Street Scenes

Up at a reasonable time, spliff up, then Nick &; his Colombian
girlfriend, Angela came round. After half an hour of niceties we all
jumped into a cab to La Candelaria. On the way, Nick told us a story of
a friend who hired a cab from the street - whilst sitting in the back,
the back seat got kicked in from the boot &; some gun wielding
scoundrel climbed next to him &; threatened him with death until he
emptied his pockets.

What a lovely area La Candelaria is. Based in Central Bogota. Some
famous Church whose name escapes me at the moment sits on a mountain
that overlooks the streets of pastel coloured colonial houses - this
area dates from the time the Spanish Conquistadors ransacked the area
&; earlier. The Church has a cable car leading upto it. You are
strongly advised in all tourist guides to use this at all times,
barring the Sunday pilgrimage, as you are guaranteed to get mugged or
worse if attempting to get there by any other means. We visited another
one of Keels's mates called Laurie, round his pad.

Probably one of the most intriguing, yet beautiful pads I've ever been
in. After five minutes of knocking, we were finally greeted by a red
eyed 40 year old grinning from a window. He opened the door to a plume
of hash tinged smoke. On entry, we were confronted with an almost
Medieval like, old, bare, black fire place &; large metal pans,
which was the kitchen. Creeped up some fragile, rickety stairs to a
bedroom balcony, whose windows were surrounded by extremely intricately
designed wooden panels. Further up the stairs we were in the front room
that had an adjourning balcony with superb views that overlooked the
whole of Bogota &; the mountains. Ate shit loads of pastries from
some French bakery. Lovely, melt in the mouth type dream affair.

We then ambled the streets until we reached Bolivar Square, where I
witnessed my first llama. What a lovely soft coat it had &; massive
blue eyes. It noticed my Messiah like qualities &; thoroughly
enjoyed my stroking action.

Whilst walking past street vendors, selling their worldly goods, we
noticed loads, hurriedly packing their gear together. Word was on the
street, that the pigs were nearing. A military van pulled up five
minutes later, full of teenage squaddies &; a cart full of fruit.
The unfortunates who hadn't packed their goods &; scurried away,
were basically looted by these young hoodlums. The laughing, smiling
&; Kalishnikov swinging teens grabbed stacks of magazines &;
general paraphernalia &; threw it into the back of the truck. The
locals started whistling, shouting 'THIEVES' &; throwing various
missiles at the van. The atmosphere was very alike it was after a
police van ran over a protester at the June'99 Stop the Debt/Reclaim
the Streets march in London. Tense &; pretty frightening. A quick
smile &; wave from the army boys, back in the van &; they sped
off. A few seconds later, there was a massive bang, a window smashed
&; loads of confusion. I think that was gunfire.

We edged our way to a flea market five minutes further along the road.
Wicked - the ceramics are wonderful &; so, so cheap. Strange thing
though, was the large number of penis moulds dotted around the place. I
bought about fifteen small, non-phallic stand alone ornaments &;
Keels bought a film called '13 Warriors'. Had a big old greasy spoon in
a medieval looking eatery - chorizos, some black pudding type thang,
steak &; more meat. Everyone felt ill immediately afterwards &;
decided to go our separate ways &; mosey on home.

Back to the pad after a milkshake, to watch '13 Warriors' - spliff,
Ruffles, chocolate, banana leaf rice thangs, Bacardi, coffee &;
fruit. Utter pigs. Porker Keels don't half know how to eat. Crashed out
early, as we had our flight to Leticia in the Amazon tomorrow. Up at
4.30 Keels said, so as he can iron his clothes for our Amazonian
experience? This comment, apart from making me laugh &; call him a
fool, made me realise I still haven't anything I need to tackle the
wilds of the jungle.