Who the heck is Andres anyways?

Saturday, August 26th

Recovering from a crazy drinking and dancing night is never easy. The compounding effects that 7500ft of altitute has on your body made this not a very pleasant morning. Alexey and I wrestled to get out of bed and even then, we could not do so without feeling nauseous. However, Bogota had proven itself a tough city to crack so we were up on our feet and ready when Mauricio called to tell us today´s itinerary.

The first order of business was to get something to eat which we accomplished at a nearby (near the Carrera 4th and Calle 69A address where the Howard Johnson is located) hamburger joint. As you could have guessed, we all ordered soup! :) We needed to get back on our feet afterall. The lentil soup was great and the guys told me that the tortilla soup was very good as well. Soon after, we headed back to the hotel.

At this point we still had not picked up our laundry. Alexey made some attempts but it wasn´t ready so he had to go back 3 times to get it. He also scoped out the hotel we had considered yesterday because it was cheaper than the HJ.. much cheaper. His opinion was that the other hotel was great and he even paid for 1 room reservation for tomorrow (Sunday) night in advance.

Back at the hotel, now with clean clothes (another festive day), we went back to rest due to our hangoverish condition. Mauricio did the same and went home promising to come back to pick us up in the late afternoon to show us the city while driving like a maniac and to take us to a restaurant we will not forget.

As promised, Mauricio was there in the hotel lobby at exactly the time agreed. We met him and went through the city in his BMW at full speed. The landscape in Bogota is great! Tons of pine trees, incredible buildings, lots of brick style houses and apartments. He even took us to his family´s home. This was a really well furnished old style home with a great view. Overall we were very impressed with Bogota after the drives and the views.

So now it was time for eating and dancing. Yeah!! After talking to a few friends, our well connected Mauricio decided to take us to a little town outside Bogota called Chia. This is a town where people come to eat and to party, primarily. The most salient attraction here? ¨Andres Carne de Res¨ (translation is in order: Andy Cow Meat).

This place is hands down the best restaurant we have seen south of the US and up there compared to American places. The atmosphere was a mix of what the tin man´s house would look like, plus a little german beer hall layout, plus a little bit of TGI Friday´s. Not really sure what the hell is going on in this place as all the details (and there are many) are off the hook and completely make sense (some how). If you are ever in Bogota, you NEED to check this place out.

After having a great duo of tenderloins both blackened with peppers and free style we starting the drinking session. With all the crazy driving and still recovering from last night, I was initially out of commission. However, after dinner this quickly changed and I was back on the team. We drank some vodka and aguardiente (Colombian national drink). The three of us had met Ian and Juliana at this place. Juliana was a friend of Mauricio´s and Ian was a friend of a friend of Juliana visitinig today all the way from London on a business trip. Ian was a great guy and actually paid the whole bill!!! For him 70 pounds for 5 people after feasting and drinking the way that we did was nothing so he took the blame, all of it. In any case, Ian and Alexey, pretty much by themselves drank a whole bottle of Absolute which was pretty impressive.

The eating ended and the dancing got started. Everyone was dancing to old salsa (featuring Colombian legend Joe Arroyo) and other older local tunes including the Cumbia genre. Everyone was dancing and in short, we had blast! Soon after it was about 11:30PM and it was time to move. Juliana decided to take Ian to Cha Cha Club but considering that we were there last night and it did not go too way for our health we decided to pass. Don Hector, the driver, took Mauricio home and them Alexey and I to our hotel. We crash and later learned that Mauricio had gone to an after party in the early hours of the morning.. what a crazy guy!!! He really has tons of energy. On the other hand, we were sooooo happy to be home and sleep well tonight.