el crispito

We arrived very late at night in Bogotá, which had us a bit wary, since all sources advised being cautious at night in the city. I expected to find it crawling with people that might cause one to be worried about being robbed, killed, or at least hassled about something. Instead, it was practically deserted, apart from random cab drivers and a few people outside clubs. It seems that everyone in Bogotá has heard how potentially dangerous it is in the streets at night, so nobody (and I mean nobody) ventures out in them after dark.

We arrived at our hotel and found our room to be surprisingly small for the suite we had requested. Our guidebooks and online sources reported that the Hotel Saint Simon had rooms for $45 USD per night, and suites for just a few dollars more. Despite the fact that we had added some padding for inflation, we were shocked to find that our dinky room was $79 USD per night and the suite which we eventually took so that we'd have a larger bed was $103 USD per night. I was even more upset when upon showering the first morning there to find that there was no hot water whatsoever.

We went out to cash some travelers checks we'd bought before we left, because once again, guidebooks advised not using ATMs in Bogotá due to crime. We wandered around for half an hour trying to find a place to which we were directed by locals, but it wasn't where they said it was. Then we tried another place that we were told cashes them to find that they didn't, and again someone there told us that another place cashes them down the street. We went there to find that they didn't cash them either. People at that place told us to try yet another place that cashes them, and alas, that place was closed. We later tried that place and found out that you could cash them, but only if you have an account with that bank.

In the midst of this frustration, which was really getting me angry, I decided it would be nice to get my shoes cleaned. Traveling and walking around in the rain the previous evening had gotten them dirty, and I'd been turned on to shoe cleaning of shoes that don't get polished in Guadalajara by one of the many shoeshines that work in downtown. At first in Mexico, I had been skeptical about the whole idea, but afterwards I was shocked to find that my old boots looked brand new. Therefore, I decided that having them cleaned in Bogotá would make them look nice for the rest of our trip.

I was approached by one guy that asked to shine my shoes. I asked if he could not shine them but rather clean them, and he indicated that he could indeed. Shawn was annoyed by me at this point because I'd stopped to get my shoes washed while we were knee-deep in the travelers check saga. As the shoeshine started in to work, he told me that he was going to use a very special soap to wash the shoes, which would enable me to not wash them again for four months. He even had a friend that came up while the other was working who told me that the soap was of the finest quality, and posessed special characteristics that bordered on magical in their shoe preservation abilities. I was a bit confused as to why the hard sell was necessary, since I had consented already to having the shoes washed.

After it was all done and they'd told me that I would not have to wash my shoes for four months four times each, I looked down to see my dark, wet shoes that I knew would dry to their lighter color (they're kind of tan). I asked how much I owed and the guy that cleaned them told me $40,000 COP (around $15 USD)...each shoe.

I asked them what they meant and they repeated the price. $15 USD, per shoe.

In Mexico, I pay between $15 MXN (about $1.40 USD) and $25 MXN (about $2.30 USD). I won't get into the kinds of things I was thinking that a shoeshine costing $30 USD should include. Since I didn't ask the price before he started, I didn't really have a leg to stand on in denying him payment. I further considered that if there were someone in the capacity of an offical to whom I could have appealed, they would have backed down on the price. Yet there was nobody around to use as backup in my argument to refuse their declared price, so I decided it was best to just pay them and move on. Remember, at this point, I had been told over and over about how dangerous Bogotá is, so I didn't want to cause any trouble over an amount of money that I could live without.

At the end of our time in Bogotá, I would have flatly told the guy where to go and given him like five bucks. By the time we left, I would have learned that Bogotá is not so dangerous as people make out that it is, including the people that live there. They do suffer from a high murder rate (23.4 per 100,000 in 2003), but that has dropped by 50% within the past 10 years. You can understand why they feel nervous, but the wave of post-traumatic loosening-up is lagging behind the decline in violent crime in Bogotá. It seems a little overly-nervous in a lot of places there in the way people act and precautions they tell you to use in order to be safe in their city.

At the time, having been in the city for not even 24 hours, I decided to pay for the lesson of learning to always ask how much it should cost beforehand. I should probably do this everywhere, but I learned to be sure to do it in Bogotá. Most of the time, the price you get stated is not what you expect because it's cheap, not because they're trying to swindle you. Yet it seems that Bogotá does still have traces of people living desperately that will do whatever they need to in order to make a buck, and tourists are very easy targets, unfortunately.

Those of you that travel, take note. If you go to Colombia, you should expect to pay no more than $7,000 COP at the most expensive of shoeshine venues (airports, apparently) for a pair of normal shoes. Owners of clown shoes, be prepared to pay slightly more.

As the shoes dried, I found that he'd used a brush that had been used for polishing black shoes with black shoe polish, so despite any delivered promises of the miracle cleaner (good for four months!), my shoes ended up being tinged with grey, just like the clothes in that old detergent commercial. Some parts that stick out more are more of a solid black.

On the positive side, when we returned to the room at the Hotel Saint Simon, we found that we had hot water. The maid, who had visited our room while we had our first Bogotá experiences, had turned on the water heater in our room, hidden behind a small closet door I'd not even noticed until seeing it left ajar by the maid. It should also be noted that the rooms at the Hotel Saint Simon, while lesser than expected for that price, were appointed well and the staff were all considerably friendly and some exceptionally so. The price also included a small breakfast that included some hot options, like eggs.

In the next installment, we'll have some photos of the city and - HURRAH! - things start to turn around for us at last.

[part four]