Tag Archives: Bogotá Life
An insider’s guide to Bogota’s beasty market
Located at the Southern end of Bogota, Paloquemao is THE one stop ‘superstore’ for small restaurant owners’ weekly visits and individuals’ monthly shopping. It’s a huge and hustling market that’s as big as a football stadium offering literally EVERYTHING: meat, veggies, diary etc. Bogotanos have a love and hate relationship with Paloquemao. Driven by a class-conscious psyche, the citydwellers’ choice of restaurants, grocers and […]
I got my share eventually..
Perhaps it was bad luck; or perhaps it’s just the standard experience that everyone has to have in Bogotá. Yes, I got mugged, after 8 months of immunity. It’s a testimony to all those who have criticised me for being ‘uptight, exaggerating, scaremongering’ whatever name you want to brand it. Well, you can never be […]
Colombian Protectionism
A Juan Valdez When you have ice-cream, of course you also get coffee. It’s one of the two things that are most commonly available here (I am sorry, but it’s predictable, isn’t it?). Entry barrier in this country tends to be high. So, like the ice-cream retail industry, the coffee sector also suffers from a similar destiny. […]
Bogotá’s new year
It’s quiet! That’s one thing for sure! The city has become so breathtakingly surrealist! There is hardly anyone or any car on the streets! A 6-lane highway has perhaps 10 cars running at a time. I couldn’t stop wondering where all the people had fled! It’s incredible! On the first day of the year, all […]
Colombian Routines
Your life is governed by pico y placa.. Because of real bad traffic jams the government has an initiative to control the number of cars on the road. Cars with number plates that end with odd numbers are not allowed to drive on the odd number dates, and the same for the even number plates […]
The City of Absence
A typical 6-lane (or a 2-lane?) highway Some things are deemed to be fundamental to a city so that it would run smoothly. As city dwellers, we take things for granted. What you think should exist don’t always exist. You only realize the quiet, minute existence of such elements of the cityscape when they are missing […]
Colombian Driving style
If you asked me if it was difficult to get a licence in this country, I would say no, because there seems to be no decorum on the road! People are permanently driving on top of two lanes at any time.. Maybe that’s why some roads have unmarked traffic lanes because even if the roads […]
Bogotá Living Conditions
So, we have finally found a place to live!! (Still temporary, but no longer at the parents.) Now I find myself at odds with the Northern part of the city, in Parque 93, where there are more SUVs than motorcycles, more Louis Vuittons than Zaras, and more bars and clubs than I can possibly hope […]
Colombiano Fools’ball
The sight of ecstatic fans after their team has won, taken outside the window of my flat. Deafening honks lasted for 4 hours, between 8pm – 12am.. My ardent readers would recall that this is my second post on football. The sad reality is that Colombian life is dictated by complicated transport arrangement and football schedules. Sunday was […]
Colombian Infrastructure
As you previously read in my other post, you’d know that Colombian roads’ quality isn’t that good. Apart from poor quality, you also have a very low quantity. Colombia’s network of roads is not something that people boast about actually. It can be hard to imagine how big Colombia is, so there we go – […]
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