Bogota

Should I be afraid?

Here's my deal. Pay my rate, fly me in the front of the plane, and I'll pretty much go anywhere. Because life is short and I want to experience it all. Sure, you can sit at home and go anywhere and everywhere on the Net, but it's not like being there. Travel makes you feel so alive, so invigorated.

It's the little things.

So I'm in the airport in El Salvador. And they have twist knobs in the sinks. Those disappeared long ago in America, with the side vent windows in automobiles. Not that El Salvador is backward, anything but. But it's different.

That's where I stopped first. It was so green! That's what everybody always says about New England. I shrugged my shoulders. But having lived in L.A. for so long when it's lush you notice. And the volcano... We've got nothing like this in the U.S. Completely flat land and then a sno-cone of a peak jutting up thousands of feet in the air.

That was my connection. I originally planned to go through Miami. On American. That's my airline of choice, that's where I've got my points and my status.

But... The times were wrong. I had to leave at 5:55 AM. Which for me means I've got to stay up all night. And I was willing to leave at 8, but I'd only have fifty minutes to make my connection. Which you don't want to miss, there aren't that many flights.

Or I could leave at 9 and connect on Avianca an hour and a half later. But would that actually be worse? Changing airlines? And it cost $800 more.

Oh, what do you think it costs to fly business class to Bogota?

NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT DOLLARS!

I'm checking Orbitz again and again, there must be a mistake.

But then Camilo in Bogota suggests TACA, it leaves when I want it to.

Come on, I'm not flying on TACA airlines! Didn't that Korean jet just crash in San Francisco? Isn't El Salvador's airport the one Gladwell mentioned in his book, where the foreign pilots kept crashing?

But by going through El Salvador, I saved 2-3 hours.

That I'm in for.

So I left yesterday and the plane was brand new and there were only three rows in business class and I can't say there was a ton of legroom. And it was a tiny jet from El Salvador to Bogota. But I made it, on time! Except it appeared my bag hadn't arrived. Turns out someone took it off the baggage carousel. But a woman in the airport helped me. Not the man with the dog sniffing for drugs.

Or was it explosives?

Saw that this afternoon. The cop with the dog in a jacket that said "explosivas," or something like that.

And I had to scan my bags on the way OUT of the airport, that's never happened to me before...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, business class via TACA, the national airline of San Salvador, recently sold to Avianca, was $1385. Your money goes a long way down here. But will you come back?

I'm not a paranoid kind of guy. I spent time in New York in the sixties and seventies. There are places you don't go, you watch your wallet and your p's and q's.

But if you research going to Bogota online you won't. I'd already committed, I was just looking up hotels. And I was horrified.

Then people started to e-mail me. To be afraid, very afraid.

And then I got scared.

Oh, the hotel is wonderful, the Charleston. They say it's located near the Melrose of Bogota.

But looking outside...

Funny thing, Bogota doesn't look like Russia, but it doesn't look wholly first class either. Oh, the old buildings are precious. And there are some high quality steel and glass ones. But in the middle, there's this low level sketchiness and the sidewalks are rarely flat and you know you're not in Los Angeles but you're not quite sure where you are.

I was stunned that it got light at 6 AM.

But it turns out it gets dark at 6 PM.

Bogota is two degrees from the equator.

And it's at 8,650 feet. Thank god I acclimated in Colorado two weeks before I came.

And I'd like to tell you exactly why it's here, but we Americans know nothing about countries outside our borders. We're just sold the notion that we're the best and that's it. And we may vacation in Mexico, at least before the drug war, but really we look first to Europe, not South America.

And there are huge mountains here. Not that I could see many today, the clouds obscured them. You know, the black ones, that portend rain.

So first thing I did an interview with "El Tiempo," the big newspaper. And what's funny is the issues are the same wherever you go, radio payola and getting noticed and paid. And I never realize how much I care about these topics until you get me talking about them. Because they're a microcosm of life. What path do I take? How do I navigate the twists and turns?

Speaking of which, I spent all afternoon with Andrew Loog Oldham, of Rolling Stones fame. We went to a restaurant with a glass ceiling and ate soft cheese and this spinach souffle/tart that was absolutely scrumptious as he regaled me with tales of both yesteryear and today.

You see to make it in the music business back then, you needed pluck. It wasn't about education, it was about keeping your eyes open and seizing opportunities. Yes, music business people are hustlers. As are the techies. That's what Steve Jobs was, an incredible hustler...and hypester too. And what Apple made has sometimes been art, but true art is different, at least music is. It's collaborative, it touches souls and money never comes first, because it gets in the way of making it.

So I'd like to tell you I've got a feel for Bogota. But I haven't quite nailed it yet. Fernan Martinez, who flew me down here, to speak at a conference, who used to manage Juanes and worked with Julio Iglesias and is also a concert promoter, is gonna come by for a drink soon.

And I want to go to the police museum. You won't find it on the first page of TripAdvisor. Andrew hadn't even heard of it. But it was number one on the Lonely Planet. With all the drug war stuff, they said it was fantastic.

And I want to hit the tourist haunts, the museums and the government buildings, and normally I'd just walk or take a taxi...but that's one thing they tell you to never do, hail a taxi from the street. Andrew says I want a car with me at all times, that it's only fifty dollars a day.

Fifty isn't much to save your life. But is that enough, to get a driver, if I'm out there alone?

Everybody in Bogota says it's totally safe.

And then one block from the hotel a guy accosted us and wouldn't let go. Andrew kept blowing him off, he turned to me and asked me if I was an American...

I'm wearing a baseball cap that says "Mammoth Mountain California." My skin is pink in a land of brown. Am I a target?


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