Monday, August 29, 2005 at 18:10
My theme for the weekend was borrowed from the slogan of the department store down my street. Bueno, Bonito, Barato (I am so tickled by this). Good, nice and cheap. Cheap being the key word - cash-strapped end of the month (and an expensive one at that, with the big vacation) and still waiting for the refund on the big Amazon trip that never was.
* Friday night, lounging at home, yakking with gal-friends, eating arepas.
* Saturday, more lounging, this time at home of one such gal-friend, a DVD afternoon (The Fokkers - call me an idiot, but I laughed a lot) and an evening of nibbles, fondue, Chilean red and more yakking-lounging-yakking.
* Sunday, decide I've had enough lounging and head out for a bit of a wander downtown. And Bogotá, as usual, lives up to her entertaining self. Accidentally stumbled across some 'Solidarity March', apparently an annual Colombian feature. If you ask me, Colombian excuse # 248 to have yet another carnival and go crazy (you've got to love this country). You'd expect a 'Solidarity March' to be vaguely sobre, but first in view is the Hare Krishna bunch (saris, singing & all), followed by some erotic dancers, followed by... you get the drift. Then up to the 46th floor of one of the Bogotá skyscrapers to take in the view, the biting cold and add some more cityscapes to my photo collection.
Then a wander around the historic quarter, and take in some museums (most of which are free on the last Sunday of the month). Plenty of street food, walking and yakking later, back home and rather pleased with my quality bueno-bonito-barato $10 weekend.
Sunday, August 28, 2005 at 09:20
Sept 10. Bogotá. Moby, Ferry Corsten and Darren Emerson. One big night. Can't miss it. I dig the
Moby Play era (and some of the pre stuff).
18 didn't do much for me though. Haven't heard all of
Hotel, his latest. (Opinions?) Throw in
Darren Emerson (of Underworld fame, and Global Underground - Singapore & Uruguay) and
Ferry Corsten (who's got my live performance stamp of approval from seeing him in Hong Kong) - and there's hardly a doubt. After the Digweed
fiasco, it's time to get a life, there's no way I'm going to miss this. Minor challenge: don't know anyone who digs electronic music enough to throw a ridiculous sum of money on some bald dude. What the hey, two weeks, will find/convince/cajole/beg/bribe someone to go with.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 17:49
Top 10 Vacation Shots Aug 8th - Aug 18Tayrona, up on the Caribbean Coast, my second time, this place is just paradise.
Pueblito, the ancient city of the Tayrona Indians, a sweaty two hour uphill hike from the beach, set in the middle of a rainforest
Taganga, a laid back Caribbean fishing village set in a beautiful bay. Great place to soak in the sun, the breeze and endless
jugosMore Taganga, and why not.
Little cafe and art gallery in Tunja, highest department capital of Colombia.
The Kite Flying Festival at Villa de Levya, another quaint colonial town, untouched by time.
San Gil, with all its cool little rivers and parks, not far from where we went white water rafting (my first time!)
Barichara, a sleepy little colonial village in the mountains.
Bird's eye view of Barichara at sundown.
Pretty Boyaca landscapes. Dizzy from all the winding bus trips in the mountains.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at 17:57
Indefinitely hanging around an airport - modern day torture. When will airport authorities realise that they can do better than put in a McDonalds and a bunch of TV screens to amuse passengers while they wait. If only Singapore's Changi was your average airport. Last I heard, they were putting in a multiplex - what a wicked idea.
[Opinion Poll: 3 quality time-killers you'd like to see at an airport]The day spent at El Dorado airport had its minor amusements though. Highlights:
*Bumping into Endry Cardeño (right). A.k.a 'Laisa' from 'Los Reyes', the hilarious Colombian
tele-novela of the moment. Now, Endry is not your usual celebrity, she (he?) is Colombia's first successful
transvestite TV star... and quite a sensation at that.
*Watching a 'thrilling' documentary on Peruvian mummies (get what I'm saying about airports & torture?). But seriously, it had just begun to get exciting, when a middle aged lady decided to chat me up. In usual gossipy Colombian style, the lady wanted to know everything about Endry... what she was wearing, how much make-up, yada yada. This culture is
loco sometimes : )
*People Watching. The strange smelly scientist type white bloke who thundered around the place warning us of the consequeces of climate change. Some sort of save-the-Amazon-from-global-warming type spiel. The back-packers, who you'd imagine would be the least stressed by minor flight delays, what's a day or two lost to some hippie wanderer, eh? But alas, the modern-day backpacker is fussed and pacing about the place, worried about missing some boat to Brazil or some seemingly inconsequential thing, frantically consulting his 'Lonely Planet: South America on a Shoestring' guide. And finally, the poor Swiss couple who didn't speak any Spanish, and therefore didn't catch the pilot's announcement, when he said we would be turning back to Bogota. Quite funny, that look on their faces when we arrived in Bogota, and not in little Leticia.
Monday, August 22, 2005 at 18:33
Saturday, 10 days ago. We get to the airport bright and early. 0530. Less bright, and more on the ridiculously early side. Excited about the 0630 departure to Leticia, a peaceful little town in the heart of the Amazon, on the Colombia-Brazil-Peru border. Waiting to check-in. Comes the announcement. The damn airport in Leticia is closed on account of 'bad weather' we're told. So we sit around and wait. Nap, nibble, watch TV, talk, scratch, fiddle. 12 whole hours gone by. And El Dorado Airport is hardly the coolest place to be stuck in the world. Announcment number 45 for the day. The airport is open again, the flight will board at 1730. Dead beat, not quite in the mood for rowdy cartwheels, but bloody happy nonetheless. 1815. On the flight headed to Leticia, sipping my
Colombiana, dreaming of pink dolphins and kayaking in the lakes and Amazon sunsets and what not. 1930, we're getting close. Crackle-in-the-airwaves. The pilots sheepishly announces - the airport has just closed again, visibility is at threatening levels, so we're going to turn back to Bogota. NOOOOOOO. They're taking away my jungle adventure!!! 2100. Back in Bogota. What a nightmare. Dead tired, eyes heavy, bones melty, sick from gorging on junk food and close to beating up any airline staff that come my way. Re-book for the next day's flight. This time its a 1100 flight, no more airport sunrises, thank you.
Sunday, I'm wiser. Call the airline in the morning to check. Airport in Leticia is still closed. They think it may be forest fires or somethin' fishy going on in Brazil. And they have no idea when the flight might take off. Why now. Why me. Why us. $%&" "#% @&#€.
Sod it. The Amazon can wait. Refuse to spend more quality vacation time hanging around an airport. We change plans. There is, afterall, a great deal to choose from in this country.
'Colombia's Amazon basin covers around 400000 sq km - or larger than Germany. Taking up the entire South East portion of the country - thick in tropical rainforest, crisscrossed by rivers and sparsely inhabited by several indigenous communities and some colonists... most of the Colombian Amazon still remains vastly untamed'.
And to think I *almost* got there.
Saturday, August 06, 2005 at 17:21
Today, Bogota turns 467 years old. What exactly happened this day, 467 days ago, I'm not sure, (Mental note: must read up) but apparently it's worth a big gala celebration. So what I'm doing here staring at the computer, when I could be downtown, joining a crazy parade and a salsa festival, downing some
aguardiente, I don't know. There are always so many crazy parades and carnivals and festivals and fairs going on in this country, *at any given point in time*, I'm sure I'll catch a few. Right. I survived a minor apendicites scare yesterday, thank God that tided over. Which means I'm more or less in top condition to begin yet another romp-around-Colombia. Back to
Tayrona, a short trip to Boyaca, and this is the best part: even a 4 day trip through the Amazon region, way down south of the country. Happy days, happy days. Which does mean though that the Naazita blog goes into hibernation for a bit. See ya in a couple of weeks.
Thursday, August 04, 2005 at 19:02
I'm so excited, I can't tell between emotions right now, its all a big blur now - happy-excited-crazy-nervous - so much so that I just had a zit break out. Oh yucky-shite! Have you ever looked forward to something so much, for so long that you almost don't want it to happen because what will you have then to look forward to when it does. Ok, need to hang on to that sanity. Twatty arrives in 48 hours. Good times ahead.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005 at 18:26
So I streaked my hair. Streaked, highlighted, whatever. Not a very 'Naaz' thing to do, but I swear, I got 'upsold'. What started out as a fortnightly visit to the
Peluqueria (which really was just an excuse to chat up the manicurist and practice my spanish!) seems to be turning into some sort of extreme makeover over time. Ah well, I figured I needed to get more adventurous with my hair, so finally gave in to the hairdresser and said something to the effect of 'bring on the chemicals' - Helen B's splurge-encouraging words on my mind "afterall, you wear your hair everyday". Which I guess, is precisely why you wouldn't want to go muck it up I suppose. So there. Here I am, a number of compliments, jokes and even a few insults later ('fire head'? now come on, I've got a while to go before I turn into a Tom Robbins protagonist)... it's growing on me.
And as is apparent, Boo Boo is doing well - oozing sex appeal as usual, not in need of any hair colour just yet.
at 08:14
Four months gone by now in Colombia. Life is sweet. Getting the hang of the language, and boy does it feel good. My
Español has improved dramatically in recent days. Learning to let go of comfort zones and inhibitions and babbling unabashedly. Now I can do business meetings in Spanish (I somewhat 'led' the last one), haggle on the street, chat up just about anyone and everyone who gets in my way. Not great Spanish, not even good Spanish I reckon - but who cares! I'm communicating, and just like
Chris Lonsdale promised it would be, it's a high!!! And here's my favourite bit of the language mastering effort - Not only do I finally get the jokes, I can make people laugh too. Speaking of Colombian humour, I watched Andrés Lopez's 'Pelota de Letras' last night, and it's an absolute riot. If you speak Spanish, check this guy out, possibly the most talented stand-up comedian I've seen in a while. Even if I only got about 50% of the jokes, still had me in splits.
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