Buying chewing gum and dancing Salsa in Bogotá

Dec, 2024

Bogotá. What‘s the first thing you think of if you hear that word? La Casa de Papel? Yeah, me too. 

Don’t worry, you didn’t end up on the wrong blog, neither did I change what I’m writing about. I’m talking about the city, because I just landed here. 

Let’s not talk about the flights, it was absolutely horrible, I was once again contemplating my life’s choices, I will spare you the details. I fell asleep on the plane and thought hours must have passed, only to find out it was a good 45 minutes. Only 11 more hours to go… 

Finally, I could see an island. Then, a coast line. The Amazon rainforest! And eventually, the snow capped peaks of the Andes. 

I got my bags, realized at immigration that my spanish learning mission didn’t really pay off that much - or was it the jetlag? I sure hope so - and got in a cab. Oscár was super nice, of course wanted to know where my boyfriend is, then told me something about himself and life in Bogotá. He said that this part of the city that we were currently driving through, I don‘t ever want to enter - not even during the day. 30 seconds later he pulled over and told me we‘re here. 

What the freak? Turns out, my accommodation is nestled in between two not so great neighbourhoods. Basically I can go anywhere, just not uphill. Coming from central Europe, it’s still very hard for me to wrap my mind about this. About the fact that, if you don‘t know where you‘re going, or take on wrong turn, you might end up in a pretty sketchy situation. Or not, if you‘re lucky. In most parts of the world, this is normality. We don‘t even closely realize how privileged we are. 

I didn’t do much those first few days. I needed to let my new reality settle in, rest, take it easy, adjust to the altitude. I did a graffiti tour, checked out the gold museum, hang around at the hostel and talked to all different kinds of people, walked around the city and tried to figure out how life works in this part of the world. 

I needed chewing gum, so I stopped at a small shop. At first, I asked in English, but he just rolled his eyes at me. Then, I tried gesturing. How on earth do you gesture chewing gum? Another roll of the shop owners eyes, with a hint of a smile, though, this time. I must have looked ridiculous. Survival mode kicked in. I wanted my chewing gum, and I was also too proud to give up and walk away. „¿Mentas?“ was the only word that somehow reminded me of chewing gum. He gave me one single piece of gum, packaged in bright blue plastic. 

Turns out, what I said to him was „mint“, so at least I didn‘t curse him. The correct wording would have been chicle. Not even that hard, right?  

Discouraged that perhaps my language problems weren‘t just due to the jetlag, I kept on walking some more with my Norwegian friend I just met. We checked out an art gallery, and the gentleman there wanted to talk, obviously. I asked - in spanish!! - if he was the artist, and I understood him saying he‘s one of them. That got my spirits back up high, so I continued asking him about what his work is, how long he‘s been painting for, and I politely declined his offer to roll the painting up really tiny so it can fit in my bag. I told him that one day I‘d be rich and come back to buy all of them. So there it was - my very first actual conversation in Spanish. 

Do you trust me that I keep my word? You might have seen my post about my hopes for south america. One thing on the list: learn how to dance. 

Two days into my trip, I had my first try at it. The hostel offered a salsa lesson for basically free. So what did I do? I joined, obviously. 

There was one guy from Colombia that came here to specifically learn from this instructor. He was already a pro, but he told me that the teacher is well known in all of Latin America. Then, there was me and three Norwegians, all of us obviously without rythm in our blood. One of the guys ran an ultramarathon 2 days ago and was therefore wearing flip flips with socks, which surely didn’t help. 

I don’t know, can something be awesome and embarassing at the same time? I feel like there‘s no other way to describe how this lesson went. 

Honestly for the first time I think we did pretty good. We tried our best at least. Being the only girl in the group, I of course got way more special attention than I wanted. I just rolled with it, laughed off the embarassment, and tried to learn whenever i wasn‘t stupidly giggling. Let me just tell you, dancing with someone that actually knows what they’re doing, it kinda gives you a kick and makes you want more. More dancing, to be clear. 

I think there should be a vaccine or something to get the salsa into your blood. I don’t know if i can ever learn how to dance. Fuck, I might even be more unsure now that I’ve tried it. I‘ll keep you updated on how it goes. 

For now: Hasta luego. You will hear from me.