ACPM: An Intro Into the Bogota Restaurant Scene

When I lived in Atlanta, I didn't realize that I was spoiled with the variety and quality of restaurants. After a couple of excursions into the Bogota restaurant scene, I was sorely disappointed in the food available in the city. Though I have heard good things (mostly from Colombians, instead of foreigners), good restaurants are few and far between. For this reason, I am writing about my hits and misses in the Bogota food scene.

Some background info on me is that I enjoy spicy food with a wide variety of tastes. For example, Mexican and Indian food are my favorite and probably the hardest to find in Bogota. I haven't been able to find a decent taco or Mexican restaurant so far. I have tried La Taqueria, Casa Mexicana, El Carnal (probably the worst), and El Museo De Tequila. They all suck, half of them don't even have hardshell tacos, and the cheese dip is like Cheeze-Wiz. I mean, how hard is it to mess up a taco? Apparently, I have seen the worsts forms of the concept “taco”.

The problem is that Colombians have very little knowledge of food outside of Colombia. For them, variety means chicken or beef. This is were the concept of ACPM comes in: Arroz, Carne, Papa, and Maiz. The staples of Colombian cuisine. ACPM means that about 90% of Colombian meals are made up of the same four ingredients. I didn't begin to realize the full impact of ACPM until I stated going out for lunch with my coworkers. All of a sudden I was eating one form of ACMP or another every day for lunch and I was like “hold up”. I can't eat the same thing every day!

The reason why is because even though we would go to different restaurant, we would always order the daily lunch special (Almuero Corriente or Almuero Executivo) because it was the cheapest. It cost about $3 U.S., but it is anything but special because you basically have only two options: chicken or beef. Though it includes a drink (lemonaide or juice), dessert, and soup; it still consists of the basic four ingredients of ACPM. Anyways, at one point I pointed out that there was no variety in our lunch selections and my coworkers responded, “What do you mean, you can choose chicken or beef?!?!”.

Mochila: A Tradition of Colombian Manpurses

Why don't men in America use purses? They are practical and men carry just as much as women. It must have something to do with looking unmanly, but in Colombia, men have purses and they still look tough. I will try to explain why.

The Colombian manpurse probably doesn't seem strange here because the country has a long tradition of manpurses (mochilas). Not only that, but also a lot of men use them so it's not like one guy is the odd man out. They also can be stylish as there are many varieties of colors, patterns, and materials; but mainly the traditional version is made out of wool by the ancient Ayuko tribe. These pictures show the trend then and today.

“Made by the Arhuaco tribe of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, high in the mountains of northern Colombia, these hand-woven bags (mochilas) are a spiritual-artisan tradition that goes back well over a thousand years. In order to escape persecution and preserve their traditional way of life, the Arhuaco, Kogi, and other native peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta took refuge in the remote areas of this mountain region.” (http://www.horizonherbs.com/mochilas.html)

The tradition still lives today due to the fact that these native tribes still live in Colombia today as they did since 1,000 A.D. After, the past five centuries, they still trade their artesanias (folk art) and have contact with modern Colombia. You can even take hiking tours through the Sierra Nevada to visit their villages and ancient ruins. In other words, the Colombian manpurse represents a modern fashion trend and a tradition of respect for native people of Colombia. I definitely recommend getting one on your next trip to Colombia. To learn more about the history of the mochila or buy one, visit http://www.horizonherbs.com/mochilas.html.

El Rebusque: A Colombian Business Model

Colombians have a lot of reputations, but this one is specific to how they run business and make money. In Bogota, one of the first things you will notice is the massive amount of people selling random things on the street. Towels, glasses, belts, food, cell phone minutes, and phone chargers can easily be found on most street corners. They definitely don't have government regulation involved or the need for a permit to sell things on the street like in Atlanta.

The next thing you will notice is that most of the street vendors are not necessarily poor. In Atlanta, selling things on the street is looked down upon as it usually means you are homeless or poor. However in Colombia, middle-class people and college students will often take second jobs selling random stuff to make extra money. This is called El Rebusque, meaning “another way to find money”. It basically encompasses the reputation that Colombians are good business people and like making money. For the most part, I would say it is true as everyone seems to have a personal business on the side.

El Rebusque is taken a step further when it comes to running an actual business. In Colombia, businesses make the most out of make extra money by being more than one business. In other words, they will combine a variety of services, depending on the time of day. You'll see what I mean the next time you go to a “Cafe/Bar/Restaurant/Hair Salon” -- during the day it is a salon and cafe, but at night its a bar and restaurant so that they can keep bringing in business all day. There actually is a “Cafe/Bar/Art Gallery/Hair Salon” named La Peluqueria so you can check out for yourself and see how this business model works. It seems to be very effective and profitable.

Another example of El Rebuseque is people selling stuff at work to coworkers. I worked in corporate America for several years before coming to work in Bogota and I have never seen people being allowed to sell stuff at work. While working at the UPS corporate headquarters in Atlanta (hell on earth), they had a strict policy against it. Here, there is no policy and it just seems to be another form of making money on the side. At my office, there is a guy that sells homemade sushi and desserts. Not only does he sell these desserts, he makes special announcements on discount pricing, has his business incorporates, and spends at least 25% of his day promoting his products at work. After lunch, it usually takes 20 minutes for people in the office to decide which dessert they are going to buy today. This happens every day and it's like working on a street corner.

Alice In “Where The Hell Am I?” Land

Going for a night out in Bogota is an adventure when you are new to the city. Especially, if you go out with locals you never know where you will end up as the trend is to bounce around to different locations. Typically you can expect to start the night off early (around 6-8 p.m. or right after work) drinking at a small liquor or grocery store. People do this because the beer s cheap and its is a good way to save money before going to another location.

Another way to start the night is to drink in the street. Bogotanos usually pick a random spot outside and sit on the ground. Especially in La Zona Rosa, you will see crowds of people hanging outside on the street right in front of a club while inside the club is totally empty. I was told the law says that you aren't allowed to drink on the street, but I haven't seen anyone get in trouble for it.

Once when I was walking in La Zona Rosa around 10 p.m. with a friend, I noticed that people were really drunk. Fighting and throwing up. This is behavior that is more common at 2 a.m., but he explained that they are college students that get out of class around 3 p.m., start drinking, then are waisted by 10 p.m.

On this particular night, we started drinking right after work. I work in La Zona Rosa, so we met at the Bogota Beer Company. It was 5 p.m. This bar is so popular its not even funny. A good place for a tourist to get a feel of the bar scene. It has the vibe of a Brittish bar, which also is a popular trend. The food is good – I recommend the chicken wings. Its funny to watch people eat chicken here because they use gloves.

After drinking a couple at another place, we went to a reggea bar named Casa Babylon which is a nice break from salsa and vallenato. At this point we are very drunk. When the bar closed, ½ went to look for an after party and the other ½ went to sleep. Other options could have been El Cha Cha, which is good for electronic music and has a nice view because it is at the top of a hotel. Anyways, you get the point. I feel like my story is dragging because the most interesting part really happens at the end, so I'll just get right to it.

After spending the night at my friend's house, I got kicked out at 6 a.m. With a horrible hangover. Apparently, I had to leave early before his parents woke up so that they wouldn't see me in the house. Unlike the U.S. Most people live with their parents a lot longer. They go out and have just as much freedom as people who live alone because it seems like parents are used to it too. If you do need a private room for some reason, there is a booming motel industry specifically for sex. It's pretty obvious why people go there because there are paintings of naked people on the wall – classy. It is so common for horny teenagers to go there that the motels are really nice with flat screen TVs, “love chairs”, and jacuzzis for cheap. Another neat part about the motel is that they have a little sliding door in the room so people can deliver alchohol (and other things) to the room without disturbing the guests.

Once I got kicked out, I had nowhere to go. It was too far and I was too embarrassed to go to my aunt's apartment and had to be at work in a couple of hours. I decided to wait around my office and look for a place to take a nap. There was nowhere to take a nap, but since I was so drunk/hungover, I thought it would be a good idea to sleep behind the Alice In Wonderland movie display at the mall. I was able to sneak behind it without anyone noticing because it was so early, but while I was sleeping a crowd gathered around to work on the display. Even a security guard walked around it several times without noticing. I slept well enough on the ground, but it was kinda cold. Two hours later I popped out on the other side to go to work. I think the security guard noticed something was weird when I walked out, but probably though it was his imagination.

How To Ride A Bus in Bogota

The public transportation system in Bogota is hard to learn and use. Even if you want to learn how to use it, it is impossible because there is no information (brochures, maps, etc) about the bus routes. It is so bad that it is likely that this blog post contains the most information about how to use the bus system in Bogota. So, to tourist, here is what I have learned so far and I hope it helps. My only resource has been my Aunt – who has been very helpful, but she grew up in Bogota so...Otherwise, I would have no idea how to get around.

Compared the the U.S., the Bogota bus system is unorganized because it is not run by the government. Instead, it is a mix of private companies who rent out buses, hire drivers, or drivers who own their own buses. For this reason, the bus system works on whoever can make the most money, not necissarily providing a public service. Because of this, you may find buses competing to pick up passengers, often weaving though traffic, crossing lanes of traffic to pick up someone on the other side of the road. Other times, they may just drive right past you in a hurry to get home.

Waving down a bus, is not the hard part. There are a lot of buses to choose from, so just stick out your hand and you'll get one to stop. Once you get a bus to stop feel free to jump on or off whenever you need to. Often, it is not suprising if the bus driver lets you off in the middle of the street or you have to weaver in between cars to get to and from the sidewalk.

The hard part is trying to figure out where the buses go. It is hard to figure out where they go because, instead of a map, they have signs on the bus that are supposed to explain the bus's route. For example, the sign will say “122, K 15, Chapinero, Unicentro K 19 , Calle 134, Exito” But basically if you are not familiar with the city, this route doesn't make any sense.

What the sign is trying to explain is “Bus #122 will go down Carrera 15 through Chapinero (a neighborhood), until goes past Unicentro (a mall), then it'll take Carrera 19 until it turns onto Calle 134 and drives by the Exito (store). The problem is that in between these random landmarks, the bus could turn another way to get the next landmark, so you don't really know if it is going straight there or is taking a longer route. It's best to learn the names of the neighborhoods so at least you know you are going in the correct general direction. For example, if you take a bus that says “Unicentro” you know you'll end up around the mall eventually. Other than trial-and-error with the 30 buses that say “Unicentro”, it's a guessing game on which bus will take the best route there.

I really don't think that even people who grew up in Bogota know where these buses are going. I think it is a regular guessing game until you finally figure out which is the correct bus for you. Even Bogotanos often jump on to a bus to ask “Do you go by this and that place?”. If the bus driver says no, then they just jump off and wait for the next one to ask. I recommend you just ask so that you don't end up in the middle of nowhere like I did. If you start to see bonfires in the middle of the dirt road, you have gone to far.