If you are nostalgic for Tower Records, there are a few branches left in Bogota...
Unlike Mexico City and Rio, most of the shops don’t have private security guards or much in the way of security systems. Bars on home windows are unusual. I haven’t heard many sirens. Solo women walk around many parts of town. Fear of civil war, kidnapping, and paramilitary guerrillas is no reason to postpone a trip. From a tourist’s point of view, Bogota is more secure than most other Latin American cities.
There is less glamour here than I expected, and most of the city is solidly working class, lower middle class. People are well dressed but in a relatively formal way; there is little sartorial individuality or flair. Dark clothes, especially black, are the default style, but not in a Will Wilkinson cool hipster sort of way. Rather the message is "it rains here a lot and it is cool and foggy and we have endured centuries of violence, so why wear floral pink?" The bowler hat, however, is now passe.
Bookstores and libraries are everywhere, and it is common to see people reading or carrying books. The shops display their serious books, not the junk. The museums are the best in South America, for both content and presentation.
Bicycling is a big deal, and the bus system is well-developed to an extreme. The water is potable. The green hills around the city are attractive, the colonial part of town has wonderful colors and houses, and the modern architecture is getting better.
Colombianos are remarkably gracious and friendly. There is nothing like isolation to make people love foreigners. Does having a bad international reputation make people nicer to compensate?
You have to utter "good day" to the guard each time you enter a new room in a museum. People open doors for each other. No one is loud. It all feels vaguely right-wing.
The local soup mixes shredded chicken, avocado, potato, corn, capers, cream, and herbs for a tasty blend. So far the food doesn’t thrill me; too many restaurants remain in the meat and potatoes stage; being in the Andes has never been good for any cuisine, except of course for their hearty soups.
The people look surprisingly homogeneous; I expected more Caribbean types and indigenous. That said, the Turks run the textile trade and there are plenty of Chinese (so-called) restaurants. Indian features are common, but blended into a broadly Spanish mix. No one is very tall.
How can such a nice place be in the midst of a civil war and guerrilla uprising? Why do leaders in the highest reaches of government secretly work with the paramilitaries? Does every radio station in the country play Juanes, and how long will their Tower branches last?
Here is a good reading list on politics and institutions, but do any of these pieces explain what I am seeing?
i agree with your comments, having travelled to bogota 3 times there are some striking things that stick out. the “height” thing most certainly, i found that people often thought of me as “tall” even though in n/america I’m seen as typical. As well, the formality of daily life. the dark clothiing and greeting people all the time is very different.
it’s pleasant to see that someone else has noticed the same thing. what i recall most from my last trip though was that no matter the class, everyone had laundry visible from street level. (rich, poor or other)
Tyler, this might help. Bogota is at 8,000 feet. From Paul Theroux’s Latin American travel book “The Old Patagonian Express:”
“‘You must not judge people by their country,” a lady advised me [in Ecuador]. ‘In South America, it is always wise to judge people by their altitude.’
“She was from Bolivia herself. She explained that there were fewer national characteristics than high-level characteristics. The mountain people who lived on the heights of the Andes were formal and unapproachable; the valley people were much more hospitable, and the sea-level folk were the sweetest of all, though rather idle and lazy. Someone who lived at an altitude of about four thousand feet was just about ideal, a real good scout, whether he lived in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia or wherever.”
Not surprisingly, 4,000 feet was her home altitude.
Of course, what she’s describing are racial/cultural differences that are sorted out by altitude. As Tyler notes, the people of Bogota are mostly mestizos (white-Indian mixtures) with few “Caribbean types” (i.e., blacks or mulattoes).
The barrel-chested Andean Indians can survive better above about 10,000 feet (pure whites have too many miscarriages to consistently propagate themselves when the air gets extremely thin), and on the tropical sea coasts, Africans are better adapted to the heat and diseases (although Lima, with its moderate climate, is an exception).
Charles Darwin, who visited South America on the Beagle, wrote in The Descent of Man:
“Everyone who has had the opportunity of comparison must have been struck by the contrast between the taciturn, even morose aborigines of South America and the light-hearted, talkative negroes.”
So, Bogota’s mestizo population is skewed somewhat toward the taciturn and morose, what Botero called “Andean sadness.”
A shallow question, but would you please comment on the beauty of the women?
If you are in Colombia you MUST go to Cartagena, there you will find the real charm of a caribbean city; music, food and lots of history embedded in its Walls,Castles,etc., . Imagine old San Juan just 5 times bigger.
Lots of beatiful MULATAS too.And last but not least, some interesting material for Public choice applications.
In response to the message Posted by: Steve Sailer on Jan 14, 2007 5:54:13 PM [ So, Bogota's mestizo population is skewed somewhat toward the taciturn and morose, what Botero called "Andean sadness." ] I would like to emphasize that Bogotá is the Capitol of Colombia , and what I can consider a city , the number of people with a University degree in Bogotá is percentage wise way higher than any other location in Colombia , in other places like Cartagena people live from the tourist, so you can expect nicer people towards the tourists , in Bogotá everybody is trying to make a living , trying to make their dream come true , working really hard , Bogotá is a mix of people from other locations which melts in the same journey to make that dream a reality , the interesting part is that people from other locations in Colombia learn to care about Bogotá , to the point they decide to stay there , and start talking in a good way about Bogotá. But getting back to my response to the taciturn and morose , I will say any real city will have some people that skew somewhat toward the taciturn and morose, But once you get to know them , they will be as warm as the people in the Caribbean
I´m from Bogota and living now at Santiago, and with confidence, can say Bogota is much more cool, people is nice, food is much better.. no point to compare beauty of womens, colombian girls rules. And besides, Santiago is not prosperous any more… everything is so expensive, most of food and everthing else is imported. About security is the same I´ve been hijacked 2 times here, and as anywhere else, there are good and bad neighborhoods. So soon I´ll be back to my nice lands.
Bogota is an amazing place to visit. What do you expect to find here? War? everybody inside their houses if they have one? jungle? those thoughts are from ignorant people.
If you come here and you get bored is becouse you didn´t found the right people to show you the real Bogota. The new part, the nice part, the 5 stars hotels are practically the same all over the world, but if you find someone that knows the real Bogota, then you can learn a little bit more of Bogota, you can understand why the Theater Festival is here and no in Germany, the Book Fair, or Rock al Parque, why the houses of the Candelaria (down town, old houses with ghosts histories, etc) are so interesting, that people is not so homogeneous, on the contrary, this city is known for having all kinds of people, carreers, discos, pubs, parks, different styles on clothes and fashion, people thinking different… Bogota is unique, you can find all sort of contrasts here, you can go out and dance reggae and in the next local you can find a metal concert… if you ever come to bogota take the time to real know it, to really know the people, dont expect to embrace the real escense of Bogota if dont stay long enough…
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