From Alabama to Colombia: 10 Bogotá Surprises

5. This recently occurred to me: middle-class bogotanos I know work hard, plan hard, and play hard. But not so many of them, in my experience, create hard. In Atlanta, virtually every person I knew had some little artistic sideline or creative project going on: A book in progress. A screenplay in the works. A cooking class. A little oil painting studio out back. A scrapbook. A weekend rock band. The Colombians appreciate arts and crafts, no question. It just seems they’re so deadly serious with making a living and raising the kids and simply keeping the lights and water on that there’s not a lot of creative energy left for tuning strings or dabbing palettes.

6. Everybody here speaks a little English … or at least they try. That’s good for me. With my freckles and red hair, I don’t need a T-shirt with big letters: I AM A GRINGO! Folks here spot a gringo a kilometer away even, I’m told, by the way we walk. Often when I greet people with a cheery hola! on the streets, they answer in English (if it’s not morning, when no one answers): “Good morning. Hello. How are you?” They smile proudly with this cultural acknowledgement, not really expecting an answer, but happy to make a trans-language connection. I’m constantly asked about English lessons, as well – it seems learning the language I take for granted is something of a Holy Grail here.

7. Beautiful mountains surround Bogotá. The modern city rises in a basin that once held a great sparkling lake ringed by green peaks of the Andes. At sunrise, mists cover the mountains; they look like fantastic etchings of an Oriental land. And yet … I never hear bogotanos talk about the mountains. Ever. Denver and Vancouver have made themselves world destinations by capitalizing on the natural beauty and diversions of the Rockies. Here? Bogotá, a mile and one-half closer to heaven than most of the world, has the most invisible mountains on earth.

8. A city of 8 million people in the U.S. inevitably has rich ethnic diversity. That’s been hard to find in Bogotá. A Jewish friend, Carlos, told me the city has only 5,000 Jews. (You find 5,000 Jews in just a few city blocks of NYC.) The last time I saw statistics, Atlanta held 100,000 Hindus. Here, I just found my first good Indian restaurant. Diversity may exist, but apart from a few conspicuous Chinese, you don’t see it as conspicuously as in other big cities.

9. Bogotá tolerates activity in public places that wouldn’t be allowed in the states. On TransMilenio, the hard-working bus system, performers and the poor climb into cars to give stimulating shows or sad sales pitches. No one bats an eye. Mobs rush into traffic to sell wiper blades and fruit. Beggars walk right into coffee shops to plead for coins. Most anything goes in public spaces here, tolerated and indulged.

10. Bogota has what it needs to be a great world city. People work hard. You see genius here and there, and aspiration. The city, however, lacks one crucial element: Confidence. Attitude. It’s hard to find a bogotano—or many Colombians in general—with great faith in the possibilities of this place. Maybe it’s a function of chronic legally administered inequality, or past political disappointments, or the legacy of a half-century of civil war, drug cartels, para-military groups beyond the law … or just a kind of national skepticism that doesn’t admit the possibility of potential greatness.

This is the biggest surprise of all.

Colombia just might be the most physically beautiful country on the face of the earth. What if the hopes of Colombians had a beauty to match it?

Photo: Rodrigo Faustini, CC-BY

Charles McNair is Paste’s Books Editor emeritus. He served the magazine as writer, critic and editor from 2005-2015.