bogota stats

bogota turns out to be a fairly nice city--easily the nicest large latin american city i've ever visited. less crowded, less grungy, less menacing (although one beggar called me a "white donkey" in english and made threatening gestures) than the central american capitals. parts of the city have real character. i'm staying in the young, bohemian, hipster/rocker part of the city. the young guys all have hair like mine, so i almost fit in. i saw many of them last night as i went from pub to pub. i didn't travel across town to the salsa clubs, which is apparently the thing to do. i got stuck with the lazy/cheap crowd. another surprising thing is that nobody smokes. the grungiest bars have "no smoking" signs, not because they have to, but because their patrons prefer it.

google tells me the elevation here is 8357 feet, which is pretty crazy, though i feel no strain from it. flying in i could see snow-capped peaks jutting up through the clouds, which is pretty impressive for an equatorial region. still, the days here are nice (mid-70s)--only the nights are cold. 3 shirts and a fleece seem to do the trick though, just barely. i suppose this must be as cold as it gets, since the buildings don't have heat.

this doesn't feel much like the third world. if not for all the street hawkers, i might think i was in spain. i hop from museum to museum, feigning interest in fine art like i haven't done since europe. the bogotans i've run into are very middle class, though i have yet to visit the slums.