The good life

Having been strongly encouraged to indulge in the amazing and unbelievably inexpensive pampering one can experience here in Bogota, I decided to check it out for myself.

Here are, for all the world to see, pictures of my first haircut/manicure/pedicure.

And I must say the results were pretty darn amazing.

Later that evening I had the chance to show my new do and nails to the world as Andrea, Liliana, and I went out for some good old fashioned "Colombian Rumba".

Never a bad moment to rock out to the Macarena.

Museum fun in Bogotá

There is no shortage of awesome museums in Bogota and with just one day to see them I had to be very selective.

I started at the museum dedicated to Colombian painter Fernando Botero.

Basically, he is best known for painting everything (people, fruit, hands) as if they were fat.

His version of the Mona Lisa.

Unfortunately my camera's batteries ran out so I don't have a lot of pictures to show from the day except for a few shots from Blackberrys.

I had so much fun interacting with sights in Lima (see "Fun in the water" entry") that I decided to continue the tradition in here Bogota.

Arm wresting with a huge hand in the Botero museum.

Flattery by imitation with a statue at Bogota's famous gold museum.

In Bogotá

Said goodbye to the hot and sunny coast on Sunday to make my way to the mountains.

The final leg of my trip will feature catching up with classmate and friend Liliana in her hometown of Bogotá, Colombia.

Impressions of Bogotá have been very positive. It is enormous, friendly, cosmopolitan, pretty, and has seemingly limitless activities to explore. 

Interesting factoid of the day: At 8,649 feet above sea level Bogotá is the third highest capital city in the world. Also interesting is that the first and second highest capitals are also in South America; La Paz, Bolivia tops the list at 12,335 and Quito, Ecuador is number 2 at 9,350. 

Yesterday Liliana, her sister María Fernanda, and I went wandering around the old part of the city center. 

Bogotá is located in a valley surrounded by beautiful green mountains one of which is home to a church where  people make pilgrimages to ask Jesus for miracles and gives thanks for prayers that have come true. The tradition is similar to that which takes place at the mountain and monastery of Montserrat located outside Barcelona. Appropriately, the Colombian version is called Monserrate.

It is located almost 2,000 feet above Bogotá and the primary way to get there is a cable car-type thing suspended from a wire.  

Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive. 

 Views from the top were amazing. 

Happy to report that I broke a  personal altitude record today as 10,341 feet is the highest above sea level I've been with my feet still on the ground. Take that Mt. Brown at Glacier Park! 

Playa Blanca

Last Saturday was a day at the beach (literally) as I hopped on a little speed boat and took the 45 minute trip from Cartagena to the Isla Barú, home of one of the most famous and beautiful beaches on the Colombian coast.

I had never been on anything like a speed boat before so racing through the sea at a speed that seemed to be approaching mach-something was a very interesting (terrifying) experience.

Made it there safely and it didn't take long to realize why everybody says this beach is a must-see when in Cartagena.

Made friends on the beach with a really nice couple who coincidentally were staying in the hostel right next to mine. Once back on land we went out for dinner and salsa dancing at a place that featured amazing live music by an actual Cuban salsa group. Doesn't get much better than that.

¡Hasta pronto Perú!

For my last night in Peru we had a little going away celebration featuring a balcony barbeque, a few pisco sours, and salsa dancing until the wee hours of the morning (so what if it was a Tuesday night?).

Thank you so much Irma, Angela, Marisol, Andrea, Aldo, Marjorie, Carlos, Gustavo, and Jorgito for your great companionship and hospitality during my brief stint in your amazing country! ¡Nos vemos pronto!

El Callao

Just a few shots here from Angela and my's trip to Lima's neighboring city which features Peru's major naval base and one of the most important ports in South America.

Fun in the water!

Last Friday I got to experience a real Limeñan treat that is off the typical tourist path.

El Parque de Las Aguas (the park of the waters) was built a few years ago and is made up of 15 fountains of different size and shape. Sound kind of boring? Well, these aren't just any old fountains meant to look pretty and admire from a distance. They are interactive fountains where guests are encouraged to take part in the aquatic action.

Seconds after this picture was taken I deservedly got a splash of water right in the mouth and the fact that I swallowed some of it and lived to tell the story says a lot about the the strength of the human immune system. 

The next set of pictures feature my favorite fountain. It consisted of various rings of water each of which would periodically and unexpectedly shoot off with the intention of drenching those adventurous enough to try to make it all the way to the middle of the circle (where you could safely stand and remain dry.) 

The quality of the photos isn't great (taken from friend Andrea's Blackberry) but I think you'll get the idea. 

The highlight of the night came as I was nervously hesitating to make the leap past the first ring. A very nice Peruvian lady there with her children observed my reluctance and as soon as it seemed safe to make the jump (to her at least) she turned to me smiling and yelled out "Corre Gringo, corre!! (Translated as something like "Now's your chance Gringo, go for it!") 

I didn't think twice and went for it...and made it through dry as a bone! That was until the next ring, and the one after that, and the last one all of which soaked me. 

Great fun indeed! 

Peruvian Politics

Last Sunday night marked the conclusion of what was arguably the most vicious and polarizing presidential campaign in Peruvian history.

Peruvians were faced with the option of choosing between Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala or, as Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa put it, having to decide "between AIDS and terminal cancer".

If the name Fujimori sounds familiar it's because Keiko is the daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, currently incarcerated in Peru for massive corruption and human rights violations during his mandate which lasted from 1990 until his downfall in 2000.

Ollanta Humala is a former military officer known for his close ties to Hugo Chavez and his advocacy for strong nationalist policies (see "anti-Western/American).

In the end, Humala prevailed with 52% of the vote and he will be the president of Peru for the next five years.

Peru has experienced unprecedented economic growth in the last 10 years (a 7.5% increase this year alone) and the World Bank and IMF both said (prior to the elections) that if the next president were to continue the economic policies of the last decade Peru would experience the highest rate of economic growth in Latin America over the next 5 years. Although Humala has promised not to implement any radical economic policies the Peruvian stock market experienced a record decline the Monday after the elections, indicative perhaps that investors are very uncertain.

One positive from the election (for me at least) was that I got my hands on some pretty cool electoral propaganda in the form of a Keiko notebook and an Ollanta book of matches.

Haves and have nots

For those of us venturing outside the United States or Western Europe for the first time the sight of abject poverty is absolutely striking. Having seen the south side of Chicago I thought I had seen poverty and marginalization in its worst form. I clearly had no idea. Millions of people living without running water, on dirt floors, in areas where even the police rarely venture into is a totally different ballgame.

In Latin America particularly, the contrasts between the relative few who live comfortably and those who don't is perhaps even more jaw-dropping.

The view from my bedroom window at the apartment where I stayed.

Walking around my neighborhood.

The periphery of Lima (about 2 million people live in areas like this) about 10 minutes by car from my neighborhood. (Taken from a bus as I left the city.)

 About 20 minutes outside Lima.

Nearly 1/3 of Peruvians live on less than $2 a day. Needless to say, figuring out how to take steps to close the wealth gap (no, Hugo Chavez's "socialism" is not the right answer) was one of the major issues in last Sunday's Presidential Election.

If anything, these photos can serve as a bucket of cold water to the face for those of us who think we have it "rough".