Dutch/Colombian passport

I am wondering how many hits this title will get (actually having a blog you can follow how many people are reading it and where they come from; apparently we have even some Australian readers). I was just thinking "time to update the blog and put some new exciting information there" but last week was a rather normal week except of all those events that happened that, later on, make you realize that such a sabbatical of three months in Colombia is really quite an adventure. We need holidays! and that is what we will get; leaving on Monday for a nice week to the Carribean cost after we will first spend some other weekend in La Vega where we can sleep, read books, swim and sit in the jacuzzi the whole weekend. But enough about this; the news is that Marcela got her Dutch Nationality!! We just heard the news via an email from Marieke! We expected it to take some year but now after some 2 months it is already approved and so in some months we have to go to the City hall to go for the ceremony to receive Marcela's Dutch papers (including a passport which makes it much easier with the travelling around the world). I could put here a reference to our famous Dutch politician who would immediately post a twitter message about this way too easy acceptance of the Dutch nationality, which would probably increase the number of hits enormously but don't want to rely on that. But getting back to the main issue; this now just happens at the point that I was going to the Colombian office to apply for getting my Colombian passport! What to do? Where to go?

And just a picture to spice up the blog (by the way, showing about Colombian integration);

Integrating into Colombian society: Piel Roja (like the shirt although it is for a Colombian cigarette brand) and a mochilla, the bag from the indigenous Arhuaco's. Nice bag with the Dutch colors (that is why Marcela bought it for me) but unfortunately my laptop doesn't fit!

Colombian police, La Vega and roller-hockey

As I said in the last blog; the frequency seems to go down but after this weekend I have enough material for a whole load of blogs! Much of it comes down again on using a borrowed car here in Colombia. Where to start; Marcela told me me not to be too negative but actually told her that I don't have to since we also had some very good things happening but let's start with the somehow more "negative" news.

Negotiations about the tires to put on our car; re-use and recyle!
We got second-hand/OK tires for 60.000 Pesos (about 25 euros)

We got busted by Colombian police! Not that we are in jail now but we met some Colombian police officers that stopped us after I tried to be a smart ass making an U-turn where I was supposed not to make such a turn. This somehow reminded me of something similarly happening in one of the other Colo's that I am visiting frequently (Colorado). I also once got stopped by Boulder Colorado University policy making a U-turn where I was not supposed to make it having this policy officer being in her car straight behind me (watch your mirrors making U-turns). Anyhow, now we were stopped by some Colombian officers and after having explained why we made that U-turn (we missed some essential exit) the discussion somehow turned ugly and they decided that our car was in such bad condition that it had to be towed away and this was going to be costly. The main reason was the bad condition of the rear tires (and not so much the fact that I made as a real Fittipaldi an not-allowed U-turn). I could only agree on the bad shape of the rear tire (as you can see on the picture) but also thought that these guys are a "little" inconsistent. At some point where we were stopped you could see some of the smoking buses, much older cars or the "paard en wagen" (horse and carriage) passing at the same road. The front tires of the car are very OK and that matters most but somehow these guys wanted to let us feel that we as Colombian "foreigners" should know better. 

Anyhow, after having waited there for about half an hour (we assume that) they got hungry and realized it would take much longer for the towing truck to arrive. So they finally let us go without us even paying a fine for the U-turn faul! They told us not to leave Bogota with the car and so we decided to stop at a garage where we got actually the rear tires being changed in 5 minutes after 10 minutes negotiations with our car now having "Emmaus"/re-used tires for 60.000 pesos (25 euros)! At the premises of the garage there was some ceremony happening with the holy Virgen de Carmen (that is the patron(as) of the buses) being celebrated. That's why you can see all the buses (and some cars) with decorations where the padre passed by to "baptize" the buses. 

But so, after this experience we made it to our intended destination, the Finca of the family of Marcela's best friend Marcela Santemaria in La Vega. This is west of Bogota at about 1 1/2 hour distance and already much lower (~1500m) where you can really enjoy already much more Colombian tropical life with bamboo trees and the fruits growing in the garden. We had a great weekend there spending time with the family in a settings so different from hectic Bogota life.

But so we had to return sunday night  where everything went smooth until some point that we decided to do some more shoppings. Somehow, waiting in the car the alarm went off and couldn't turn it down anymore! After some 10 minute struggling we decided to bring the noisy car back to the apartment but then being on the road we suddenly noticed two police motor officers. We thought that we were going to meet again our police "Amigos" since we were driving around there producing there all this noise of the alarm. These guys never even looked at us to see if we were indeed some crooks stealing this car! It is probably rather obvious that these experiences don't make me being very convinced about the decisiveness of Colombian police (although we should be very happy not having received a fine)

You probably wonder why I put roller-hockey in the title of the blog but this brings me a to very funny start of this weekend; at some point I thought that we were going to watch on TV an ice hockey game here in Colombia and was really surprised about this. How could such a sport be so popular being broadcasted here on TV?. It all seemed to be a big match with the anthems being played and then at some point I realized these guys were not skating on ice but on roller blades/skates! This appears to be a big sport here where they were competing against a French team. Once more again some of these surprising experiences here in Colombia!

Hasta la proxima, Laurens

Colombian Folklore

(updated 4th of July since apparently some text fell out of the blog)
The frequency of updating the blog is slightly going down but this is also indicating that we (especially me) are getting more and more used to our life here in Colombia. The teaching is going well and I am in the last week with the students. They now have to develop their own Earth system model (a simple one) after all the classes and practicals we had last couple of weeks. The more exercises we do with the students on these simple models, the more I see the added value of using some of these conceptual approaches to study the complex interactions in the Earth system. As said, we get more and more used to daily life here but also then suddenly strongly think about life in Wageningen once in a while being reminded what is all happening there. Today we received for example the nice pictures of the "Buurtfeest" that we missed but we also hear the stories about our garden. Fortunately, we have some good friends that seem take good care of it and where Ronald (van Lanen) even appeared to have made a GIS map of our garden to support to fight against the weeds and especially the "kweekgras". Dear friends, hope you at least enjoy well some of the products of garden!

Anyhow, so getting used to life here we still have each day our surprises here. Last weekend we went again with the car on a trip to Tenza now that the car got fixed (it appeared that one of the spark plugs was released from the cylinder explaining some of the engine issues on our previous trip). At some point we joined the traffic jam of all the people leaving Bogota for the weekend since it was apparently another national holidays. The traffic jam allowed me to take some pictures and as you can see on the picture on the left, the names of the bus companies that really bring you fast, faster, fastest to your destination (that's also why we are happy that we can go now with our own car) has not been really well updated!
In order to cope with the traffic jam,  the police sometimes decides to stop the traffic going in one direction (in this case south to Bogota) and then use the available two lanes to create a highway for the traffic leaving Bogota. Great idea if not the police was actually not stopping the southward traffic on all entrances to the road resulting in quite some ignorant "Spookrijders" (Ghostriders?) entering the road at some locations. But since we noticed this issue quickly we used only the right lane and all went OK. So also in that respect, we get very used to Colombian culture.

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