On Christmas Day I returned to Bogota again. It was the 4th time I came to Bogota already, the huge Colombian capital, is like the gateway to South America. There I attended a language exchange and met some local friends and made new acquaintances. I visited the big Bolivar Park in Bogota where I ate some Arepas, but the Colombian cuisine really sucks.
Trapped in a bar with awful drink and annoying company
Most of my Colombian friendships I made in Bogota. But I also made some strange encounters. I met a Colombian woman who couldn't stop chattering away. Neither the appearance nor the atmosphere was right. We were in a bar in the old town and drank Chicha, a fermented alcoholic corn drink. It tasted lousy and it was raining cats and dogs outside. I was trapped in the bar and had to listen to their chatter. She was talking nonsense like "German men usually smell." I was glad when I arrived back in my quiet hotel room. When she invited me to meet up again the next day, I kindly refused.
Strange encounter with a Colombian Man
I had another strange encounter with a Columbian man I met on the plane to Cartagena. We had a few beers in a neighborhood near the airport of Bogota. Afterwards we wanted to go to a club. I kept asking him if he wanted to go. And he kept saying yes, but he always stopped walking. Afterwards I just entered a club. But when the security wanted to check his ID, he turned away again and he couldn't explain to me why he didn't want to go to the club anymore. He also talked so fast and with so many slang words that I didn't even understand half of it. For example, he kept calling me "marica", which actually means "faggot". But as I found out later, Colombians also used the word in the sense of "buddy".
I wanted to return to my hostel and told him that. He kept talking to me and told me that he needed my help with something and that I should come to his apartment where we would jam some guitars. He was into the same music as I was. No thanks. He also had a weird hand injury. When I asked him where he got it from, he just said he had "to save the world". All very strange. He didn't look like an innocent man, either. Presumably he was in the criminal milieu, and his Facebook posts were also getting weirder and weirder. I never met him again.
Getting a glimpse of the red light district
A nice encounter I had on New Year's Eve with a Colombian engineer, who gave me a ride on his moped. It was the first time ever that I rode on a moped, but in Colombia many people own such a vehicle. We visited the red light district of the city in Santa Fe. However, most of the whores were on vacation and I just wanted to get a glimpse of what it looks like there anyway. We drank coffee together later and I said goodbye to him and Colombia in the evening and should spend the change of the year on the plane to Argentina.
