Even though my stomach is still fighting with me, I refuse to let it ruin my last day here. I stayed in bed while Maria went down to breakfast; the staff apparently wondered why I wasn't with her. Maria told them of my plight (now I am sure 8 million Bogotanos know about my diarrhoea); soon a waitress awakened me with a pot of te de canela that she had brought up from the restaurant to ease my stomach. I drank a few cups and it seemed to help a bit.

Sandra's parent's and her sister stopped in for a little visit, such lovely people. They kindly offered us a ride to La Candelaria, which saved us a lot of time on the bus. Sandra's father has a nice Renault Megane, oddly enough it has power windows in the front but manual windows in the back, must be a Colombian thing. Instead of taking us the normal way the buses run we instead veered off to Avenida Circunvalar, which affords beautiful panoramic views of the city. Some of the priciest apartments in the city are in this area, they are simply gorgeous and the views incomparable. We finally reached La Candelaria and it was packed with cars so we climbed out at the first convenient spot and set out to explore. 

With the clouds fast approaching and because of all we had yet to do we hastily explored rather than leisurely as I would have preferred. I managed to take a few good photos, the colours on some of the colonial buildings are very vibrant, probably more so if the sun was shining. We saw a tour group marching around like an army, they had an English-speaking guide pointing out the various sites, but I had Maria to guide me around. You can be sure my guide and I will be back to explore more of La Candelaria, we have barely scratched the surface.

Next we were planning to go on a tour of Casa de Nariño to be arranged by Maria Te. We bought a phone card from a street vendor and tried to ring her but we received no answer. She was on her break so we tried again, but still no answer. So we headed down Calle 19 and bought some potato chips from a seller who fries them on the spot. It is nice in Bogotá, there are people selling everything you could ever want at great prices. We then stopped to look at some silver rings being sold by some hippy looking kids then further down we met an old indian woman selling mochilas, the prices were great, 15.000 pesos and we liked the designs better than we had seen in the shops so we purchased one.

We stopped at Domino for a couple of more Chilean style empanadas. We really like the view, lots of young people hanging around, lots of interesting styles, people-watching is great fun. Anytime Maria spotted something interesting she would point it out with a quick double pursing of the lips, this is the way Colombians point instead of using the finger which is considered very rude. Every time I try to practice this method of pointing I start laughing before I can get my lips into position. After an hour of sitting around we headed off to our next destination.

We caught the Unicentro bus back north to Quinta Camacho and made a quick stop at Carulla for a few goodies before walking on to Maria Luisa's apartment. Waiting for us was Maria Luisa, Enrique, & Graciela. After a short while Crino arrived with tio Bernardo. I wouldn't of recognized him, I have only seen photographs of him and he has changed so much. He has been very sick, close to death and had lost a lot of weight; as a matter of fact they even threw an early birthday party for him thinking he might not make it to his birthday. Needless to say he did, and we are very thankful. It turns out it was stress related and now he is on the mend. He is very much like Maria's father Tomas especially when he laughs and some of his hand gestures; they both are comedians and tell good stories. We didn't want to leave, but we had to get back fairly early to pack and to rest up before the long day ahead tomorrow. We were just saying our goodbyes when Maria Te stopped by to offer us a ride to the hotel, which also meant we could stay and visit a bit longer, which we did. Maria Te explained that we couldn't have visited Casa de Nariño today because there were some foreign dignitaries visiting and security closed the building to visitors. Finally though that sad time came, it was time to bid farewell to our family in Bogotá. After many hugs, kisses, handshakes and wishes for a quick return visit we made our way back to the hotel. Then we said our goodbyes to Maria Te and went up to the room to pack.

Believe it or not we managed to fit everything in the suitcases, except for a few items we hand checked. I stuffed the Boteros into the mochila along with a few snacks for the airport.

We had to be at the airport very early, so we showered and went right to sleep.... after double-checking that the alarm clock was set! 

  All content copyright © 2004 Jim Thompson

< previous

home