"SMALL" TOWN LIFE

On Friday I woke at Pr. Jairo's parents home with a refreshing shower and a leisurely standard breakfast of an over easy fried egg, a choice of fresh rolls, mango juice and hot chocolate. Hot chocolate, it seems, is served in Colombia with just about any meal where there is food. Life has a different pace in Sogamoso (population of about 125,000), Pr. Jairo pointed out to me, than in Bogotá (population of well over 8 million). I asked Pr. Jairo if he missed the "small" town life where he spent the first 18 years of his life. He shook his head and said, "It's nice to visit, but I like the city."

It's tempting to say that there are small town people and big city people and never the two shall meet. With a deep love for towns like Custer and Minot (my hometown) as well as a deep love for big cities like Chicago and Bogotá I know better.

After taking a taxi that cost about a $1.65 to the city center of Sogamoso and walking around the plaza and Pr. Jairo bumping into some people he knew, we took an hour's bus ride to the slightly larger city of Tunja (about 150,000 inhabitants). From there we found another bus that would take us to our main destination for the day - the tourist town of Villa de Leyva.

The main pattern of inter-city buses seems to be that the bus fills up about one quarter full of people by the time it leaves the bus terminal. Then on the way out of town there are several bus stops. Somehow people know where they are and by the time the bus leaves the city limits the bus is full. Sometimes there are stops at towns along the way and by the time you reach the bus terminal of the final destination only a quarter of people remain on the bus.

It was just after noon by the time we reached Villa de Leyva and Pr. Jairo and I found an asadero, a restaurant that serves grilled meat or roasted chicken or in our case delicious fried tilapia (see the photo album for June 1 for before-and-after pictures of my lunch). We spent a few hours in the afternoon seeing the largest plaza in Colombia (pictured here as a self-portrait), walking the cobbled streets and peeking in at shops. We also stopped at a nice, small museum which displayed the art of Luis Alberto Acuña.

After picking up a gift or two, we caught a bus back to Tunja where it just so happens the family of Andrea lives. Andrea is one of the exchange counselors spending the summer at Outlaw Ranch and also the sister of Francisco who was an exchange counselors a few summers ago. It was a great surprise to see an old familiar face, both for him and for me. I'm looking forward to meeting Andrea when I get back to Custer in a few weeks.

The two-hour bus ride back from Tunja to Bogotá was uneventful. I didn't understand much of the dialogue of the Spanish-dubbed movie that was showing - The Fast and the Furious. However, as you can probably imagine I was still able to follow the plot (if you can call it that) without much trouble.

As soon as we stepped off the bus on the north side of Bogotá, I knew I was back in the big city. We jostled elbows with large crowds to take the express bus back to our little sanctuary of an apartment in the middle of the big city in one corner of a relatively small world.