Quote:
Originally Posted by klmrocks
When in the La Calendaria and Santa Fe. I really did not feel that uncomfortable once I got more familar with where I was going. I walked at night with my daughter probably no later then 10 pm coming back from getting something to eat. There were police everywhere. There were people everywhere. It was not that empty expect for Sunday Night on the first night we where there... but the police where still very visible. I think in general though as a family we blended in fairly well. If was only when people were speaking to us directly and we really had no idea what they were saying and had the  look and said is broken Spanish we only understood a little Spanish. I got to tell you one thing that was 100% appreciated is that every time I ended up admitting that I only spoke a little Spanish the person helping me smiled and was super nice and patient. Example many times in stored I could not figure out the money. So honestly I was holding out a bill and hoping it was enough money lol and if it was not I was using the facial expressing to help guide the what to do next. After a few shots at that ... if it did not pull out the right amout of money the person would slowly explain what they were taking and my change to help me out. A few times I pulled out way too much money and the person pointed to the smaller bill. Not really the smartest shopping strategy ... but put it this way the high bill I had on me was worth around $30 Canadian if I someone did try to cheat me ... I was not exactly loosing a lot of money.
I think regarding walking around La Calendaria it is common sense. You walk where there are lots of people and do not walk too physically close to anyone. There were so many police officers everywhere that I really did not feel so unsafe. There was this street we walked down on Sunday night that seemed to have a lot of more shaddy people ex homeless or junkies. No one brothered us at all. I question if it was just because we did not really stand out too much. We did act too interested in what they were doing and kept on moving. That time we were walking in the direction of area with all the zone of tolerance ... but we did not go that far. After we saw that area we decided we better head back to the hotel or in another direction. I did not have a hand bang. We had a plastic bag with a few drinks in it from a grocery store. I see stuff like this in my city so it is not really a big deal for me. I think if we looked scared or freaked out then we would have attracted attention.
There was this transgendered prostitue standing in front of the hotel. I am not really sure why? As it was pretty obvious and the police were like a few sections away. Also not a big deal. Prostitutes don't usually bug anyone. They are working and unless you look like a potential customer they could care less.
In the Zona Rosa and surrounding areas we walked around for a few hours aimlessly and did not feel unsafe.
La Calendaria and Santa Fe just had more people around, more street vendors and food traffic. More like a typical central down town area. I don't recall feeling that unsafe except for the first day because we had no idea what to expect. |
Of course the fact that their HAVE to be so many police officers tells you they have had comparatively recent crime problems in the area. La Calendaria is like many Latin American city old historic downtowns, it was semi abandoned, but now the city and national governments promote development and gentrification. There's a lot of new building construction in La Calendaria, and I think it will be a much nicer place in 15 or 20 years. It's good we both went there and saw it now. I would say Bogota does need to finally figure out how to finance a metro and just build it, instead of talking about it. You have gentrification in Latin America cities as governments give companies tax credits for developing run down and busted up areas of town.
So there is a lot of economic growth across the region. I am certainly not one to say everything is bad in Latin America, in most places things are much better than it was in the 70s or 80s.
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