We walked up a few blocks to Unicentro to look for some typical Colombian souvenirs, the shop that sells them wasn't open yet so we hopped on a busetta and headed to Andino and Atlantis. They are very American in style they have Cinemark, McDonalds and a Hard Rock Cafe. We still didn't find anything so we took a busetta to Chapinero  to look for handicrafts, finally we found a few little presents for Maria's co-workers, little bottles of augardiente, fridge magnets and the like. Maria suggested we walk to El Lago where we would find lots of handicrafts, boy was she right, we managed to fill all of our little gift orders in one go, we should have come here first. We had done a lot of walking and I still wasn't too sure about my stomach, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest.

In the evening Maria's cousin Maria Teresa picked us up so that we could spend some time with her & her husband and so we could se their new apartment. So we walked across the street to wait for Maria Teresa, we waited quite a while but were afraid to leave that spot in case she came by at that moment. Bogotá gets quite chilly once the sun goes down and Maria had long since turned into a human popsicle. After about an hour the bellman from the hotel came across with a message from Maria Teresa, she had been held up at work and would pick us up in 15 minutes. Sure enough 15 minutes later the car pulled up.

Off we went to their apartment, it is a typically attractive red brick tower, brand new construction in the north of Bogotá. After the guard opened the gate we drove down into the underground parking and then took the stairs up to the lobby, wow what a lobby, it looked like a 5 star hotel, rich woods covered the walls, the floors were gleaming marble, very impressive first impression. The building has a nice exercise room, sauna, a secure playground for the children and other amenities. Maria Teresa went to the front desk and picked up her mail and messages, again it looked like a fine hotel, next we entered one of the stainless steel elevators to the 11th floor to their apartment & were met at the door by Juan Carlos. 

The apartment itself is beautiful and the construction and fitting is top notch. There is a small hallway with marble floors set into the wall is a lighted niche for displaying a figurine or statuette, then on into the dining room with nice wood floors further through is a comfortable sitting room with a real fireplace, careful design allows the rooms to be individual yet they are open to one another at the same time. There are two bedrooms one of which serves as the office where Juan Carlos writes speeches for politicians and others as well as works on writing a book about Pastrana. He is a very talented person and his English is very good, thank goodness because I can hardly order breakfast in Spanish. There are two bathrooms and a small laundry room plus a compact but nicely fitted kitchen with granite counters.

While Juan Carlos and I looked through photo albums the two Marias caught up on old times, lots of giggling could be heard. Then while we went down to see Juan Carlos' mother's apartment Maria Te started the fondue going. Graciela's apartment is very nice also, she has made some modifications to the floor plan by combining the two bedrooms into one large bedroom, she also rearranged the bathroom door placement and a  few other minor details. I say minor, but no remodel is minor here, the walls are solid not like the ones in the USA that you can put a fist right through. Graciela gave me some Imodium as well as a homemade remedy of beer and sugar, it didn't taste too good but if it would help my stomach I was willing to give it a try. I'm sure the beer was probably very nice before the sugar is added.

We said our goodbyes to Graciela and headed back upstairs to enjoy dipping the various breads, fruits and meats into the hot melty cheese and wine sauce, mmmm... I think my stomach can handle this. We chatted about many topics from politics to travel, work, photography... Then we headed to the sitting room where Juan Carlos had lit the fire. Maria Te popped a T-Rex CD into the stereo, T-Rex is her favourite and soon she is dancing to the beat. Juan Carlos and I like many of the same musicians, he even has some Manu Chao! I feel so comfortable I could stay here all night, Juan Carlos and Maria Te are such lovely hosts and made me feel totally comfortable. Before we knew it the time was past midnight and Maria Te had to get up for work in a few hours so we called an end to the evening and Juan Carlos and Maria Te drove us to the hotel, pointing out various sights along the way. I even saw a mid 1960s Corvette convertible, didn't expect to see one in Bogotá. 

What a wonderful evening, good food, good conversation and most of all good company! 

  All content copyright © 2004 Jim Thompson

< previous

home