Bike Tour

I thought I would give my walking legs a break today and go on a bike tour. A few people at the hostal had done it and it came very highly recommended. The tours are run by Mike, a US journalist who has reported all over South America.

Emeralds embedded in the stone

We started by going to the main square, but we were stymied because a relic of Pope JP II was at the cathedral so the place was cordoned off to accommodate the hordes of nuns, priests, and other papal enthusiasts. We then went off to where the emerald traders were. There were heaps of people gathered on a corner, many of them were carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of emeralds. A couple of them came over to our group and showed us their wares - some absolutely gorgeous stones. I just couldn't get over the fact that all this was done out in the open!

It says, "Don't turn the other cheek"

 We rode on, down the street, dodging cars that only very loosely follow the road rules. Mike showed us some great graffiti along the way to the market. There's a lot of graffiti in Bogota and some of it is really impressive.

Once we arrived at the market we tried all sorts of weird and wonderful fruits. Many of them I had never heard of nor seen before and most of them were very tasty...but there were a couple that were unbelievably sour - all of us had a grimace when we lied and said, "mmmmm good!" After navigating through the lovely, colourful fruits, we ventured into the meat section - which made me want to become a vegetarian. Whole pig skins hanging from hooks, intestines, innards, cow legs complete with hooves, and even a cow's head. It's truly gruesome when you are confronted with what it means to eat meat: DEATH. Naturally, after the death we went to the flowers. Did you know that cut flowers are one of Colombia's four main exports? Can you guess what the other three are?

Onwards we went, riding through some industrial areas to the red light district. Prostitution is legal in Colombia, as long as the ladies (or gentlemen) stay in designated areas. I have no pictures of this particular area - apparently the ladies don't like to have their photographs taken...go figure. Besides prostitutes look pretty much the same in most countries I reckon.


Hmmmm what's good after a red light trawl? How about a look at a micro coffee roasting facility? The roaster took up the most of a fair sized room and as we arrived the beans were released into the pan. Now, I'm not a coffee aficionado, but the smell was fantastic. All of the grade A coffee in Colombia is shipped overseas so it's actually quite difficult to get a decent cup of coffee here. We were given a grade A bean to chew on as well as a Grade C...you certainly tell the difference! We were also given cacao beans...how something so repugnant can become something so magical as chocolate, I don't know.

The grave on the left is the old president...

After our little coffee break we went on to the Central Cemetery of Bogota. This is a massive cemetery where 17 former presidents are buried along with various other notable persons such as famous scientists, poets and writers and the German migrant who brought beer to the shores of Colombia. The story goes that if you whisper your wishes into his ear (ok, the ear of his statue) he will grant them for you. There are also regular people who, for some reason, have become "sainted" by the people. These tombs are visited and prayed to by people who are hoping for miracles. There was one near the entrance that was quite impressive and BIG! People had placed flowers and other small gifts in order to prove their worthiness (I guess). Right next to this tomb was a small grassy grave...of a former president. The difference was quite striking.

We went on to see some other sites (don't want to give it all away in case you go), but the skies were threatening - we had all seen what the afternoon storms were like and we did not want to get caught out. We made it back just in time.