Business on a Bike in Bogota

Nancy, a 30-something woman from Bogota, is on her way to work.

Under a sunny Bogota sky, she’s mounted on a motorcycle that is large for her small frame. On the highway headed north, she twists and turns through mid-morning traffic, narrowly missing getting hit by taxis and buses plowing through the heavily congested lanes.

Almost on the outskirts of the city, she turns right into the parking lot of a shopping mall. She parks her motorcycle in a central area and places the helmet on the seat. She opens the metal box attached to the back of the seat, and unfolds a giant green umbrella to shade her while she works.

Nancy is open for business.

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A Word about COP (no, not policemen – the Colombian peso)

One of the funny things about living in another country is that you discover just how much money shifts, changes, and simply dances about all the time. Before moving to South America, the dollar was just the dollar to me. Sure, there was some inflation, but I never worried about it.

Then I arrived in South America and I continuously heard “the dollar went up,” “the dollar went down,” and I thought, “The dollar doesn’t move around that much, does it?”

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Read more about the article The World Loves Colombian Chocolate
Cocoa photo courtesy of Neil Palmer via flicker

The World Loves Colombian Chocolate

Around the world, people love chocolate. Proof of that is seen in countries such as England, Switzerland, and Germany, where the average resident consumes an average of 11 kilos of this sweet tropical treat every year. And although Africa produces the largest amounts of cocoa in the world, Colombia is known for producing the type of cocoa recognized as having the highest quality.

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Essential Flavors of Bogota

Colombian cuisine is often referred to as mestizo, or a mix of Spanish, indigenous, and African influences, with a bit of Arabic thrown in. There are some essential eats that can’t be missed when visiting Bogota, including some traditional foods and drinks that have been eaten here for centuries.

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