Holland house in Bogota! No football, just business

Our maximum suspension car in Colombia

Hola, goedenacht, friday night here in Bogota after another interesting and challenging week. The teaching was the same, other contents but same intensity. The weekend was also the same, being in Tenza again and then returning on monday morning, another holiday here in Colombia. This time we went with our own car that we got from Pablo. Have to admit that when I drove the first couple of meters that I was not that sure somehow feeling some disconnection between the steeringwheel and the wheels but after this weekends trip I realize that actually a Citroen (or Peugot) with such more slightly "loose connections" is probably the best car to have here in Colombia. Leaving Bogota you have still a kind of high-way for the first 40km (with once in a while a bike rider on the road or a cow just 2 meter from the road going 100 km an hour) but then getting close to Tenza  the last 10km took us about 45 minutes. Simply in the first gear going about all the holes, rocks and parts of the roads that have been partly flooded away!

That's what you you get taking a picture from the mirror! 
But how many have seen me with a tie! And  always 
nice to see Marcela once in a while being all dressed-up.

But we made it and had another fun weekend in Tenza. Then returning to Bogota the settings changed completely; on Tuesday night we had to go to a chique reception at the Dutch Embassy. Marcela was invited for a meeting where many NL and Colombian people gathered for an official opening ceremony by the NL minister of foreign affairs of the Holland House here in Bogota.


This had apparently nothing to do with some of the developments on the Dutch football team (haven't heard any joke about this at the meeting) but was purely meant to establish a virtual meeting place for Dutch and Colombian partners interested to establish collaborations on all kind of issues. As it was stated explicitly, having a large Dutch delegation there to discus with Colombian partners collaborations on biofuels, waste water management, climate change and water issues has not that much to do anymore with "ontwikkelingshulp". Colombia seems to be booming (like Brasil) and so there is a big potential to make quite some money on the export of all kind of expertise available in NL, such as how to reconstruct the infrastructure to better cope with the many recent floodings they have seen here in Colombia. By the way, my personal observation is that I wonder to what extent some of these developments here in South America can be really seen as long-term sustainable booming business or that they might simply copy some of the more short-term dead-end developments that we are now struggling with in Europe (and US and...)

Have to say that I think it was also for Marcela and me a very good meeting that might be helpful in further establishing some of the projects we want to get running here!

Hasta la proxima ves! ciao, Laurens

Los contrastes entre la vida en Bogota y Tenza

Despite the fact that I indicated that I would ask Marcela to post this time a blog on here experiences I am eager again to first put a lot of pictures and some movies on our adventures of last days. We actually left last friday with the bus to Tenza, a small pueblo about 100km north of Bogota where the Pappi of Marcela and his wife, Sarita, live in a beautiful old house.



We left on friday because there was no teaching since I allow the students (now have six....) to use fridays to study (asked how many indeed used this day off to study, apparently not many of them did study). Anyhow, not having our own car yet it was up again to go to Exito (big mall in Bogota North) to catch one of the buses to bring us to Tenza. Was quite a ride but we get already more or less used to this. It takes about three hours but then you are down to something like 1700m in contrast to the 2700m altitude of Bogota, so being warmer and more with more oxygen. 

Sarita's Finca in Tenza with the platano (bananen) trees and many nice flowers

Unfortunately it is now in terms of weather the inverno (winter), although I am teaching classes de verano (summer course). It means that it is raining a lot but we still had a good time going to the Finca (the boerderij) where they have some cows and where we cooked a great potato soop on the wood fire. Being a vegetarian is not easy here in Colombia but as you can see from the picture we were consuming an organic maize-fed chicken. It is good to escape the hectic city life for some days to see that a large number of people in the campo (platteland) have a complete different life, less hectic, much more basic, less pollution, very friendly but also sometimes staring at that weird "mono" (blue-eyed and tall) foreigner coming to their village. 

This morning it was back to business after we returned yesterday to Bogota with about half the city after this long weekend (monday was apparently a holiday here). It appears that a lot of people all leave for the weekend to enjoy this rather different life apparently to get out of the hectic mega-city life in Bogota. 
Anyhow I noticed this morning again then some funny things of life here in Bogota and, especially at the University; check for example the picture on the indicated amount of calories you loose by climbing all the stairs at the campus which is being built against the eastern mountains bordering Bogota. In that way, also being here at 2700m altitude, I am doing my sports here! Or what about this nice little restaurants here around the campus where you get good food (I know, much of the life here and also the blog is about food) for about 9000 pesos (3 euros). They give you this fancy alarm that goes off when your food is ready to be picked up. These are some of those striking features of an up to now enjoyable life here in Bogota and at the university. But am aware that we appreciate this even more also because we actually visit pueblos like Tenza. It makes you wonder where you are better off; in the campo like in Tenza or in Bogota? Or, like what we do, enjoy both, these rather contrasting lives here in Colombia!
Saludos, Laurens 

Teaching with Salsa

You probably wonder why I used this title, maybe to indicate that I am teaching now here in a more spicy way compared to Wageningen?? No, it is simply referring to the fact that the practicals in the afternoon were in room at the campus bordering the "Media torta", an open stage where all kind of performances are being scheduled. Last week it was hardrock but today it was good Colombian salsa! Loud salsa with good trumpets and percusion but as you can also see on the picture only a small crowd, including for some short moments the "Profe" (that is how they call me here). 

So this formed a very nice setting to introduce the students into the use of Daisyworld, an extremly simply model of how growing daisies (in NL, Madeliefjes, a espagnol; Margarita's, not the Mexican drink) can regulate their own environment such that it optimizes their conditions to survive under a wide range of climate conditions. But also how with such a very simple model, that considers the interactions between the biosphere and physical climate, you can simulate and explain the occurrence of hysteresis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteresis) in the Earth system, e.g., the slow and more gradual transition from a deglaciated Earth to a glaciated Earth compared to the rather fast transition from a glaciated to a deglaciated Earth (I assume that putting this detailed information on some of the science might get some of you distracted from the generally "light" info provided at this blog).

Weekendje Bogota

So, that was some weekend here in Bogota; I planned to work on preparing for the course (still only four students but going to make it a very interactive course) but at the end it was a very social weekend. Yesterday, first of all after having a great last breakfast with La Suegra we went to the Peluqueria (kapper/pedicure/etc). We had to get "pimped" because of going to a chique party in the night, a prom night here of one of the kids of friends. I was only going to accompany Marcela to the Peluquria but ended up getting also my feet been treated very well!

The party was great; one of those where you should have the photo's being taken before and after the party (to measure the degree of pretention wearing the chique cloths); the kids were all dressed up very nicely before the party with the girls with very, very short skirts, high Brazilian pumps (10cm), the guys all in suit but that all changed after some hours of drinking ron y bailar at the music of "Los Tupamaros", the most famous salsa band here in Colombia (according to Marcela).

Today, a day to explore the area of the appartment we moved to yesterday. A place much closer to the university in a relatively good area of Bogota with nice coffee places, restaurants etc. Today, sunday was as usual a day with the "Cyclovia" where they close part of Carrera Septiema (one of the main roads going North-south) to allow the hikers and bikers to use the streets at their day off. Some of those very nice initiatives they took here to give the streets back to the people of Bogota. But when you then go at the roads here you have to be careful; there is at many places these "craters" in the middle of road, holes that are not always that deep as the one on the picture (in front of our appartment) but sufficiently deep to potentially damage you car (or face) seriously.

For the rest Bogota is a city that has sites can be really ugly but also his its nice particularities; more old colonial buildings in between that tpyical Bogota/Colombia style of appartment blocks, actually being build quite high here as you can see on the picture taken in the barrio (neighbourhood) La Marcarena where we had a nice lunch in an Arabic restaurant with some nice vegetarian dishes (By the way, being vegetarian here is basically impossible with so many menus being based on Carne y pollo).

So far some more impressions about a weekend here in Bogota in this big, big city. Tomorrow, nine o'clock, the real work will start! Hasta la proxima, Laurens