Rise at 6am and… awake? Nope, back to bed, English lady, “Those fags sure made enough noise this morning,” talked with English guy about Cuba and his travels and England (he spends a few good minutes talking about the cluster fuck of the Olympics), walk to Lupita’s breakfast joint, ate delicious and got a good interview for Jamie’s podcast, cruised by La Plaza de Bolivar and it is beautiful and there are a ton of pigeons hanging out, see the president’s house, tiny streets, buildings and city have vibrant color, took a dump at hostel, health status good.
Hiked to the top of Monserrate, 2600m straight up feel that burn you pussy, drank corn cider beer at the top, Bogota reminds me of Athens and is beautiful, sprawling metropolis of color, hike back down through cool plazas, plazas are awesome, need more plazas back home, see a bunch of stray dogs and graffiti, graffiti is sick (Jamie takes awesome photos).
Coffee at the hostel, Jamie sounds hilarious talking on the phone in Spanish because I only understand half but I can hear the same rhythms and inflections of speech as in English, waiting for Jamie to get ready and his friend “E” keeps calling him a princess, at some point Jamie calls himself “el soro del mar” and we all crack up, Jamie remains one of the funniest people on earth, basement bar for a few rounds with hostel folks and Jamie’s friends turns into six beers and three back-to-back tequila shots, it’s on, street at night in rain packed with young people, vibrant, lovely, have dinner at falafel joint, what is this giant falafel? Seven people for dinner amazing conversations, talking in French with “E”, “M” and “E” (Jamie’s friends) are cool as hell.
End up at other bar for soccer match and beers and am privy to argument between “E” and “M” about Vallenato music, no idea what the fuck they’re talking about, upon leaving the bar a beggar with half an arm a fake leg and “three brothers” asks me for some money and says, “Mi vida es duro,” I tell him I don’t doubt it as he looks like he’s had a rough go of it, but I just spent all the cash on beer homie, try and empathize more, but I’m drunk and broke and it’s raining.
- Bogotá from Monserrate
Feed the good wolf... 