I spent 4 years at Wake Forest University. They had an exchange program with the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and I got to know several of their exchange students. One of them, Ana Maria, is one of my best friends in the world. Last year, Ana invited me to come to Bogota, and we would pick up some of her classmates go to Cartagena. I had already visited Bogota, Colombia once (a story for another day), so I knew my way around. So in August 2000 I flew back down to Bogota...

I spent the first 3 days in Bogota. Ana taught English at a local community college in Bogota, so she brought me along for the day to be her guinea pig. Not that I let it go to my head or anything :) but it was fun being the center of attention. Later that evening, we went to meet Ana's friends Catalina and Monica Maria at the local shopping mall. We were sitting in a coffee house when I had one of those Twilight Zone moments: Lonestar's "Amazed" started pumping out of the speakers. Not something you expect to hear in a Latin country several thousand miles from home.

The first day, Ana taught at a branch office of the college that was in a shopping mall. The second day, her sister Lorena and she taught at the main campus. The school is nestled on the slopes of Monserrate Mountain, and was insanely beautiful. I did the guinea pig thing again for Ana's class. After they finished teaching, we went back to her house, and I fell asleep.

Bogota is about 2 miles above sea level, so your heart and lungs are beating for all they are worth just walking around. After a couple of hours I recovered, and I went out with Lorena and took a long walk through Bogota. The city has commissioned a lot of statues and art exhibits along the main avenues, and we spent a few hours just looking at them. I got woozy once from the lack of oxygen and almost stumbled into a NASCAR race (or "light traffic", as they call it in Bogota). We went to a restaurant and relaxed as the soccer fans watching the game against Paraguay rioted outside.

As a point of reference, I should describe to you how much Colombians enjoy soccer. Do you remember how hyped up Nashville was when we found out that the Titans were going to the Super Bowl? They are that excited for just the normal games.

My last day in Bogota I spent going to grocery stores and trying to learn more about Colombian culture. As night fell we retreated to the safety of Ana's mother's apartment as the Colombian soccer fans re-enacted the Million Man March outside. Apparently the Colombian soccer team had won their first game in 300 years, or something like that.

I would love to be able to show you pictures of my time in Bogota. Unfortunately the fine people at Eckerds accidentally ran that roll of film through the shredding machine instead of the developing machine, so you're just going to have to take my word on it.

This is a neighborhood in north Bogota somewhere near (I think) UniCentro, the local shopping district. The mountains in the background are quite a bit larger and farther away than they appear. The tops of the mountains are about half a mile above the city (which is itself 1.6 miles above sea level). The air is so thin that climbing a set of stairs will completely wind you, as I found out the hard way on several occassions.

The next day, we met Ana's friends Catlina and Monica Maria, and flew to Cartagena via Santa Marta. Note to all the real estate agents out there: one of these days the land around Santa Marta will sell for like a million dollars per acre. Imagine having a beautiful beach in front of you, and the largest mountain in Colombia just 10 miles away. The mountain is tall *and* wide. It will take you 30 minutes to fly beside the thing in an 737. And it's just *one* mountain, not a chain. It's so big and unexplored that as recently as a few years ago a new Indian tribe was discovered living there.

We only landed at Santa Marta long enough to drop off some passengers, but just the view from the airplane was one of the 10 Most Beautiful Things I've ever laid eyes on. And then we were off to Cartagena...

Here's a picture of me standing beside one of the main gates of the old Spanish fortress in Cartagena. The architecture is the city is really beautiful. The old section is just like a piece out of a European city, with a maze of tiny roads weaving around, lots of shops, and several beautiful courtyards with open-air cafes. My friends and I would go to one of the open-air cafes around 9 pm and be entertained by mimes, musicians, dancers, and jugglers, and we would talk until the wee hours of the morning.

I didn't take this picture, but it shows you where I was standing in the previous picture, and gives a better view of the old city.

Here's some pictures of the cannons at the fort pointed toward the ocean. I took pictures of this, but they turned out too dark, so I'm cheating and putting someone else's picture here.

This is a picture of my friend Ana Maria. Notice the skyline in the background. We were on a boat taking us from Cartagena bay to an island with a beach the locals call Playa Blanca (White Beach). It's about 10 miles away from Cartagena over the ocean. We were traveling in a river boat, so whenever we encountered the slightest bit of chop, the boat would go sailing into the air and slam down hard. It made for an interesting trip.

Here are two of Ana Maria's friends, Catalina [left] and Monica Maria [right]. This was taken on the beach at Playa Blanca on the island of Beru. The sand is as white as sugar, so it sort of drowns out the picture a bit. A beautiful coral reef begins just 10 yards off the shore, so the water is every color from dark blue to light blue to aquamarine. There are coconut trees all over the place (Mary Ann would have loved it there...), so I had fresh coconut milk to drink all day. It was, by leaps and bounds, the most beautiful stretch of beach I've ever seen.

The day after this, I packed up, said my good byes, and flew back home. I already missed the place before I left. It's good to be home. But like Frosty the Snowman, I'll be back again some day...