Bogota, Colombia

I think it is safe to say the real part of the trip has begun. It became apparent, when after a 630 am flight out of Miami on about 2 hours of sleep, we found ourselves aimlessly wandering the streets of Bogota. Carrea 7 is like Market Street during Christmas everyday. And everyone speaks Spanish. And there are no gringos. It was the first of many times in the first 24 hours it really hit us we weren´t in San Francisco anymore. They have these people who have cell phones you can use, instead of payphones, and the yell "LLAMAR LLAMAR LLAMAR!!" (Call!). It got stuck in my head and every 5 mins I would yell it out. Zack said he is going to fine me everytime I yell it, but I don´t think he´ll be able to get a Colombian Peso out of me. Yup, we´re getting along just fine.

We toured the city for the day, still delirious, and have begun to realize how cheap it is down here. We got a full steak dinner for about $12 each, cabs are about $2, beers are about $1. Our hostels range between $7 and $10 per night. Awesome. There is a huge mountain range, I mean huge, just at the edge of the city. We took the cable car to the top, just in time for the clouds to roll in, but the view was still pretty insane and you can see how massive Bogota is. Being such a huge city, we are anxious to move on tomorrow when we depart for Medellin for 2 nights. That should be cool, then we will head up to the coast to Cartagena, Santa Marta, and El Parque Nacional de Tayrona where the jungle meets the Carribean.

Last but not least.... and what you´ve all been waiting for... BEARD WATCH: 3 Weeks. I´m sure some of you have some some comments so let´s see em. It´s been great hearing from everyone. Also, its not too late to join the South America train, we have just gotten the news that a few folks will be joining us. Check out the Agenda posted a few weeks back and take a moment to think about how awesome it would be to see our hairy faces in a foreign country. C´Mon....

LLAMAR LLAMAR LLAMAR!!!!!!