Ciclovia

Chepe is an early riser and, god bless him, he made me get up at 7:30 this morning (after 2 fishbowl mojitos!!!)  to begin our day. Those of you that have traveled with me before know that I can be extremely ambitious in regards to filling travel days with as many site and activities as possible. Besides the early rising thing Chepe and I make excellent travel partners. He has been very thoughtful planning a variety of different activities. Today, Sunday, is Ciclovia and it's a wonderful concept. Every Sunday and holiday the city closes some 70 miles of roads between 6am-2pm to be open only to bikes! It literally turns Bogota into an enormous paved park, drawing about 1.5 million ppl out to ride bikes, jog and rollerblade.

Chepe and I rode bikes first to a grocery store where Chepe made enormous fruit salads for us. The Colombians are big on fruit, especially fruit juices which are prepared on the thicker side like a smoothie. So far I've tried passion fruit and mango....YUM. For breakfast along our bike ride this morning was an exotic fruit salad with creme and cheese. There was definitely some fruit in there that I've never even seen before!

Next we hopped back on the bikes and road into another neighborhood were we stopped for some coffee at an outdoor cafe next to a park. For the first time since I've been in Bogota I noticed several expatriates. So far it hasn't felt like there are any tourists here! According to Chepe Americans are the largest group of expatriates in Bogota. It's no wonder that I would finally see some foreigners at Ciclovia. It's a brilliant concept that I think would be extremely popular in any major US city. In addition to the bikers and joggers the park is filled with Bogotanos and their dogs, people doing yoga, martial arts, stretching, etc.

During our coffee break my tire popped so we enlisted the service of one of several bike technicians on the side of the road. Chepe remarked that one nice aspect of living in a developing country is that you have people that will provide cheap services like this for you. Did I mention you also get your gas pumped for you at the gas station? There is a bulk of the population will to provide services like this to the 10% of the country that are affluent enough to afford them.

Tired repaired we completed a full loop around the city. It was a perfect way to see a lot of what I've missed traveling around in a car. One HUGE oversight- the strength of the sun. Even with face sunscreen and a hat both my face, chest and arms were sunburned at the end of our 4 hr bike excursion. The weather is such a pleasant 68-70 degrees you forget that you are just below the equator and the sun is serious.