Mi Conejito!

Just another pic of my Conejito or "Little Bunny". Coco's ears are so big, when they're both sticking up he looks like a little bunny rabbit, and he likes to hop around, so it's just all too cute!

Bogota Graffiti

Feliz Cumpleaños Colombia!

Today is Colombia's Independence Day and this year is the 200th Anniversary. So it's a really big day here with lots of celebrations going on around the country - including a concert with Juanes tonight in Medellin!

But this morning in Bogota, Uribe and some other government officials opened a 100 year old time capsule that had been filled and locked back in 1910! Included in the vault were -

Lots of pictures - of the governers, plans of Bogota, monuments and other notable areas of the city and a panoramic of Bogota. The lyrics and music from the 'Himno Nacional', and the "Acta de Independencia Nacional", along with 32 other documents.

Happy Birthday Colombia!

Is there something wrong with this picture?

In Bogota, the answer is NO. People "drive" their horse and buggy around all the time.

The government is in the process of outlawing it because of animal cruelty (the horses all look very old - it's really sad :( and because the horses go much slower than cars, obviously, and it REALLY backs up traffic.

Trabalenguas

Here are some spanish tongue-twisters if you need help with pronunciation :)

Tres tristes tigres tomaban
trago en tres tristes tazas.


R con R cigarro
R con R barril
Rapido ruedan los carros en el ferrocarril


El cielo esta encapotado
Quien lo desencapotará?
Quien lo desencapotare
Buen desencapotador será.

Rock al Parque

Rock al Parque has been a Bogota tradition for the past 18 years. It is a FREE 3-day music festival that takes place every year during the 4th of July weekend (which is also a 3-day weekend here).

Saturday is Metal
Sunday is Reggae and Rock and
Monday is Rock

Most of the bands are Colombian, but they do bring in a few international acts like Ky-Mani Marley (the son of Bob), and from the United States MuteMath, Shadows Fall, Biohazard, Stick To Your Guns and A Place To Bury Strangers. I've only heard of Mute Math and sadly, they were not incentive enough to put myself in the center of this...


However, I did get to meet the band 'No Te Va A Gustar' from Uruguay. They were staying at the Hotel Tequendama and Oscar drove them around for a couple of days. Nice guys with a strange but cool Spanish accent.

Chiva Party Bus

This is a picture of a typical Chiva party bus. I often see these buses downtown on the weekends. A group can rent the bus, and basically there are drinks and music and it's a party! The bus just drives around for hours.

I just found an article in the NYTimes about a company that started this in New York. It was from 2008, so I don't know if they're around anymore, but the link is here if you want to read more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/nyregion/02chiva.html

p.s. Considering how car sick I get from regular driving around here, I've decided to pass on the Chiva...