Bogota, Colombia has been our most recent stay. We're moving north ...
Trying to stay on schedule to get back to Oregon by March 22 or so. It's been a challenge, but we are making progress!
Currency exchange is part of the game when you travel.
One of the more confusing and challenging aspects of this trip through South America has been the different currencies. So far we've had to get used to the following currencies (with more to come):
Chilean Pesos = 675 to Dollar
Argentine Pesos = 16 to Dollar
Peruvian Soles = 3.25 to Dollar
Ecuador Dollars = $1 is a Dollar
Colombian Pesos = 2,800 to Dollar
You may have noticed that Ecuador uses the Dollar, as in US Dollar bills, like greenbacks. They even give you change in quarters, nickels and dimes.
That was a much easier adjustment than Colombia, where a bowl of soup can cost you $23,800 - which is even more confusing because they use the dollar sign "$" to mark their currency. All the Latin American countries use that symbol for their currency.
We've had to be pretty clever to adapt to the different exchange rates, especially in relation to things like buying gas or diesel for the rigs we are driving. For example, most Latin American countries use metric liters for measuring gas, but some like Peru and Ecuador, use gallons.
So you get sticker shock when you try to convert liters (in Chilean Pesos), into gallons (in US Dollars). It gets real tricky.
And food is crazy too. You are never quite sure what a bottle of water costs (unless you are in Ecuador, where you pay in Dollars). And getting the correct exchange rate is always a game, with foreign exchange agents always trying to get one over on you.
Just arrived in Cartagena, Colombia
We have really enjoyed our time in Colombia. This place is great, and seems very peaceful and quite prosperous, at least in Bogota (pronounced Boh-guh-TAH). This is a modern country with handsome people wearing stylish clothes.
The weather is great and the food is good. They have a sense of style and a spirit of enthusiasm, and - surprisingly in South America - they are courteous drivers!
Speaking of driving, I wanted to give an update on some recent news here. A bus in Argentina recently crashed on a dangerous mountain road in the Andes - the kind we were driving on for six weeks!
It was real close to where we recently crossed the mountains between Chile and Mendoza, Argentina. A bus lost control and plunged off a cliff and 19 people died! Yikes, this hits home! A reality of driving in South America is that the roads can be treacherous and lethal.
Peru, in particular, has a dreadful history of fatalities on the roads. I'm glad we're done with that part of the trip.
Visiting Bogota, a very scenic city.
After visiting the Montserrate (below), a mountain church that soars above the city, we went to visit what Fiona and I thought was a drug lord's house. I thought our driver said it was Pablo Escobar's house.
What are we doing visiting a drug lords' house, especially in the middle of the city? Only we were mistaken! Oops! It was the home of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of much of this region of South America!
Ha! Ha! You better get your history straight or who knows what you'll find yourself involved in ...
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Another pleasant surprise - Awesome Food Carts! Bogota is getting hip, they had some super cool food carts, just like Portland, and the food was delicious!
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When most people think of Colombia several things come to mind. I won't list them but most of them are - shall we say - not good.
But we have seen no evidence of that (well, actually, a bomb did go off in Bogota when we were there). In fact we have enjoyed our time here, especially in Bogota and now Cartagena.
The country seems to be progressive, modern, organized (in a Latin America sort of way), and relatively affluent. It's clean and colorful. There is a lot to see and do. It's pretty lively. And, as you can see, the mountains tower over everything.
One of the more enjoyable visits was to the top of Montserrate in the hills above Bogota.
The view if the city was fantastic and the weather was perfect. And to get there you ride up in a vertical train called a funicular (remember this from Valparaiso, Chile) and to come down - you go in a cable car - great fun!
The views at the top were stunning. Bogota is a huge city, with more than ten million people. Another one of those mega-cities. You could see most of it from the mountain vantage point.
We also visited what they call the Gold Museum.
It's filled with countless, precious, and priceless artifacts. Hard to comprehend, seeing that much gold in one place, most of it ancient from pre-Inca days. The country is (was?) full of gold, so much that in the old days they used it like we might use steel or tin or aluminum.
The picture at the top of the blog is a solid gold mask used by the ancients. And the picture below is a large (symbolic?) image of a jaguar. Again, solid gold.
Now in Cartagena (prounced Car-Ta-HEY-Nah); we have reached the northern tip of South America. In fact, we are currently on the Caribbean Ocean, no longer on the Pacific side, where we've been the last two months.
Another big change, we're at sea level! We're two blocks from the ocean. This is a big change from the massive Andes Mountain range - where we were at (or above) ten thousand feet for pretty much the last three-and-a-half weeks.
One last souvenir of Bogota: I desperately needed - and finally got - a haircut. You may have seen the picture. Always a risky proposition in a foreign country. It was not my idea of style ... although, what is my idea of style?
Another Point of View
This picture was taken from our hotel in Bogota. Frankly, looking down this flight of stairs made me kind of dizzy. But it made for a cool picture.
And of course, the obligatory sunset - this time over Bogota. This being a big city, the view was somewhat obstructed by a building.
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