QueenPuya

Today we drove back to Bogota and I found Puya bicolor, a desert-loving Puya in full bloom.  Quite a treat to finally find a plant at the height of its bloom time!  We got back early and spent the afternoon at the spa with Diana, where I got kind of a drastic haircut (but I think I like it) and my nails done....again!   I went to a yoga class with Diana and Bianca and felt pain and pleasure as my very sore muscles got all stretched out.

I am very sad to report the sudden passing of my uncle Dave a few days ago.  He loved adventure and learning about new cultures and I think of him as I see all the beautiful places here.  I will miss him.

Off to one more national park tomorrow- Chingaza- then for a night of serious dancing.  This is the land of Shakira, after all...

Sorry I haven't written in so long.  I've been happily busy hiking and photographing plants, restored to more or less full health.  I moved venues and am now staying with Mauricio and his wife Diana and his families Bogota home.  It is our basecamp for all our fieldtrips and it is hard to keep fieldgear and plant specimens from making the house dirty.  His family is just lovely, though.  I enjoy morning chats with Gilberto and Bianca (his parents) and I got to meet his sister and her husband, both very famous dolphin biologists who maintain a freshwater dolphin refuge in the Amazon!  How cool would it be to see that...

Over the past three days, Mauricio and I have visited three different paramos and I have been able to collect five species of my Puya plants.  We drove our hilariously small car (the Chevrolet Spark, with wheels the size of a medium pizza) up to a satellite antennae watchtower on the first day of collecting.  We brought cookies for the soldiers stationed there, which I think they appreciated in this fairly isolated place.  Two of Mauricio's former students, Diego and Camilo accompanied us and were very useful.  We lucked out and had no rain, making it ever so nice to sit in the sun enjoying the view.  After I took my first transect data, we headed to a small side canyon for a taste of a tropical forest.  The next day we went to a paramo just behind Bogota and we were surprised to find an ex-president of Colombia and his family hiking there too with us.  There was one armed guard with them, but I think it speaks volumes to the security situation here that we were able to sort of talk with him and no one really harassed us.  Well, I didn't talk because in many situations I am silent so no one will know I'm a foreigner.  Its just easier that way.  I'd like to think I could pass for Colombian, but past basic greetings, I'd be found out.  This paramo, Cruz Verde, had thousands of the giant Puya goudotiana, the largest plant I've seen to date.  Unfortunately I missed the bloom on all species of these plants, which I'm sure must be spectacular.  But a three meter tall giant is impressive even when setting seed.  I waded through a sphagnum bog with Diego, making another transect, when to my dismay I saw that some individuals of this plant were able to reproduce vegetatively, shooting my whole theory that was going to make me "famous", but such is science.  I'll keep graphing anyway and hopefully I  can cobble together enough data to make some sense of this mess.  It is a terribly nice way to pass the time, though.  The paramo is so quiet and sometimes you can hear distant thunder.  I was very glad it didn't rain again that day, or I would have been swamped and miserable.  The next day it did rain, but not too bad.  We took a bus to a more distant place with Chlorofila, a hiking group that Mauricio is part of, and we hiked in with about 25 other people.  I was even introduced as a sort of paramo expert and gave a little talk in Spanish about my work, which I guess went kind of well.  It was fun to be back in botany teaching mode, even if in another language.  I saw fields of Puya santosii, which come in two distinct sizes and love moist soil.  I finally saw the super-fuzzy and diminuitive Puya trianae, which had just finished its bloom and I saw a few fading blue flowers.  I truly hope I can see just a few full flowers of it at some point!  The hiking, at around 12000ft elevation was ok when it was level, but we made one final push up a slope to have a nice view of the lake below for lunch and Diego literally had to push me up the slope!  I really hope I'm up for the more difficult paramos to come.  At the top, cold potatoes and rice never tasted so good and we could see for mile!  Clouds would roll through quickly, making it quite cold and then would leave, making it quite warm.  I've never felt weather change so quickly.  It misted and drizzled on us all the way back, which made for a cold ride home.  I was so happy to take a shower, get dressed up and go out for dinner with Mauricio and Diana to a lovely place overlooking a square filled with lights and families celebrating Christmas.  A charmed life, indeed.  Today we are taking a break and I might head soon to the Botanical Garden.  Tomorrow begins the more difficult paramos and we will do a three-day trip a bit north starting wednesday.  More later!

My mom, via Skype, told me that I should reassure everyone of my current state.  So I will!  I at "home" now, eating rich and drinking fruit juice and regaining strength.  I am well into my antibiotics regiment and so far everything is staying down.  Hopefully tomorrow I will be well enough to see my first paramo....small and easy, but a start!  I'm getting a little cooped up, but it is very nice to lounge about, too.  Adriana and I had manicures and pedicures done by a nice woman who came to the house today.  I have to look my best in the field!  No real news other than that.  This really knocked me out, but I'm mending.  I've heard from several other people stories of other newly arrived travelers who got the same thing.  And I lucked out with just a single day in the hospital!  Ok, back to sleep for me....then I'll eat a potato and watch some futbal.

I made my triumphant return to the world of work today, with a much-needed trip to the herbarium of Colombia.  Juan hooked me up with a driver friend of his, thinking he'd be less likely to rip me off than a regular taxi.  I appreciate it, as Colombia is more expensive than I thought.  Damn dollar.  Pedro Alphonso drove me halfway across town and chatted away at me the whole time.  My spanish is ok, but whenever I'm asked a question directly I freeze up and I can only be useful in Spanish for about 10 minutes max at a time.   In a cab usually I just answer some question that I think might be of interest, such as my thoughts on the weather, Colombia, rumba music etc.  Maybe half the time I'm right.  I have gotten a good sense of the typical South American cab conversation and I know what they like to hear.  Compare their country to others (its always better!  Actually, they do keep improving...) , talk about my husband and my family, compliment the food, list tourist attractions I've seen.  Whenever they talk, I mostly just say Si!  excitedly or Claro...  Si as the answer to everything can get you in trouble when things start to matter.  Somehow I ended up at the dental school with the driver, who was looking for a friend of his to help us find the herbarium, even though I knew exactly where it was.  I tried time and time again to ask him to repeat again slowly and that I am not good at Spanish, but I'm particularly cursed in that my spoken Spanish is way better than my oral comprehension of Spanish, which is not easy for other people to understand.  Ah well.... I found the herbarium, a very nice herbarium director, and several nice students who tried English on me and asked me about grad programs in the US.  I spent hours photographing dead plants, but it was actually the most fun I've ever had at this hated task, because there really aren't that many species of Puya in Colombia (only about 8 are common) and they are well collected, so I got to see many specimens of just a few species, and really got to know them, page after page.  The Colombian species are particularly difficult to tell apart, as they super fuzzy and look like a wad of  seedy black cotton on the herbarium papers.  I am super excited to see them in real life, though!  Soon...maybe Wednesday?  

I said sí, claro a million times this weekend, over two very long lunches with Juan's extended family.  We had the very tastiest food and I'm now enamored with Colombian cuisine and searching for a good cookbook.  I've never gone hungry in South America, but here I actually look forward to every meal.  I made it through half a bowl of tripe soup before I realized what it was, but by then I was over it and kept on going.  They drink a lot of hard liquor here, so that helped too.  It is amazing to me the focus on family time here and the extremely high tolerance these people have for each other.  That sounds bad, I guess, but lets be honest that no matter how much we all love each other in the US and how good a time we are having, we can only take so much talk before needing to be alone or apart.  I have yet to see that threshold here, which I guess helps out this freeloading gringa.  Also this weekend Juan and I went to the Feria de Artisanias.  It was very similar to the one Matt and I went to last year in BA, but about twice as large and a bit more expensive.  I dropped some serious cash, but I am thoroughly happy.  They do AMAZING work down here...it is such a pity that I've never seen Colombian crafts for sale in the US.  They are spectacular (and really make my mass-produced Andean knits I've been giving away as presents look kind of ghetto).   If you like shopping, I'd HIGHLY recommend a trip to a major South American city pre-Christmas.  Luckily we had to leave for another family lunch (with the exact same people!!), or I would be flat broke and way over my 100lb luggage limit.  Good thing jewelry doesn't weigh much.  OK, Sloppy Joes are ready so I'm off.  Good night and I'll write more hopefully when I have Puya plants in hand.

Yesterday I was restored to full health, thanks to a lot of sleep and healthy dose of papaya and I was fully able to enjoy the city.  I spent the morning watching MariaAlejandra in her first photoshoot for Huggies Colombia.  She and three other babies were dressed up in ponchos and little hats in traditional Caribbean Colombian style.  Good thing she wasn't a boy, because they had to have eye-liner drawn mustaches, which were hilarious.  She was one of the best behaved babies and was invited back for additional photoshoots.  And a star is born!  In the afternoon Juan Felipe and I headed to the historic downtown, La Candelaria.  It took forever to find a cab and we had to take a bus to an area not so crowded to find a cab, which was a bit absurd and perhaps is just the first in a long series of wrestling with Bogota traffic.  It really is bad.   La Candelaria was beautifully restored and the 400 year old buildings with spanish tile roofs and wooden balconies were painted a riot of colors.  We got to see some people on stilts doing a dance- Juan says this is a very bohemian area.  I've been to historic downtowns like this in every major Latin American city I've visited, but I think I might like Bogota the most.  It was very clean and well maintained and easy to navigate.  We saw the place where the city was supposedly founded (founded by Spaniards looking for the gold of El Dorado dumped in a nearby lake, supposedly) and also saw all the major government buildings, including the presidential palace and congress.  I was told that the Colombian president is the most heavily guarded politician in the world, but you wouldn't really know it walking around.  The military presence is at a minimum and I don't see an uncomfortably large number of guns.  I've had my bag searched many times, upon entering the mall or passing the government buildings, but nothing ridiculous.  I feel perfectly safe here, and judging by the hordes of Christmas shoppers they do as well.  Bogota is Christmased to the max, above and beyond most places I've seen in the US.  We walked for miles, sometimes in the rain, looking at the lights last night.  The streets were packed with people and periodically a big crowd would stop to see street performers.  Well over half the street performers were wearing the full eagle plumed costumes of North American plains Indians and were dancing and playing pipes!  I would be very interested to know if those were actual North American Indians or local Indians playing at something more "exotic".    We ended at  a major park where everyone was lighting candles and putting them in circles around the bases of trees.  We were treated to a lovely firework display, set to the tune of a million car alarms  Afterwards we ended up at a British-style pub with some of Juan's friends.  I got to practice my Spanish some, which I haven't gotten to do much as Juan, Gustavo and Adriana (his wife) all are fluent in English.  I have it pretty good, I know.   

Welcome back to the blog!  I stopped it almost a year ago, but being back in Latin America for less then 24 hours and I feel in some ways like I never left.   Thankfully, my Spanish ear and brain is intact and the very straightforward Colombian Spanish is making sense to me.  Not that it really matters- everyone around me speaks flawless English.  My journey began at 5 am yesterday when I awoke to 6 inches of fresh Madison snow and a great fear that my flight had been canceled.  Good thing the plows were out in force and Matt was able to get me to the airport just fine.  Good thing, too, that Matt is such a good sport and put up with days of my airport anxiety.  I really hate airports more than anything and am completely irrational right before I fly.  All was good in Madison until a windowwasher tripped an alarm and we almost had to evacuate the building!  Right before the plane was scheduled to leave!  Good thing calmer minds prevailed and I made it to Chicago and then to Miami and then to Bogota, with hour delays at every point.  The airplane to Bogota was sadly ghetto and I didn't get to nuzzle into a flexible headrest or pick my movie to watch, but it was less than four hours so who cares.  What a change from flying to the true Southern Hemisphere!  I ate all the dinner, which was probably my downfall later on.  I befriended the nice Colombiana next to me and we braved the Bogota El Dorado airport, woefully small and understaffed, together.  Of course, our luggage was on the last possible cart to arrive, but it did so I don't care!  Colombian customs and security was easy even by South American standards, exactly the opposite of what I expected.  There was no searching of my bags, no discussion of what silica gel is...nothing.  Minimal scary dudes with guns and plenty of guys to pay to haul your luggage...excelente!   At customs I turned on my cute "I'm just learning" Spanish and they ate it up, no questions asked.  Luckily Juan picked me right out in the sea of faces and we were on our way.  Thank God for Facebook so we know what each other looks like!  We drove with his brother Gustavo and friend past amazing Christmas light displays hanging off big-box stores, the second largest US Embassy on earth, many skyscrapers and soccer stadiums.  They took me up to the beautiful condo of Gustavo and wife Adriana, which is by far the nicest place I've stayed in South America.  For sure.  I have wifi, filtered water, cable, a servant, my own room and a view of a mountain and unlimited access to Maria Alejandra, their beautiful baby girl.  She is stunningly cute and has been selected to be in an ad campaign for Huggies diapers in Colombia.  She has her first photo shoot tomorrow!  I guess that is how Drew Barrymore got her start too...  I initially slept well, but then I woke up and knew what had to be done, much as I hated it.  After quite a bit of throwing up, I was much better and was able to eat Mango and Papaya for breakfast.  It is going to be an all-out fruit fest while I'm here!  Right now Gustavo and Juan are rapidly talking to clients and businessmen on cell phones, getting business done so we can go out.  I think we are going to see  the historic downtown in a bit.  I'm way excited that there is a major holiday craft fair in town too- maybe I can try to replicate some of the fun Matt and I had shopping Buenos Aires last year.  We are going to a big family dinner tomorrow and then will see museums, gardens, shops and all the "usual" Colombian things.  So far so good.