Bogota is empty and tranquil during the holidays.  The septima, the main thoroughfare outside 
of my apartment is the quiet and the air is cleaner than usual.  Andrea and her dad walked to 
my apartment and woke me up to go walking this morning.  Probably half of the Bogotanos
 have left and today is Sunday, which mean there is Ciclovia.  

Ciclovia closes down one side of the main city roads for bicyclists and walkers to have the streets.  This happens on Sunday's from 7 am-2 pm. It is another change in Bogota that has occured in the last 10 years. I hadn't really seen it til today, but it was extremely refreshing to walk outside and see bicylists and walkers passing my block.   

Bogota is progressing quickly and it is exciting to be witness to these changes.  Ciclovia, Transmilenio, Pico y Placa, and the drastic decrease a violence are the key ingredients to Bogota's 
renaisance.  Transmilenio is the new bus system which include enormous efficient red buses that stop at modern elevated platforms on main roads in the city.  It's service will soon include the Septima (7th) so that could be good for me.  Pico y Place is a new system which limits each car to five days of driving, similar to what Mexico does.

The modern transmilenio stations can seem almost too modern for this city.  The image I have is a big clean quiet bus purring by streets with stray dogs, beggars, and sometimes a stench of who knows what.  On the other hand, this modern bus system serves as kind of a shining example and a goal where this city hopes to go.  

It wouldn't be Bogota without the contrasts.  I walk into the Centro Comercial Andino, and it blows away any mall I have seen in the states.  Marble escalators, world cuisine, and designers 
off all kinds of pretty modern things.  Though when I walk outside Andino, there is the pollution, the potholes, the litter, and the things that feel a little more expected.  It is exciting if it keeps improving and I am lucky to watch it happen.  I have discovered an hidden gem before the rest of travellers do.  A fellow traveller said something like "Give it 20 years of this kind of safety, and people will come."  In 20 years I'll sit around and talk about how it used to be, and make up all kinds of stories.

Right now, my room has a nice glow and I am resting up for my first Colombian New Years.
I thoroughly enjoyed Bucaramanga's weather but it's nice not to be sweating for once. Tonight, I am expecting lots of fireworks and dancing with Andrea, and her aunts, til I am sore.  
I haven't mastered the art of partying til seven so tonight could end with me slumped over on a sofa with all Andrea's cousins and aunts partying around me.