Culture Alley - Colombia

Today, Colombia celebrated the 200 year anniversary of its declaration of independence from Spain. Along with at least 100,000 bogotanos, we took in a free daytime concert in the heart of Bogota's largest public park, complete with speeches from the current (and incoming) President and preceded by an impressive Air Force demonstration. Being amongst the people for the bicentennial was an experience that we will always remember. The people here have an energy unlike any I've ever known and it was amazing to feel their excitement and pride for their country and its progress on this national holiday (and to watch persons young and old dance and sing along to every song). In total, we counted four other gringos all afternoon, ironically enough all hanging out by the hot dog stands outside the amphitheatre. The only negative? There were rumblings that Shakira was going to make a surprise appearance, but she didn't show at our concert and I was unable to confirm the truthiness of her hips.

On Monday afternoon, we hit up the FREE Botero Museum in La Candelaria (Fernando Botero is likely Colombia's most famous artist). The museum itself is modern and unpretentious, includes works by Picasso, Renoir and Monet, and was FREE. Despite the lofty company, we particularly enjoyed Botero's work. As the pictures indicate, Botero sees the world in kind of a reverse Shallow Hal way (editor's note: I didn't actually see that movie, so I can't be certain that the analogy holds. If it does, great. If it doesn't, I can still sleep easy knowing I didn't waste my money watching it). In fact, I was sufficiently impressed that I felt it warranted altering the list of my all-time favourite foreign museum experiences to something like this:

1. Van Gogh Museum - Amsterdam
2. Botero Museum - Bogota
3. The Louvre - Paris
4. Picasso Museum - Barcelona
5. through 20'ish - expensive European museums that feature religious paintings based on bible stories I don't know

Finally, some quick hits:

Caught the beginning of the regional ESPN Sportscenter broadcast this weekend. I was shocked to see the show lead off with highlights of Women's International Field Hockey over the British Open, Tour de France and about 200 local soccer games that people really seem to care about around here. I love field hockey as much as the next guy, but ......

We are still liking the food here, but it doesn't seem to be liking us as much - Kristin and I each had our first South American gastrointestinal anomalies this weekend. I trust they will be the last.

We added some more pictures from and around Bogota. Check them out here. I think the blog should start picking up steam towards the end of the month as we leave Bogota and start moving around. Check back for updates.