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.