My bike shop in Bogota is Rolling Bicicletas con Estilo. The address is Carrera 7 # 47-91. Telephone: 285 2151. Biking is a big deal here in Bogota. Both during ciclovia and because Mike’s Bogota Bike Tours is one of the most popular tourist activities here.
I don’t get a discount for referring people to this shop, despite the number of folks I’ve sent their way. It’s not fancy but it’s less expensive than some of the other shops I’ve been to. They do not speak English so bring someone who speaks Spanish when you go shopping. I’m not sure what their opening hours are but they are open on some Sundays. Apparently, they are quite responsive via Whatsapp.
People told me to buy my bike before coming to Bogota. I’m glad that I waited. My bike with helmet, lights, custom paint job and so on cost around $300. Not bad, eh?
Cusco is usually considered a preparatory stop on the way to Machu Picchu. But, Cusco should be considered a food destination. The food in Cusco was like the weather, crisp and clean. Every time I asked about the vegetables, including the lettuce, I was told that they were fresh from the Sacred Valley. I don’t have many photos of our salads… because it’s salad.
One of the salads included a peanut-like item which was also from the Sacred Valley.
I don’t like quinoa but when it’s used to bread deep fried shrimp, then I like it. The food in Cusco was delicious. Surely, it helped that we had been out in the fresh Sacred Valley air all day.
It takes a certain kind of courage to travel the world alone with one’s guitar. I’m not one of those people but I like it when I see it. When traveling alone, one gets to talk to new people and study one’s surroundings. When traveling with others, there’s a shared experience. Both are interesting.
On the Island of the Sun, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia.
Mostly, just get out there if you can. Be brave. Take water.
I did it! 120 kilometers of Bogota’s Ciclovia. Okay, almost all of it. The city continues to change the map. So I did what I could on the 2015 map.
The end, the end, the end, the end.
Sometimes, I’d get to a part that seemed like a simple “stay straight” and follow the signs. Not so. I would get to a part of the marked route, and then nothing. The route would simply end like an appendix (in the body; not in a book). No real purpose (why do we have one?) and no reason for it to end. I’d go down and suddenly it would end. Then I’d have to turn around and go back on the same route I’d just biked down.
Stop.
Having now spent many days on Ciclovia, I have three wishes:
Provide toilets
Provide opportunities for massages (along with the food stalls, bike repair stalls, brain exercise stalls, and entertainment pit stops)
Make the Ciclovia employees have maps or at least know where they are…
(okay, four) Make the roads connect!
My favorite parts have been down south. Much more to explore. Better prices.
I still think I’m allergic to the jungle. Here’s why. I went to the Amazon jungle in Peru and I was sick. The minute I was in the airport on my way out of the jungle, I got better. Heat allergy is called “heat urticaria” and I might have it. Actually, heat urticaria, is an allergy to heat above 109 F. This includes when the body reaches 109 degrees from steam rooms, hot showers, and spicy food! (And yes, there’s a condition where people are allergic to cold).
Chiles for sale in Bhutan.
Or it might have been that jungle vegetable salad I ate…
The pitaya is extremely good for you, by most accounts. Some think it should be sold as a diet fruit. If I were to market it in the U.S., I would call it the “Golden Dragon Fruit” because that’s essentially what it (it’s called the “yellow dragon fruit” which has a much less regal tone). The pitaya is a cactus fruit which when opened up looks and tastes like the better known pink skinned dragon fruit (I have yet to see a pink dragon fruit here in Colombia — just like I have yet to see a lemon).
I was looking up about the pitaya on Wikipedia and learned not only how healthy it is (same amount of potassium as a banana) but also about the other names for the pitaya. Of the various names, I liked “Queen of the Night” quite a bit. The pitaya is a native of the Americas — and did you see that pink fleshed one? I can’t wait to try that one.
The easiest way to eat the pitaya is to slice it in two, take a spoon, scoop it out, and eat. Delicious. It’s a mild sweet juicy flavor. The seeds in the white flesh can be eaten as well. The yellow skin cannot be eat (as far as I know). Some people put this in juice or a smoothie but I think it’s easiest eaten out of the half-skin. The pitaya are pricey as far as fruit goes, as I bought a whole bunch at Paloquemao and as they cost 4,000 pesos per pound — that makes it about 85 cents per fruit.
Very few fruits make me giggle. But the pitaya does, solely because of its digestive effects. It is like the Vitamix or blender of the fruit world. After having eaten these for several days in a row, I discovered that each time I ate one, I got a funny feeling in the pit of my tummy. Gurgling. A rumble in the jungle. It was comical… Unlike most fruits, the pitaya requires some forethought: know where you will be 110 minutes after consumption!
I don’t get a discount for referring people to this shop, despite the number of folks I’ve sent their way. It’s not fancy but it’s less expensive than some of the other shops I’ve been to. They do not speak English so bring someone who speaks Spanish when you go shopping. I’m not sure what their opening hours are but they are open on some Sundays. Apparently, they are quite responsive via Whatsapp.
