Colombia second trip report

February 11, 2019

One of the biggest challenges here is to calculate money.  All the denominations are in the millions, which translate to thousands in English.  I have resorted to making notes in their most commonly used currency denominations.  Basically, one million equals 32 U.S. Cents.  For example, I have many paper money denominations that are 50 million, which calculates to $16.46 U. S., and 10 million, which is $3.20 U.S.  I have this information written down in my note pad to help when evaluating purchases. 

Today we had more interesting touring with our Guide Julio Rivera.  He takes a lot of time to explain our surroundings, history of Colombia.  I learned today we have 16 people in our group.  Though it a large group, we seem to be able to work together and see and hear what is going on. 

First off this morning we took a bus to the Paloquemao market.  I have been to a lot of markets around the world and I think this was the nicest one.  The flowers are fantastic.  I took a lot of pictures.  There are 20 flights a day to Miami transporting these beautiful flowers there.  78% of their flowers go to the U.S.A.  They send flowers to many other countries.  200,000 employees are involved in this flower business.   There are 46 million people in Colombia and 40 percent live in the Bogota area.  27% of the jobs are in the Bogota area.  There are 100 universities in Bogota. 

The market had great displays of vegetables and fruits of many different types. We sampled some as we walked through market.  We received detailed explanations of the items we saw. 

We then drove to the Monserrate View point which 10,400 feet high.  We took a cable car to reach the top and still walked many steps up hill.  I felt and was happy that I did not experience palpitations.  My Nitro pills were at the ready.  It was a fantastic view of Bogota.  Please look at the pictures.  They had a nice clean rest room which important to us travelers. 

We then drove to the exhibition of Fernando Botero, which is a famous Colombian painter, sculptor.   I took some pictures.  On my previous trip here I took too many pictures of his paintings and looking at those large pictures made me feel bad so eventually, they went for a trip away from me.   Botero is still alive and makes a lot of money from is artwork.  Per the guide, he is not a big person.  There is actually a rock band that is called “We Hate Botero”. 

We then drove around Bogota in the bus and saw many communities. We spent a substantial amount of time in the rich areas of the town and there are many very nice expensive places to live here.  The poorer Colombians live in the Southern part of the city.  I see security person everywhere.  Many are armed with firearms.   I was glad to eat an evening meal and not walk any more.  I went to two banks and none would give me a VISA advance or cash my U.S. currency.  I will end up going to one of those money exchange places which last time charged me 9% for the service.  I do not like that.