I’m exhausted, just truly running on empty right now.  I haven’t slept more than 4 hours in a week, been to Vegas and Colombia, and I’m ready to crash.  But before that happens, and I flip the book to a new week of truly getting back to work, reading up on this Dubai debacle, and focusing on the market, here’s a wrap up of the Colombia trip.

Here are some interesting things I learned while down there, followed by a few pictures from the second half of the trip from Cartagena and Andres.

My girlfriend and I were sitting at a cafe in Bogotá eating breakfast on Thursday morning when we got into a conversation with two young locals who had both attended the American school there which is sponsored by the state department.  Both were very smart and spoke excellent English.  We asked if there were any younger artsy edgy neighborhoods akin to the east village in NYC, their answer was no.  The reason is that Colombians don’t marry until their early 30′s and live with their parents until that time.  Even kids from wealthy families like these two don’t leave the home, they attend the university, get jobs, and save money until they can afford to get married and live on their own.  The idea that parents would force their kids out of the house at 18 was very strange to them, they didn’t quite understand the American culture, even having spent time here.

The Universidad  de los Andes in Bogotá which is considered one of the best in all of Latin America is very impressive.  The campus sprawls out below the mountains in a beautiful neighborhood.  According to my cousin’s ex boyfriend who she met at Stanford business school, the reason she originally moved down there, only a privileged few, luckily including him, get the chance to study there.

Bogotá is almost like a totally different country that Cartagena, they share very little in common.  While Bogota is conservative, business like, and very homo genius in culture, other areas of the country are more of a cultural melting pot of Latin America.  In Bogotá, being “black” or anything else than a fair skinned Colombian an’t a good thing.

Bogotá is separated into districts that people rank 1-6 with 1 being the poorest and 6 being the wealthiest.  There are only a few 5 and 6 neighborhoods which are all located to the north east side of the city.

Outside of Bogotá, Colombian women have massive knockers.  I don’t know whether they’re fake, push up bras, or just natural, but they’re in your face all day.  I’m not complaining.  The women in Cartagena were beautiful, everything you would expect from Colombia.

I wasn’t offered blow once, I don’t and never have done drugs, but was still interested in how that would present itself.  The security leaving Colombia back for the states was crazy though.  I was questioned more thoroughly than when flying to Israel, had my passport checked 6 different times, bags scanned 5 times, and twice over by coke sniffing dogs.  I can’t  believe how much money is wasted trying to prevent this stuff from getting out of that airport.  I am a strong advocate against the use of drugs, but the time, effort, and money that is wasted trying to fight a losing battle against this stuff is just stupid.  If you really want to call this a war on drugs, we’ve been getting massacred for the last 40 years, and continue to play the same game.  I have no doubt that the day is approaching when we will call it quits and start collecting tax revenue on these products.  Yes, they ruin lives, but so do cigarettes, many more in fact.

The only mass transit system in Bogotá is what they call the trans millennium.  Between the two sides of the highway that runs around the city is a rapid transit system of buses with dedicated lanes.  The bus stops look like light rail stops and the system seems to be very efficient.  The whole thing almost looks as if they set it up to put tracks down one day but didn’t want to do it yet, so in its place they use buses.

I had many other little bits I wanted to talk about, I’ll add em on as I remember.

After having a great Thanksgiving dinner with family, some of Shara’s Stanford business school friends who live in Colombia, and a few other ex pats, we woke up at 4 am Friday morning and caught a flight to Cartagena.  The first thing that hits you when you step off the plane is the heat.  I’m talking oppressive heat and humidity.  You are right on the equator and feel every second of it.  Here are a few pics, read the captions for more info on Cartagena.

Cartagena is located in the northern part of the country on the Caribean Sea. The city sits in a delta which makes the beaches pretty ugly and the water nasty.

The city is divided into two areas, the new and the old walled city. An amazing amout of residental construction, akin to the building that went on in Miami is taking place. Truth is, this area is actually pretty ugly and I don't see any reason why people would want to live here. From what I understand, a lot of money is pouring into real estate here because the narco trafficers feel real estate is a safe store of value, and now it's creating a construction boom. Even back in Bogota in the 5 neighborhood my cousin lives, there were five 20 story residential buildings being built on the same block.

Our hotel was great, we stayed inside a nice part of the old city.

The old city is amazing, the colors, the architecture, the energy. The whole city is surrounded by a huge 3 story wall. The streets form a maze of shops and restaurants with plazas every couple of blocks.

Not sure who took this one, but that's me.

The sun is oppressively hot so we rocked some traditional hats. I know I know, I look like Garth Brooks, no autographs please.

Most buildings had these really cool doors with awesome door knockers. But the little door inside the big door was only big enough for a midget, we couldn't really figure this out.

The fort was kinda neat.

While the street food in Bogota was amazing, I have to say, Cartagena was terrible. The fruit, especially the water mellon was not flavorfull, and the epenadas were bland. We did though eat at a few amazing restaurants.

We rented a boat to cruise around the islands about an hour and a half ride from the mainland. While the beaches around the city itself are ugly, once you get away from the delta out into the sea the water becomes an amazing color of turquoise. It was nice to get some sun on the water, I probably won't see it for another 4 months living in NYC.

I wonder who lives here?

We pulled up to a beach with a few huts. The locals made us an amazing meal of fresh snapper that they had caught that morning, fried plantains, and coconut rice. The meal reminded me of what I ate a lot in South East Asia, a whole fried fish, one of the freshest meals I'll ever eat in my life, right on the beach.

Poverty is always right around the corner though in a developing nation. I snapped this picture on the way back, these people having nothing, so close to the narco fueld high rise developments a few minutes away.

Cartagena is an amazing place filled with culture and great food.  I’ve got to say though, it is probably the hottest fucking place on earth and is miserable during the day with the mass amount of people, cars, vendors and everything else under the sun in the old city.  At night though the city clears out and becomes cooler, calmer, and more manageable.  Their are beautiful women everywhere and some great places to have a few drinks.

We flew back from Cartagena Saturday afternoon and went straight to Andres Carne de res about 40 minutes outside of Bogotá.  I’m not going to tell the whole story about what this place is here, it would take me far too long.  I’ll describe it as TGI Friday’s on a massive amount of coke times 100.  The place is just plain out of this world, it seats 4,000 people and the food is amazing.  I would encourage you to do a search and read about it.  Oh, and a private equity company just took a 50 percent equity stake in the place and are trying to duplicate it in other Latin American cities.  The problem is that this place is one of a kind.  It is very difficult to replicate what was built there, I would say it’s more of a community or event than a place or business.  Here are some pics.

Before the party really got started. Until 10 the place is calmer, like a really loud restaurant, but afterwards it turns into people dancing on tables, there are dance floors all over the place, and strange people in costumes.

The little orange balls are amazing. They are a fruit that is a mix between a cherry tomato and a very tart apple. Also, this is a famous steak place at the end of the day, and the meat did not disappoint.

As I said, weird stuff, a ballerina did a performance on one of the dance floors.

As I said, hard to explain this place, you really have to experience it for yourself.

Overall the trip was an amazing adventure.  Would I go back?  Probably not, but I would highly recommend a trip there, it’s well worth it .  I’m jonesing for some waves, next trip is to surf.