Humedal Cordoba

It`s a big forested swamp.  I mentioned it in passing last week and yesterday I decided to explore it further.  It really is a wonderful spot of unspoiled nature and tranquility and just a half hour walk from where I am staying.  I actually like it better than the botanical garden because it isn`t overrun with people, is easier to get to and there is no admission.  There is a network of small trails throughout the forest there which is a bit tangled but not really dense and a lookout onto the swamp itself which in places is covered with Angels` Trumpents, these beautiful huge creamy white trumpet shaped flowers that hang down.  I still haven`t encountered any hummingbirds nor other colourful species but I am patient.  I started in the Niza mall (about an hour walk from my bed and breakfast) where I relaxed with a treat and coffee in the Oma cafe there.  It is quite tranquil with comfy seating and I got a lot of work done on a drawing while there.  I have almost finished the last page in my sketchbook and I am carrying with me a new book just in case I want to get started on something new today while I am out.  Then I wandered for a while through a couple of quiet subdivisions on my way to the Humedal.  It feels quite safe there and I encountered at a distance perhaps three different people during my time there.  I did almost get run over yesterday morning by an idiot making a sudden and unexpected U turn, and this rather stupid old woman next to me (she seems actually very typical of the local population this way) couldn`t understand why I was upset.  I simply told her in not my best Spanish (I was upset at the time) that when you put a Bogotano behind a steering wheel you get instant moron and kept walking.

I spent part of the afternoon in the Peruvian cafe in Pasadena where I did some more artwork and chatted with the owner.  We seem to be back on good terms again.  I think it was important to draw a boundary with him last time about poor service but my philosophy is to go back immediately to kindness and to try to stay there.  Then a guy in his forties sat at the next table with his twenty-something girlfriend and, well, one can only imagine, and often it is better not to.

This morning it has been raining off and on since I woke up this morning.  This is quite unusual for Bogota where it usually doesn`t begin to rain till at least three in the afternoon, but it isn`t a heavy rain, more in the style of Väncouver, which I find rather comforting.