I am awakened by the sound of screeching tires and someone laying on the horn. There is neither air conditioner or heater in my apartment because they are not needed. I sleep with the sliding door open to the night air. After 11:00 or 12:00 at night it’s pretty darn quiet for a large city. Much quieter than my apartment here in Atlanta in fact. Anyway, it must be Monday morning because I notice that the sound of the traffic is more intense than before. I also note that the horn is a way of life here. I collect myself and shower. At 10:00 I have my first meeting with William and Angela down the street at their office. Before I leave, I call Delta to check on my missing suitcase. That had assured me that it would probably be on the next plane and that I should have it by Monday. I call. No suitcase, señor. I resign myself to its fate and decide that I’ll just have the hotel do some laundry for me later in the week to make the stuff I had purchased last me until I arrived in Cartagena on Friday. Still, I’d have to purchase a swim suit, sandals and maybe some shorts but I could do that in Cartagena. By this time, I’m fairly comfortable with my immediate surroundings so I bust on over to Unicentro on the way down to Odee and grab some pesos from an ATM. Their office is a block or so down Avenida 15 from the hotel. An easy 5 minute walk. It’s in a bank building, I think Banco Union Colombiano but I’m not sure. Anyway, it was easy enough to find. When I arrive Angela is the only one there. The office is small and non-descript, Angela works everything from one very cluttered and overloaded desk. I introduce myself and we proceed to converse in Spanish at her insistence. “Practice, practice, practice!” she says. I think that in reality she doesn’t understand or speak English that well and the practice routine is a ruse. Fine, I’m game and she’s right anyway. I need the practice. She’s bubbly and full of herself, seems very happy with what she does. She tells me William will be along shortly and we discuss my meetings so far and my impression of Colombia and Bogotá. William shows up directly. He’s much younger than I envisioned, maybe early thirties. He speaks English well and has always been my only conduit to Odee. Anyway, we discuss some business and that’s when I find out that they put the roses (Two dozen I think. I gave each of the ladies I met one. They loved it.) in my apartment and that the hotel will bring the breakfast to my room if I let them know when to deliver. Also, it was not made clear to me until this point in time just how the initial meetings are handled. I was laboring under the impression that they would reserve a table at a nice restaurant for the initial meetings, however I find out that is not the case. I guess this would be the one critique I have of Odee. Many of the details of the service offered were not revealed to me until I arrived in Bogotá. I’m a do it yourself kind of guy so it’s probably my fault for not asking more questions. However, for those who might chose to use Odee you might want to be aware of this and ask a few more questions about the process. Maybe these things are mentioned somewhere on the website but I was not aware. Anyway, it’s a small matter, I think, and of little importance to me in the long run. But for everyone’s enlightenment, for the initial meetings, they set up two day and you are free to do what you wish with your date. If you wish to meet again, William will arrange reservations at one of the nicer restaurants in Bogotá. If that is what you like. You are under no obligation to do so and my impression is that they will do as much or as little for you as you wish. I typically handled the ladies myself and initially would let them chose anyplace they wished to eat, visit or what the heck ever. “Eres mi guía!”, I would say and they always ran with it. I used William and Angela to deal with other things, like booking flights to Cartagena, making hotel reservations and phone calls that I didn’t have time to make, basically performing the work of an executive secretary if you like.
They had set up a lunch meeting for that day with one lady who I did not know and had never emailed or phoned. As an aside, until you pull the reigns in, Angela will set up meetings. Before I left for Colombia, I had given them the names of five ladies who I wished to meet while there. One lady decided she didn’t want to meet after all (More on that later. For now, I’ll be charitable and tell you that she turned out to be a bit odd.) so that left four ladies. I had five whole days in Bogotá so I knew I’d have plenty of time later in the week to spend with one or two if I thought the relationship had potential. However, when William emailed me the schedule of meetings a few days before I left, I saw that Angela had arranged two meetings with ladies I didn’t know at all. That would eat up an additional day and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do that. So I looked at the profiles on their website and one of these ladies was only 23 y/o. Very nice looking and I’m sure a nice person but no way, no how. Some of you 40-somethings might not mind a 23 y/o but not the Kid. WAY too young for me. I email William and tell him to tell Angela to cease and desist. I’ll meet the other unknown but cancel the 23 y/o and DO NOT set up any other meetings. The point of all this is to be aware that they will overwhelm you with meetings if you are not proactive about it. Be very specific about what you desire in a woman and make sure they know. The unknown is 28 y/o, a veterinarian and Angela says she speaks English very, very well. I’ll call her O.L. and I met her at the office of Odee at 1PM that day. Once again, I am not disappointed. O.L. is much nicer looking in person than in her photos. We exchange greetings and agree that as much as possible we’ll speak in Spanish. I need the practice. After discussing what to do that afternoon, we decide that she will take me down to El Centro to a restaurant that serves typical Colombian food, Casa Vieja. Afterward, she would show me around El Centro and la Candalaria. Cool, I’m going downtown and I am jazzed. Then to top it off, she wants to take the bus. She says it’s cheaper and she prefers it to taxis. “Very cool”, I’m thinking. “I am riding public transportation in Bogotá, Colombia.” We hop the next bus for El Centro and proceed to chatter away in Spanish. She speaks slowly so it’s easier for me to understand what she’s saying. We have a pretty lively conversation, she’s clearly very intelligent and I find out she’s traveled all over Europe and SA, but not to the US. She spent a year in England just so she could improve her skill with the English language. Turns out she’s from a somewhat upper class background. (The bus thing is starting to come into focus now.) The bus ride to the restaurant was fine and I actually enjoyed it. It’s much cheaper than a taxi, around 2.000 pesos for the two of us, but DO NOT attempt it the first time alone unless you are already pretty comfortable with the environment in Bogotá. The restaurant is very nice, we had a table by the window so you could see the action in the street. The food was excellent and I understand that this restaurant is one of the best in Bogotá for Colombian fare. O.L. is not the like the Colombianas I’ve encountered so far. I find out that she loves things European and American (big U2 and underground or alternative music) and is not really interested in settling down at the moment. She still wants to travel quite a bit. After eating, we decide to walk down into El Centro, to the Plaza de Bolivar and back through la Candalaria. Man, what an experience. I don’t remember what the street names were but we started close to the Colpatria Tower (tallest building in Colombia, built in 1979, 50 stories, 630 ft.) and I think we ended up on Carrera 7. We walked all the way down to the Plaza de Bolivar then cut up into la Candalaria. I didn’t have my camera with me that day and now I regret it. O.L. shared my love of photography and we agreed that if I had time later in the week we’d meet up again, this time armed with my camera. She told me that there is an observation deck on the top of the Colpatria Tower that allows you a wonderful view of Bogota. Of course there is a small fee for access. I definitely wanted to do that and to get some shots along Carrera 7 and of the Plaza. We stop at a couple of old churches/cathedrals on the way down to the Plaza, Iglesia La Tercera and la Iglesia San Francisco I think. Absolutely incredible. You have to see them. Down from the Plaza, there were more men with uniforms and guns than I’ve seen since boot camp. For you who don’t know, this is ground zero. The center of Colombian government. The executive, legislative and judicial branches all housed within the space of a couple of city blocks. And the mayor of Bogotá as well. So you bet your bippy they have plenty of security around. We hang a left and head toward la Candalaria. On the way we pass the Museo Casa de la Moneda (I would actually visit here on Wednesday), la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango then we hook back toward the south I think and pass through some university, maybe el Colegio de Nuestra Senora del Rosario?? I was having a blast but I do not recommend this unless you have someone who knows the neighborhood and is not afraid to bust up through it. O.L. seemed to love it, she told me she often went walking through the area. She had gone to college close by, I think at the one we passed through but to be honest I can’t remember. It’s getting late and I have a dinner date so we make our way back down to one of the main streets, either Carrera 7 or Avenida Jimenez de Casada and catch a bus for the hotel. Traffic is a mess but that’s cool because I can take in more of what’s around me on the way. We pass the hull of the El Nogal on the way back and again I am kicking myself for not having my camera. Probably wouldn’t be to hip to have on the bus though. I resolve to come back down here before I leave and try to get a shot of El Nogal. I’d love to show it to all my sissy friends who razzed me for going to Colombia. We get off the bus just before the hotel, she writes her home number down and I agree that if I have time later in the week we’ll bust on back down to El Centro for some photos. All in all, I had a blast and I’m glad Angela set this one up. However, we both understand that this relationship will be friends only. We are clearly on different flight paths.
Dinner that night was with T.I., a 32 y/o fireball who owns her own clothing design business. We’ve spoken on the phone a couple of times already and know quite a bit about each other. At this point, she’s probably the one I was most anxious to meet because we had such good conversations and seem to share a lot of things in common. She also speaks English very well. She’s a bundle of energy and sometimes she gets so wound up I have to ask her to slow down even when she speaks in English! She is also very attractive with all the right things in all the right places. When she shows up at the hotel we agree to have dinner there because she’s tired of driving around (she has her own car) and doesn’t want to battle the traffic. That’s cool, the hotel restaurant is excellent. We have a nice dinner and talk about many things. Of all the ladies she asks me the most and the toughest questions, especially about God and religion. We cover some fairly profound territory in this regard and she is on it every step of the way. You can almost hear the gears turning in that mind of hers. FYI, I’m Christian in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and this seems to interest at least some of the ladies I met. The Christian part, that is. Several of the Catholics asked me early on about religion and what I thought about the Catholic Church, etc. To be honest, I think that many have a bad impression of Christians based on what they’ve seen of them in their country. “Son fanáticos religiosos”, they’ll say. T.I. is Christian as well but I think she was probing to find out just how serious I was about it. Pretty darn serious it turns out, but I explain my beliefs well and can usually calm any fears about fanaticism. At this point, I’m beginning to sense a sort of “Yes, I want a good man, but I don’t want him to be too good, if you know what I mean” mindset with T.I. and a couple of the others I’d spoken with on the phone. In any event, I am very impressed with her and she says she likes me as well. We agree to meet on Thursday and spend the entire day together. I’ll call her cell phone on Tuesday or Wednesday to arrange particulars. She has to bug out around 10P so I walk her to her car in a lot around the corner from the hotel and we say our goodbyes. All in all, I’ve had an absolute ball on this day. As I walk back to the hotel from the street, I look up at the sky. Stars, and the night is cool and comfortable. Get on the damn plane.
Next: Day Four, Tuesday March 4th.
