Bogota Zombie Bums
Alternate Title: Readers Attack – ‘Get the fuck out’!
SUMMARY: In a response to my second hate comment, I discuss the nature of bazuceros, the degree of drug abuse among the Bogota panhandlers, and my new resolution about some unlucky panhandler that insults me.
My second hate comment, from “Julian”:
Please get the fuck out. dude, seriously, you’re the only piece of walking trash in that beautiful city,
My first reaction to this comment was: Wow, he doesn’t know this city at all!
Or maybe he has a warped definition of “trash”. He may honestly believe that Bogota’s biggest problem is the gringos on work visas teaching English and going to AA meetings. What this city really needs is more drunks and addicts panhandling in the street. That’s where it really gets its charm!
Dumb-ass.
Aprovechadores vs. Those in Need
Alternate Title: Readers Attack – ‘Dumb american’ doesn’t care about ‘those in need’!
SUMMARY: I respond to my first hate comment in a rambling post about Latinos who take advantage of gringos, “those in need” in Colombia, and info and links about Colombia’s victims of internal displacement.
I don’t know what took so long, but below is my first hate comment.
Mike de Arequipa:
You really seem to care about those in need. I like how you handled the situation in the run down hostal in Cusco. It seemed to me that they were in need of a little cash but you were unwilling to forfeit a 150$ train ticket Aguas Calientes. You managed to frighten them, do more damage then the damage you had already done, and then flee the scene to blog about it in a jokingly manner. Bien Hecho! Do you have a name for this type of helping the poor. You are making a mess from city to city in your redneck fashion. Thanks for helping the generalizations about dumb Americans, you represent well! Can’t wait to hear more about your generosity.
Latinos’ Awful Writing Skills
SUMMARY: I explain that Latinos’ writing skills are horrible, with plenty of examples. I conclude with what I believe to be the root cause of this weakness.
Disclaimer #1: Of course not all Latinos’ writing sucks. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa have proven they can spell. Spanish-language journalists understand the utility of punctuation. And if you’re a Latino reading this, then you can probably write well. Maybe. But the majority of rank-and-file Latinos including white-collar professionals SUCK. This is not debatable. It’s fact.
Disclaimer #2: Remember that I love Latin culture. My decision to live down here, to spend most of my time with these people, and to create a new life here — my actions speak louder than words. However, you can’t expect someone to embrace every single aspect of a new culture. The shitty writing will never grow on me.
Disclaimer #3: I want to fully admit and take responsibility for how Americans have butchered the English language. Assuming Jamaican patois isn’t even English anymore, American English is the worst in the world. I apologize for that, especially to my Limey readers, but it doesn’t make Latinos’ writing any less shitty.
On to the evidence! … Read more
Yaje / Ayahuasca in Colombia
SUMMARY: I took yaje, a spiritual hallucinogen also known as ayahuasca, with Dennis The Mick last Saturday. This post features info on ayahuasca and the story of my experience.
Yaje, also known as ayahuasca, is a hallucinogenic brew made by mixing a few specific plants from the Amazon jungle. It’s most closely associated with Peru but also taken among indigenous populations in Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Beatnik writers William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg made ayahuasca famous after writing The Yage Letters.
Ayahuasca has the chemical compounds of DMT, the drug that fried one of Ken Kesey’s Merry Prankster groupie’s brains out in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. However, that was a super-concentrated pill form made in some 1960s experimental lab.
In practice, Ayahuasca is a spiritual exercise run by shamans. … Read more
Chapinero in Pictures
SUMMARY: Profile and pictures of the coolest neighborhood in Bogota, Chapinero.
