telling it as it is – the blog

That you will agree is one of the most unusual of headings….but I ask the question as Bogata people know more about craters than any other people I have encounted in my lifetime. The craters are also know as potholes and these as you would expect are found in every road in this city of 14 million + set up on a plateau some 2,700 metres above sea level.
They also appear to have come from another plant when it comes to the way they drive ….they invented the 4 cars in three lane driving        (unmarked lanes ) and as I witnessed on Sunday going to church, cars heading straight at you driving over 60 kms an hour again on unmarked roads hoping and praying that the guy coming towards you appreciates both himself and you and will make the right decision. All this comes from the roadway being harved between 7am and 2 to allow the 3 or so (unmarked lanes on the other side of the road to be used by cyclists and walkers/ runners for an enjoyment time. This has been going for some 35 years and appears very successful.
The driving is fast daring and at sometimes breathtakingly dangerous! There are some 300 kms of bicycle ways within Bogata used on Sundays and special holidays…I have no idea of the total roadsystem but is is grossly overused and in huge demand at peak times.
To give you an idea we travelled at 4pm Friday from the Southern area of the project of Compassion ( a future blog) to halfway in the Northern area. All on Main roads / dual carriage ways. It was for most parts on a Transmileano Stretched Rapid Coach that has its own exclusive carriage way.
It took 3 hours . Estimated to have covered 300 street blocks..it was the eqivlient of flying in time from Christchurch to Brisbane or around 2700 kms!
And in the same time we had not even travelled from one side of Bogata to the other.
There were coaches, buses, trucks, cars, motor bikes and
” foxes” carts pulled either by horses or humans.
It is Calaminity. And if you take one of these super fast coaches ( normally ) at peak hours you will see something like 126 humans squeezed in like sardines ( photo will be posted soon) .
We have really enjoyed Bogata this time around . Yes there are lots of security ( for everyones protection ) but it has been friendly with heavily armed security giving the thumbs up sign encouraging motorists to do the same. It is part of the new very much safe and secure that prevails in all areas of Colombia with the exception of the deepest jungle where a very small number of terriorists are being hounded and hunted by Government troops. We have not seen one single incident or accident in asll the time we have been here , which is a huge huge difference to the last visits of 2005 and 2007.
The people are warm and friendly especially if you can speak some spanish and they know a little English

I apoologise for the rush of this E mail due to Internet access difficulity but I will promise to write soon. There is so much to tell

Keep Safe

Lindsay Walker
Bogata Colombia.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 12:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.