!Comamos!

You are sitting down for a great hamburger. Around you there is a flat screen HD TV chrome chairs and floor, a trendy upscale fast-food restaurant. You sip you great coffee- flavored milk shake, a friend is drinking freshly-made mango juice. Suddenly, an aroma wafts through mmmm… that’s the reason people really come here because it smells so good. You know this scent; what, what is it? Ah yes!

Yes the smell of gasoline. Mmmmm. Nothing like that to give you an appetite. Yes you are eating in a gas station. Was this the last resort? Was everything closed? Are there no restaurants for miles?

Look around, a boogie couple eating pizza with their daughter. You are surrounded by yupisitos in suits that are flirting with their girlfriends. Do people go here on dates? It seems possible. About three years ago eating and drinking in gas stations became popular. Trendy kids drank beer in the gas stations until they had to outlaw the consumption of alcohol in gas stations. Why? How did the food stop of white trash become the trendy eatery for upper middle class Colombians? How long have I been gone that I can’t even begin to comprehend how this happened… It’s depressing enough that McDonalds have long been the restaurants of the rich and middle class in third world countries; but this?

Por que se come en gasolinerias? Sera el olor delicioso? La comida tan fina? Cual es la atraccion? Lo que en los Estados Unidos se intenta evitar a todo costo aqui es muy fino. Comiendo en la bomba todos vestidos de corbata... Por que?

my nemisis.

electricshower
Originally uploaded by alexandris.

My nemisis is the electric shower. I think I am pretty relaxed traveler. Ive stayed fairly happily in some pretty awful hotels... I'll try not to dwell on the windowless musty smoky crumb --and therefore ant--ridden over-priced room in Mendoza...But the one thing I hate is a cold shower, especially in Bogota which is a fairly chilly city. So why is it that everytime I come to Bogota I get saddled with a strange shower. My least favorite is this one. First of all electricity heats the water right before it hits you. Yes, exactly electricity +water+ old machine= really really safe. I cringe everytime I have to use one fo these which is luckily not that often. But this one has two additional faults: 1. unless the water is a little drip its cold--sure not freezing I just came from a glacier cold but cold none-the-less. The second little flaw, Maria saw sparks flying from it. She told me this right before she expalined how this was the most efficient way to heat water.

Well since the sparks, we have been bathing the old fashioned way which means stealing showers from other places if we are lucky or using a big bucket of water. Pesonally I have only had to do the bucket thing one time it should be two but I have decided I am just not showering. Previously, I managed by showering at my father's place great water pressure no crazy electronic heater and nice big marble shower, or by using a shower no one uses at the gym(there is only one). To give an indication of how desperate that makes me let me mention my father lives 45 minutes from here (during rush hour) and that the shower in the gym was in the only working woman's bathroom at the gym. There is one toilet, one shower in the bathroom, so I kept all the women in the gym without a toilet for about 7 minutes while I showered and got dressed. Not very nice I admit it.

6-6-6

6-6-6
Originally uploaded by alexandris.

I would have never noticed the 6-6-6 if it were not for the campaign. I couldn't believe how many people we encountered that were worried we were traveling on this date. It was a bit unreal. The flight was empty and I think it might have been because of this. Has everyone gone mad?

Sera que la gente realmente cree en esto? Nuestro vuelo a Bogota estaba vacio y las asafatas estaban molestas porque Hugo se reia de la fecha.. a estamos llegando?