Eduardo is the guide from now on. I took a selfie with the to of us. He took a soo bike trip from Bogota to Rio which lasted almost 2 years! The trip today was a bit longer than yesterday and I came back pretty tired.
We started out in Candelária, which is the neighborhood where the bike shop is. According to one guidebook, La Candelaria is home to some of Bogotá’s most popular museums and attractions. The neighborhood is an eclectic juxtaposition between old and new, historic and modern. The beautiful buildings are typical of Spanish colonial architecture, while the streets boast some of the most unique graffiti murals you’ll ever see. It is certainly different from Phoenix!
We cycled around Parque Simon Bolivar. After this photo was taken, I saw the cross directly behind my head! Apparently it was only put up recently, right after the Pope Francis came to Colombia in 2017. Francis’ visit to Colombia was the first papal trip to the country since 1986, when the war with FARC was still raging and much of the country was off limits to Pope John Paul II. If we go back to the Parque, I will pose on the other side of Simon...
The next few photos show an area where many of the recent protests have taken place. They seemed to have ebbed, at least for the moment.
A series of ongoing protests began in Colombia on 28 April 2021 against increased taxes, corruption, and health care reform proposed by the government of President Iván Duque Márquez. Many of the people I spoke to do not like the president although they amit the issues go back decades.
The tax initiative was introduced to expand funding to Ingreso Solidario, a universal basic income social program established in April 2020 to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia, while the legislative Bill 010 proposed several changes in the health care system in Colombia. So the motivation was actually good although the timing was terrible.
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