Things I'm going to miss about Colombia #1

After getting off to a strong start almost four years ago, this blog has been woefully neglected in recent times.  Save for a trip to Cuba and a tear gas incident at the Universidad Nacional, life in Bogotá became just that: life.  It was good, though not necessarily remarkable or anything that felt blog-worthy.  But now this gringa en Colombia is bringing her time here to a close, and I am feeling a need to savor and document my last few months.

On Facebook I have a photo album entitled “Things I’m going to miss about Colombia,” and it brings me a little joy every time I add to it.  So I think that this space needs to be where I record things I’m going to miss for which there is no accompanying visual.  Expect frequent updates.

 

Here begins the list (in no particular order).

1.       The public buses.  This may seem an unexpected listing because, really, these vehicles of questionable origin that hurtle down Bogotá’s streets at sometimes terrifying speeds reflect the best and the worst that Colombia has to offer.  I am choosing to focus on the former.  Bogotá bus culture and etiquette are surprising and refreshing in many ways.  I mean, where else do they play salsa music on public transportation to which passengers unabashedly sing along?  And in what other country on the planet do people hover/squat over a recently-occupied seat to let the butt heat dissipate before sitting down?  They even have a saying for that: “Asiento caliente? Ni de pariente.” (Hot seat? Not even of a relative).  And for all the smack that people from other parts of the country talk about “Rolos” (people from Bogotá) and how cold and heartless they are, there is one bus practice that I love and that I don’t think you would ever see in the United States, or many other places for that matter.  When the buses are really packed and so passengers are even boarding through the back door, these people who are barely squeezing on pass their fare forward via other passengers who then pass back any necessary change.  We are talking money changing hands about 50 times here.  In a similar spirit of solidarity, if a standing passenger has a big or heavy bag or package, then a nearby seated passenger will usually offer to hold it on their lap.  Oh, and also the buses get you where you need to go for less than a dollar.