does not work out well. Some don't know when to stop and take too much of this stuff, they mess up their nose and feel bad all the next day, I have seen it again and again going out with young lads, especially from England. In the Playtpus though there are no drugs, and generally people do itin the toilets of the clubs, sometimes even on the bar, without even bothering to hide what they're doing.
I am trying to take advantage of the time I am traveling to look for a job for after my trip. I had a phone interview scheduled for Friday morning, and was supposed to arrive in Colombia on Thursday afternoon, my plan was to buy a mobile phone as soon as I arrive, and use it to for the interview, the delay in the flight endangered my plans, but I decided not to give up, I woke up early Friday morning, and went looking for a phone to buy, but it was too early, as shops don't open until nine, then the first shop I went to did not have any prepaid modules immediately available for sale, and they directed me to the main office of one of the cell phone companies ,there I quickly picked a phone that looked alright, and had a reasonable price, and tried to buy it, alas they wouldn't sell it to me, I did not have my passport for me, and I was told I could not buy a cell phone in this country without an ID. As the interview time was approaching and I still did not have a phone, I decided on a new course of action, I found an internet cafe with Skype , and I just called them myself, and it worked perfectly fine. I did not give up on the phone though, I had more job interviews coming, with a couple of companies in the UK, and I needed to be reachable. So I went back to buy the same phone, this time with my Passport with me, but they were not completely satisfied yet, they wanted a Colombian resident ID card, or some other ID which has finger prints on it, I told them I was on a tourist visa here, and that we don't have IDs with finger prints where I come from, they ended up giving me the phone but after taking my finger prints themselves, and a photo as well. The phone cost me 92,000 pesos, which is a about 40 US Dollars, the display price was 79,000, but it turns out that they quote the prices without VAT in this country, anyway 40 US Dollars is still damn cheap, and that comes with 20,000 pesos of airtime included.
posted by DiagonalMind at
11:47 AM
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