It looks like winter has officially started in Bogota – the days are getting colder and rainier, but at least this only lasts a couple of months! I think October and November are the most depressing months in Bogota because the sun rarely comes out.

Luckily it was really nice weather when Stephen (previously referred to as Henry Waxman) was here. Bogota was unusually sunny and warm and it didn’t rain anywhere we went. Usually I’m just kind of here, but since I was a guide of sorts this time around, I realized how incredibly huge Bogota is. It goes on and on and on and there are hundreds of neighborhoods, many of them with their own unique character and feel. I think that I’d like to live in La Soledad or in La Macarena or another slightly bohemian/young people neighborhood.

We went to Villa de Leyva with Stephen, where I rode a horse for the first time. After the initial shock of being so high up, I actually really enjoyed it and will definitely be doing it again. I am now an expert horsewoman who should be competing in international equestrian competitions. I will soon post the very unflattering pictures of myself horseback riding. Villa de Leyva itself is really beautiful and quaint but the countryside is eerily barren and dry. I don’t know how much of this is due to deforestation or nature, but it seems in stark contrast to the rest of the country which is almost overly green and fertile.

From Villa de Leyva, we went to El Lago de Tota which was stunningly beautiful, surrounded by high mountains and little mountain villages. But there are a few problems with this area. 1.) If you don’t have a car, it’s hard to get around as everything closes around 7pm; 2.) The air has a permanent onion smell, as do the locals, because onion is the main agricultural product here; 3.) Aside from looking at the lake, there’s not much else to do. No water sports offered, too cold for swimming, et cetera; and 4.) Stephen had a near lung collapse when carrying my bag up hill. Even though I had excessive, unnecessary amounts of clothes with me, it was an altitude related near lung collapse. I wasn’t doing very well either and was very happy when a family offered us a ride down to the town.

Next we went to Villavicencio for the 13th Annual Cowboy Festival. The festival consisted of two men on horseback bringing an angry bull down by the tail. You watched from stands, and there were handicraft vendors, food vendors and chusitos selling beer and Llanero staples around the stands. Stephen was famous in Villavicencio. It was like Tati in China. I think no one in the town had every seen someone so white and tattooed, so everyone stared shamelessly. I didn’t mind. It was like I was walking around with a movie star.

Villavicencio has a very small town feel to it. It’s rougher, hotter and simpler than Bogota. Kind of like a more hardcore version of Medellin -- well, more hardcore than current Medellin, not more hardcore than Medellin in the '80s and '90s. No high culture or sophistication there, but it does have its charms. There’s this street called La 7 de Agosto, and it’s where all the bars and clubs are located, so it’s nice to have a central party street, although there was a lot of cocain use going on, but more than I've ever seen in Bogota or even Medellin. All these 16 and 17 year-olds would leave the clubs big-eyed and faraway, and fights were constantly breaking out.

The countryside around the town was really beautiful though, as was the drive down from Bogota. At the very end of Bogota, where the grittiest, saddest slums are, you go through this tunnel and at the end of the tunnel, you’re greeted by a completely different climate and view. It’s sunny and green with lush mountains, flowers. Colombia is a thousand different countries. Even within Bogota, you can travel through a hundred different economic groups, a hundred diffrerent lifestyle and mentalities. In the U.S., Alabama and New York are pretty much as different as you can get, but you pretty much talk to any American and can recognize them as American. Not so much in Colombia.

So now my little vacation is over and it’s time to seriously look for a job and work on my social life in Bogota. Hopefully everything will work out and I’ll be living in Bogota for the next couple of years. The ideal woud be to get enough freelance/editing gigs to live comfortably, though an embassy job wouldn't be bad either.