Everyone has an opinion

L and I have had an amazing time sightseeing and meeting new people. Weve visited museums, typical restaurants, and road a tram to the top of Monserrate, a mountain with a church and some restaurants at the top with amazing views of the city (this same set up seems to be in every city in Latin America that I have been to thus far).
For our last night in the city, we went to a restaurant called WOK in parque 93, which had come highly recommended and surpassed expectation. They are environmentally friendly, with notes about how to conserve energy on their placemats and bottled water from Gaviotas, a village in Colombia that has been named a model of sustainable development.
After we had our fill of sushi and stir fry, we hailed a cab (which are plentiful in Bogota) and made our way back to the hostel. When we got in the cab, the driver immediatly began asking us about what we were doing in Colombia and where we were from. L explained a little about the work that she had done in Colombia before meeting up with me in Bogota, organizing a conference to talk about the future of democracy in Colombia with leaders from all over the country. (For those of you who dont know, Colombia is currently going through a civil war, between the government and guerilla groups, primarilly the FARC, who want greater equity amongst the classes in the country.)
Once L explained her work, the cab driver immediatly began a profound speach about his opinion, mostly stating that the FARC was the culprit of all the problems. He told us that he used to work for the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), Colombia's version of the CIA, which according to reports, was corupt during the years ago when he worked there, yet he seemed to skip over that part. He was set in his opinion and hardly let us get a word in as we bounced along the route home.
The drivers speech gave an interesting comparison to Ls friend, from the upper class, who had driven us around the city on our first day and had a more balanced view of the situation. In the end, all three of us left the conversation without a change in opinion, but I gained a new appreciation for the different opinions Colombians have regarding the conflict. It seems to change based on class and where they live (the location part is based more on research Ive done than people we met while traveling). I look forward to meeting people so willing to share their opinion in Quito, although hopefully theyll be interested in what I have to say as well.

Arriving in Bogota

I began my travels early Saturday morning, with a 7 am flight to Bogota Colombia. We had a stop over in Florida, which I thought I could sleep through (since I had hardly slept at all the night before), that is until I was awoken by two very concerned flight attendants trying to wake me up and an empty plane. I was escorted off of the plane-a great way to start my trip.

After arriving in Bogota, still somewhat sleep deprived, I found our room in a quaint little hotel filled with british and Australian accents, where I think the only people who spoke spanish were the owner and other two people working there. I dropped off my bags and explored a little, without getting lost-quite an accomplishment for me.

L, my friend from school who is traveling with me, and I have had an amazing time so far, getting an insiders view of the city with a tour by one of L's colleagues who drove us around the city. We stopped at a market in the center of town where we met a 2010 presidential candidate named Sergio Fajardo, considered to be Colombia's Obama. He walks around the country meeting the people of Colombia-something I dont think you would see today in Washington's politics.  

So far the people have been incredibly friendly, from taxi drivers to people working at the market who helped us find postcards when we didnt like any of the ones they were selling. Two more days and then Im off to Ecuador, an entirely different type of of adventure.