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admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:41:43 +0000

Unfortunately, it often seems here that the bicycle is considered the vehicle for the poor – something which the wealthy class which Bogotanos aspire to shouldn’t be bothered with. Maybe that’s why many major destinations, including shopping centers and even public buildings, ignore the law which requires them to provide bike parking. One time a friend and I went to the City Hall to talk to a councilman about bicycling issues. Unfortunately, there was no place there to park a bike, so that I ended up parking blocks away and the friend had to convince a neighboring storekeeper to store her bike in the back of his shop. What’s the message in that? Another time, I went to deposit money in a bank near a ritzy hotel. I locked the bike to a post on the sidewalk and went inside and got in line. I’d forgotten to bring a novel, as I always do to pass the time waiting. But the considerate local law enforcement officials were kind enough to fill my time. Very promptly, a security guard appeared and examined my bike suspiciously. Then some soldiers came, and a dark-suited man with a drug-sniffing dog. This bicycle parked on the sidewalk was a real crisis! The law enforcers examined the lock, made a few attempts to remove the offensive bicycle. Finally, they left, leaving one guy to stand guard by the fearful two-wheeler. Meanwhile, those of us standing in line were watching Bogotá’s finest deal with this tremendous threat to the city. When I finally left, I thanked the soldier for watching my bike, but he insisted that he had to take it away. Finally, after I’d discoursed on the benefits of cycling, the guy relented – and suggested that I give him a small financial gratification, which I did. It is true, of course, that Colombia has a civil war and that bicycles have occasionally been used to carry bombs. But cars carry much larger bombs, and nobody seems very concerned about them. To be fair, bicycle paranoia isn’t restricted to Bogotá. Years ago, I arrived in the small town of Greenville, Mississippi to work for the newspaper. On my second day I went to the bank to DEPOSIT money – which naturally meant showing my I.D.s, writing checks, filling out forms, etc. The next day at work the editors, who listened to the police scanner, asked me whether the cops had caught me. It seemed that a bank employee had reported me as a ’suspicious individual on a bicycle.’ I’ve heard of the crime of ‘driving while black.’ Is this one called ‘bicycling while existing?’ Anyway, something more timely – even if it does involve hippos! So, during his banner years, cocaine king Pablo Escobar populated his estate near Medellin with exotic animals, Michael Jackson style, including giraffes, zebras and even hippos. After Escobar was hunted down and killed, the estate was looted and the animals either died or got sent to zoos – except for the hippos, which happily reproduced. Several also escaped, and recently authorities decided that one family group was a public danger. So, animal control agents shot the male dead. That’s produced big public protests. Hippos actually do kill a lot of people in Africa. And they’re an exotic species here.

: Concern overflowed for the hippos

What’s all of this got to do with bike touring? Well, one of our tour stops is in a public park where displaced people are camped. Colombia actually has the world’s second-greatest number of displaced people, right behind Sudan. So, we talk about the nation’s civil war, and the great suffering it causes, especially to the nation’s poor campesinos. Which generally goes unnoticed and unprotested.

: These families once were farmers

That’s why this outpouring of moral outrage over the killing of a hippo strikes me as disproportional. So much for human rationality…. In the same Tercer Milenio Park we also visit the new Monument to Disarmament and Life

: The monument was built out of thousands of melted-down weapons.

Bogota Bike Tours

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