My first trip to Bogota

Ok, Sorry I have been bad at writing. Well, I have been busy. Both good busy and bad busy. 2 weeks ago I decided I needed to get the heck out of Dodge, I mean Bucaramanga. So, I took a trip to Bogota on one of our many 3 day weekends. I took the 10:00pm bus to get there at 6:00am. I dropped my stuff off at the Platypus Hostel and checked out the old part of the city. I went to the gold Museum, Bolivar Square, and the Boltero Gallery.
When I got back to the Playpus, they asked me if I wanted a private bathroom for 10.000 COP extra. I said yes and got taken to the brand new Playpus Hostel, right of the main squares. I got a nice room, hard new bed,wood floors, and a great private bath for 40,000 COP (around $18.00) They also had 27/7 security and coffee, and brand new kitchen, and a 60'flat screen, with DVD and satellite. The kitchen was on the second floor, so you could people watch, and check out the weekend flea market that appeared around the square.
Anyway, after trying my first McDonalds in Colombia. Yes, the Big Mac was just as tasteless here as in the U.S. However, the fries were just as good as at home. I was tired, it was cold, and it started raining in the late afternoon. So, I called it a day and hung out at the hostel and hit the sack early.
Sunday, I headed up to Mt. Monseratte. You can take a cable car or sky train to the top. I chose the sky train up and the cable car down. At the top is a church and some beautiful views of the city. This is where you finally get a grasp on how big Bogota is, over 8 million people. I had my first Colombian tamale,they are a olot different than the ones at home. It's like moist cornbread with veggies, meat and chicken in it, yum! I also tried this mild white cheese that they spread carmel and berry jam on top, a double yum!
After coming down from the mountain, I headed to the flea market, very different. Then I hung at the hostel and watched people for a bit to get my legs back. I then headed for the National Museum. I got lost, walked an extra mile or two and finally found the street to the NM. They close it down on Sundays, and it becomes a long walking, bike riding, roller blading street. It is also a long market where you can find anything. Finally, I came upon the NM. I have to say that it was a big disappointment. After walking through it, I headed for home.
Later, that night I took a cab to the Zona Rosa. It's not like TJ. It is where there is a huge mall, like Fashion Island. Also all the really nice restaurants, bars,and clubs are situated there. I found the Irish Pub (imagine that), had a Guinness,a Colombian Stout(brewed by the Bogota Beer Company, a micro brewery/restaurant/bar), and a nice cigar. I sat an watched the Cowboys play the Skins on Sunday night Football. I started talking to woman and her daughter. They told me that young Colombians were getting hooked on American football. After we walked around and had a beer at the Bogota Beer Company. I got a phone number for the next time I got to Bogota, then headed for home around 1:00am.
Got up around 9:00am,and decided that I wanted to head for home early, so I changed from a 3:00pm bus to the 12 noon bus. OH MY GOD! It was the bus ride from hell. We stopped at least 10 times, and got laid up In San Gil for and hours because a couple that hooked up on the bus, would not move. We had to wait for the police to come and take them off. Finally got home at 10:00pm. That's when I got the bad news, which you will have to wait till next time for.
Check it out on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/nbbeachteacher

Panamericno Days at School

Ok, I am going to talk about something that happened a week ago. We had a celebration at school called Panamericano Days. It was school wide celebration, that lasted for 3 days. From Wednesday to Friday, no teaching, just hanging out and watching the kids as the competed during the celebration. I had to take care of the group called the Costenos. That is the name for the people from this area of Colombia. The other groups were the LLanos (from the rolling plains in the East), the Pacificanos(from the Pacific coast), and the Nortenos (from around Bogota). Wednesday was a room decorating day, with an assembly that ended with a high school dance contest. It was wild! The kids did things that wouldn't fly in the States. But, we were told that this was a cultural norm here.
Thursday was sports day. They high schoolers played boy and girl soccer, volleyball, basketball, and ping pong. They also had water balloon fights and eating contests. I was asked to compete, and said yes. My mistake! I had to eat little red onions in vinegar, called Cebollitas. Yech! I got have a jar down, but came in third of four. But, I did beat a native Colombian that like those things. After that I hung back and watched the games the rest of the day.
Friday was another dance contest, and I got asked to judge it. Little did I know that the contest lasted for 2 and a half hours. It was and endurance dance. I was deaf and sore from sitting on concrete the whole time. They brought in some Colombian rappers who were not to bad. It was just a long 2 1/2 hours. After that we had a closing ceremony, with cake and drink. My group came in second (we were robbed). Anyway it was fun and the kids had fun. It is just interesting that they have so many holiday and off days here.

Check out the pictures at: Ok, I am going to talk about something that happened a week ago. We had a celebration at school called Panamericano Days. It was school wide celebration, that lasted for 3 days. From Wednesday to Friday, no teaching, just hanging out and watching the kids as the competed during the celebration. I had to take care of the group called the Costenos. That is the name for the people from this area of Colombia. The other groups were the LLanos (from the rolling plains in the East), the Pacificanos(from the Pacific coast), and the Nortenos (from around Bogota). Wednesday was a room decorating day, with an assembly that ended with a high school dance contest. It was wild! The kids did things that wouldn't fly in the States. But, we were told that this was a cultural norm here.
Thursday was sports day. They high schoolers played boy and girl soccer, volleyball, basketball, and ping pong. They also had water balloon fights and eating contests. I was asked to compete, and said yes. My mistake! I had to eat little red onions in vinegar, called Cebollitas. Yech! I got have a jar down, but came in third of four. But, I did beat a native Colombian that like those things. After that I hung back and watched the games the rest of the day.
Friday was another dance contest, and I got asked to judge it. Little did I know that the contest lasted for 2 and a half hours. It was and endurance dance. I was deaf and sore from sitting on concrete the whole time. They brought in some Colombian rappers who were not to bad. It was just a long 2 1/2 hours. After that we had a closing ceremony, with cake and drink. My group came in second (we were robbed). Anyway it was fun and the kids had fun. It is just interesting that they have so many holiday and off days here.

Ok, I am going to talk about something that happened a week ago. We had a celebration at school called Panamericano Days. It was school wide celebration, that lasted for 3 days. From Wednesday to Friday, no teaching, just hanging out and watching the kids as the competed during the celebration. I had to take care of the group called the Costenos. That is the name for the people from this area of Colombia. The other groups were the LLanos (from the rolling plains in the East), the Pacificanos(from the Pacific coast), and the Nortenos (from around Bogota). Wednesday was a room decorating day, with an assembly that ended with a high school dance contest. It was wild! The kids did things that wouldn't fly in the States. But, we were told that this was a cultural norm here.
Thursday was sports day. They high schoolers played boy and girl soccer, volleyball, basketball, and ping pong. They also had water balloon fights and eating contests. I was asked to compete, and said yes. My mistake! I had to eat little red onions in vinegar, called Cebollitas. Yech! I got have a jar down, but came in third of four. But, I did beat a native Colombian that like those things. After that I hung back and watched the games the rest of the day.
Friday was another dance contest, and I got asked to judge it. Little did I know that the contest lasted for 2 and a half hours. It was and endurance dance. I was deaf and sore from sitting on concrete the whole time. They brought in some Colombian rappers who were not to bad. It was just a long 2 1/2 hours. After that we had a closing ceremony, with cake and drink. My group came in second (we were robbed). Anyway it was fun and the kids had fun. It is just interesting that they have so many holiday and off days here.Ok, I am going to talk about something that happened a week ago. We had a celebration at school called Panamericano Days. It was school wide celebration, that lasted for 3 days. From Wednesday to Friday, no teaching, just hanging out and watching the kids as the competed during the celebration. I had to take care of the group called the Costenos. That is the name for the people from this area of Colombia. The other groups were the LLanos (from the rolling plains in the East), the Pacificanos(from the Pacific coast), and the Nortenos (from around Bogota). Wednesday was a room decorating day, with an assembly that ended with a high school dance contest. It was wild! The kids did things that wouldn't fly in the States. But, we were told that this was a cultural norm here.
Thursday was sports day. They high schoolers played boy and girl soccer, volleyball, basketball, and ping pong. They also had water balloon fights and eating contests. I was asked to compete, and said yes. My mistake! I had to eat little red onions in vinegar, called Cebollitas. Yech! I got have a jar down, but came in third of four. But, I did beat a native Colombian that like those things. After that I hung back and watched the games the rest of the day.
Friday was another dance contest, and I got asked to judge it. Little did I know that the contest lasted for 2 and a half hours. It was and endurance dance. I was deaf and sore from sitting on concrete the whole time. They brought in some Colombian rappers who were not to bad. It was just a long 2 1/2 hours. After that we had a closing ceremony, with cake and drink. My group came in second (we were robbed). Anyway it was fun and the kids had fun. It is just interesting that they have so many holiday and off days here.

Check out the pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/nbbeachteacher

Chow, John

Trip to Piedracuesta for cigars

Ok, I know I have not written in a while. Sorry I have been busy, as I am try to catch up and get ahead of the curve in getting material ready for my classes.
So, last week we got out early on Wednesday. So,my friend Robbie and I went down to Piedacuesta. It is a small town about a half hour taxi drive out of Floridablanca. We went there to find cigars. Something you probably don't know is that Santander(the state in Colombia I live in), was one of the first places in the new world to grow tobacco. In fact, this was before Cuba and the Central American area started to grow it. The story goes that the seeds that helped start Cuban tobacco plantations were shipped from here. Also, you should know, that they call cigars tobacco. They do not use the word cigar.
So, we hop in a cab and head for Piedacuesta. Little more that a half hour later and a 180,000 peso cab ride(yes a little less than $8.00). We pull up up this nondescript doorway in the middle of a roll of connected buildings. In fact, the block was one long front wall. It has an emblem that says it it the Brevas tobacco company. we go in and meet the daughter and son in law of the of the Brevas owner. They have a little display case, and you can look in the back and see the small factory. We both ordered a box of Robustos and a 4-pack of Churchills. They had Robby's order, but had to make up mine. So, as the girl was getting my order ready we walked through the small factory. There were about 8 people working in the factory. 3 women rolling cigars by hand, 2 men butting the bands on the c1gars, 1 woman tying the cigars into bundles, and a guy in the back grinding up the excess leaf into pipe tobacco. It was cool to watch them at work. The women rolling the cigars would be sitting an chatting to each other while rolling the cigars and cutting the excess with these big blades. And the guys putting on the bands gave us a show, by putting the bands on standing, sitting down, through their legs, and behind their back. SOOOOOOO COOOOOOOL!!.
After our self guided tour, we watched as the daughter rolled each of my cigars with a plastic wrapper to keep it fresher. Then she hand built the boxes for the cigars, packed them and cellophane wrapped them. Talk about fresh from the factory. While she was finishing up, the son in law gave us a Robusto to smoke. Tasty, packed just right with a smooth draw. We finally got our cigars,paid for them and headed back to town. When we got outside, we found our taxi driver. He had waited outside for us, so we did not have to call a taxi to get back home.
Later we found out that there are at least 4 other cigar factories in Piedracuesta, and we intend to visit all of them.
Finally, if you want to see all the pictures go to my picasa page and look for the Piedrcuesta - Brevas pictures.
Paste this to get there:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nbbeachteacher/PiedracuestraBrevasCigarFactory#
Chow, John