Tourist Attempts in Bogotá

Bland Colombian beer.

Hola from Bogotá, Colombia, where I'm vacationing from my (admittedly vacation-like) life in Ecuador. Since I'm only allowed to spend 2 weeks outside of Ecuador during my entire Fulbright grant period, I came to Colombia hoping to make these 10 days good and touristy.

Turns out I'm a decent [not-quite] anthropologist and a terrible international tourist. I arrived Friday morning without a single map, guide, or idea what there was to do in Bogotá. I didn't even have a fanny pack, and I'm way too cheap/lazy to purchase a lonely planet book.

But I'm duly impressed by Colombian coffee.

I knew that my amigo Sebastián, a sociology student who presented at my table at an academic conference last summer, would be at the airport to pick me up. I knew that Bogotá is really not any more dangerous than Quito, despite the dramatically more violent way that American news portrays Colombia. And, most importantly, I knew I'd wanted to go to Colombia ever since the Study Abroad office at Denison told me I couldn't.

But this is shaping up to be the nerdiest vacation of all time. Sebastián (my unofficial guide) is currently writing a thesis on urban problems/space/class in Bogota. So I not only get to see the absurd traffic problems first-hand, but hear about their 30-year history. I've gotten a complete run-down of class segregation in different sectors of the city, the politics and (non)functioning of transportation policies, and urban renewal projects. I'm helping him with his research interviews. And, in the most non-vacation-like, non-touristy thing of all time, I'm scheduled to guest lecture in an anthropology course at the Universidad del Rosario later in the week.

I fear I'll never be a good tourist.