A little over 2 weeks ago, I arrived in Bogota, times seem to have gone by so fast, my trip to Colombia has come to the last day already. Today is still full day in Bogota, because my return flight would take off until midnight. I really have no other plan, other than the 2nd COVID test I need to take at the airport. I really only am required one COVID test, but I am doing two just to be on the safe side. What confusing is that the requirement says one day prior to departure, does it count in hours or calendar day?! I do not want to mess this up.
Since I still have some Colombian pesos left, I thought I would indulge myself and go to one more record shop to use up the rest of pesos. Before that, I first took an Uber to Santuario Nuestra Señora del Carmen (the gothic church) to see if I have any luck getting in. Nope. The gate was half open when I arrived, but when I approached, the guard closed it. Bitch, I did not even the chance to ask in my incomplete Spanish sentences, he just gave me the “Bye Felicia!” at my face. Oh well, I am guessing this place is really not open for visitors. I walked to Cosmos Zapateria in the Centro district about 15 mins away. Zapateria actually means shoe shop, but interestingly, it also sells records, it was featured in this youtube video, this place played kind of any important role in the vinyl culture in Bogota, kind of an institution evidently.
When I walked it, shoes were on both sides of the wall, plain leather shoes. In the middle, there were boxes and boxes of records on tables, they are priced at 5000 COP, 10000 COP, 20000 COP… and so on. I guess those were equivalent to our dollar bins. Nothing were interesting, so I asked them, “Todos aqui” and I was pointing the stairs behind their back, I was suspecting there were more in the back, and instead there was. They asked what kind of genres I was looking for. I said, Rock, Colombian, Soul, Reggae..etc. They said they do not have rock, but they do. Maybe to them, rock really refers to the hard rock kind. I saw lots of Pink Floyd, Bowie and stuff. They brought me to the 2nd level, where I spent a good amount of time (2.5 hours) that I only managed to go through one wall of records. I did not even checked out the Latino side. Just checked soul, jazz and pop stuff. Interestingly, there was also a bed in the 2nd floor, look like someone sleeps there at night. The records were not pried, so when the guy came up again, I asked him how much the records are. He kind of went through the stuff I picked so far, and say these are 20000 COP, these are 40000 COP, and the scratchy Prince record is 60000 COP. he really did not look at any of the vinyl condition themselves, just judged by the artists and albums.
Nothing I bought were “expensive” expensive, all were between 20000 COP to 40000 COP (equivalent to 5 to 10 USD). I think the real expensive stuff were on the third floor, I was looking for James Brown, but I did not see any. Oh well, my mission had been accomplished anyway, to use up all my Colombian pesos. In fact, I used my covid test money as well and I ended up have to take another 200000 COP from ATM.
I did not eat lunch after the record shop, who needs lunch if I got the records I like. It started to rain, downpour in fact, I hid under some thin roof with my jacket covering the records and called an Uber to go to the airport for the COVID test, the traffic was so bad. The Uber driver did not speak English but seemed like an honest guy, so I typed a message to show: “I am going to take the COVID test for traveling tonight, my appointment is at 3:10pm, can you wait for me and then take me back to the center, I can pay you 50000 COP for it, is that acceptable?” He said Si. Awesome! I just made a deal without a word of English. The COVID test went pretty quickly, I texted him back, he picked up and sent me to a shopping mall that I requested, that was the same shopping mall I watched Ghostbuster with Carlos on Day 3. I just needed a place to kill a few hours before heading for my flight, I figured I could eat, have my coffee and sit around in a shopping mall. I wait till 8pm, I picked up my backpack back at the Airbnb and then I finally headed to airport.
The traffic in the evening was even worst. At the point, I already knew my flight was delayed for an hour. When I talked the Jetblue stuff at the check-in desk, they checked my COVID test result, I first showed them my PCR negative result from yesterday, he kind of looked at the date and time and had this iffy look on his face, probably he did not seem to like the fact that the test were done more than 24 hours from my departure time. So, I said I have another one, which was the antigen test that I took this afternoon, which was also negative. He was ok with that. I had to show them the attestation I have filled online for the US, the immigration form I filled online for Colombia, and my vaccine card to show that I was fully vaccinated. I was sweating like a pig at this point, because the backpack and records were so heavy. I had to change my shirts before boarding. I made to my flight at 1am (technically that is Day 17 already), and we were on my way back to the United States of America.
This also concludes my 4th South America journey. Almost 2 years of COVID restrictions and obstacles, I have finally got back on the roads. For the most part, aside from wearing the masks the whole time, I have done exactly what I would have done in my previous trip. The COVID did not stop me from jumping off a cliff, or hiking into the jungle with a coffee farmer and a skinny tour guide without fully understood the consequences. I enjoyed those experiences. There is an adventurous side in me that from time to time, I need to do a trip like this, which revitalizes me, re-center my head, re-evaluate what is important in life. Now I can go back to my mundane work and daily life. Until next time.
