I landed in Pereira with a smile on my face. Finally in South America, and finally in Colombia! Right away I got a sample of the Colombian friendliness they are so well known for. I exchanged some US dollars for pesos at a car rental agency in the airport and then caught a taxi to my hostel. While the taxi driver and I were talking, I started examining the bills I got to learn the currency. But wait a minute. I told the taxi driver and I asked him if we could go back.
He said yeah of course, but let me look at the bills you got. All the thousand-peso notes have several zeroes after the number, except for the 50, which just says 50 mil.
Turns out I did get the right amount. Then the driver told me he is going to teach me about the rest of the notes and he proceeded to hand back other increments of bills so I could look at them. Muy amable! My first day here, I walked to one of the parks in the center, Parque El Lago.
A girl wearing a pound of makeup sat down next to me and we were chatting a little bit. She laughed at me and changed the subject. While we were sitting there, lots of guys were walking by her staring at her in the perviest way. When I went back to the hostel, the hostel owner confirmed that I had, in fact, met a Colombian prostitute. My favorite, though, was a reggae bar we went to. A few students, a few rastas, and great Spanish reggae. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
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