Bogota Day 2 - 12.11

Day 2 - we got up the nerve to walk to the office on our own (only three blocks away).

Wanted to stop in the cafes to drink the coffee and eat the food we saw locals eating. Men buying coffee from women with street carts..........full of candy and juice. A big mountain loomed over the office buildings. I couldn't breath....I didn't know if I was imagining it or if the thin air was getting to me. I felt dizzy.

There was a big peace protest scheduled for lunchtime. Bogota residents were protesting against the Guerrilla's (FARC) who still had kidnappers hostage. How exciting. I wanted to be a part of the process and our colleagues told us they would be going down to support the demonstrators. How exciting! but I couldn't help think of the 3 college students swept up in the Egyptian protests in Cairo. Would we be caught up in that? No--our meetings ran late, so we missed most of the action. We walked to a burger joint in the Rosales area and again I couldn't breath. The dark clouds and gloomy grey cumulus nimbus (I think) clouds hung right above our heads. It was pouring when we left the Burger joint but everyone carries umbrella's (lucky for us).

We had great meetings and then went back to the same neighborhood (Rosales) for an Italian meal. Too much traffic to go to the typical Colombia restaurant. Oh well. A great evening getting to know my colleagues.