BLOG: Everyday Family: Day 2. Exploring Bogota by bike

One day in Bogota was best spent touring the city by bike! And surprisingly, I set this up, not the cyclist in the family. And, how could you argue it? For $12 US, you get a bike, a guide and a 4 hour ride through ALL different parts of Bogota. The bike tour leaves from the historic district, La Candelaria. And, while the white knuckle taxi ride there should prepare you for the biking portion, it really doesn't because, "no way would anyone ever ride a bike in the mess." Except you do. The eb and flow of bikes, motorcycles, taxis, buses, construction trucks, honking and stop and go just happens. Thank God we didn't die. The bike tour covered much of Colombia's tumultuous past--FARCA, drug trade, politics and how it has effected the Colombian people. We visited historic squares and monuments. Throughout the tour the leader voiced "women in the front, men in the back" multiple times. He even stopped to ask the women to remove any visible jewelry and to keep any bags tucked in. To distract us from thoughts of being mugged, we stopped at the Cevicheria smoothie stand. And, what else were we going to try other than the All Natural VIAGRA smoothie? I watched as the smoothie was prepared...a little liquid, a little ice, a few LIVE, WHOLE, CRABS. Yes, you read that right. Just the thought of sucking down ground up live crabs made my throat tighten. But, yes, I did try it. When in Colombia...

Other stops included the biggest fruit market in Bogota. Perhaps it was the before mentioned smoothie, but the more fruit the ate, the less I enjoyed it. Weird textures, sour slimy globs. Its amazing how our palette is created by the foods we grow up eating. After the fruit market, we made our way to Cafe de la Fonda-a coffee roaster in Bogota. We again learned the history of coffee and how the government controls the coffee trade. Sad to think that the Colombians don't even get to enjoy their wonderful beans as the best our all sent out for trade. We finished the ride by journeying through the red light district of Bogota. No pictures of that, as the last time someone attempted a photo, they had rocks and bottles thrown at them. While prostitution is legal in Colombia, nothing is sadder than seeing nude women walking around with young children and babies playing right beside them. Just not a way of life I can understand. On the way out of the district, with our bike group all strung out, a car with a couple of men pulled up to me and started calling out their window. I immediately put the brakes on and let them pass by...wasn't quite up to attempting to speak in Spanish, and thought it was better to not even understand what they might be saying. At this point, we had another flight to catch to get to the mountains of Colombia. So we bid our bike tour goodbye and headed back to the airport we had just left the night before.