Chubby

My first day in Bogota I wandered around the city streets as I always do visiting a new city. In the Candelaria district where I'm stayiny the old stone streets are littered with cigarrete butts, shards of glass, and the stale smell of alcohol and piss saturated deep in the stones each night. It is the old part of the city full of colorful colonial buildings, hole in the wall cafes, barred windows and ornate wooden doors. Gharish and beautiful graffiti leaps out from abandoned surfaces pierced with all number of dog eared flyers.

Candelaria is Bohemian in the truest sense. Black leather clad punks, chic urban hipsters, dread locked street gympsies, and innumerable students from the many local universities. I like the vibe here. The old colonial streets, colorful street art, and eccentric energy of all the characters remind me a little of the old town in Havana.

I was on a mission to meet a friend of a friend all morning. Before I left Ecaudor Ana Luisa put me in touch with Bibiana and we arranged to meet on the steps of the Universidad Autonoma Colombia through a garbled phone call earlier. I waited on the steps but never found her and so I wandered into the huge library and perused around an awesome exhibit of "Colombia en Caricatura", a collection of news and media from the earliest days of the country to the present. A caricature of Colombia and its people from the Spanish conquest through the Monroe doctrine, Cocaine warlords to the FARC. It was all really cool and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Later I finally met Bibiana, as well as her friend Lina. They are both young and cute, friendly and curious about me. They guided me through the streets to a resturant where we chatted before Bibiana had to run leaving me in the hands of Lina, who walked me through the huge Plaza Bolivar filled with passerby and pigeons. Wandering under the eaves of ornate old buildings we later came to the Museo Botero, a place I've been wanting to visit here. If you don't know who Botero is already you should find out now. Colombia's most famous artist and patron saint of all things chubby. His style is unforgettable and unmistakable. Here's a few links to get you started....

Take a look....