Raising a Tostao to Bogotá

Exciting times out there. A middle-class revolution (of sorts) is in the Bogotá air.

You see, there was a time when those of a perceived certain standing in these parts wouldn't be seen dead in what would be considered a more normal establishment. They had a reputation to keep intact. One couldn't be mixing it with the ordinary folk, now could one?

Tostao: Modern, relatively fancy yet at affordable prices. (Photo from Facebook.)

Yet, this misplaced mentality that if you spend more on something this means it's better and/or elevates you to a higher social stratum appears to be changing somewhat. 

The more well-to-do types, relatively speaking in any case, are voting with their feet, turning to places that don't sell things at ridiculously inflated prices and only market themselves to ‘desirable’ folk.

True enough, we can say with reason that middle-of-the-road options had been conspicuous by their absence until recently. 

Not too long ago, in terms of going for an afternoon coffee or the like, the basic choices were a fairly costly Juan Valdez or Oma (let's not get started on Starbucks) or your bread and (no) butter, bog-standard panadería (our favourite, of course, once we've established the proper prices).

That's all changed now, thanks to the arrival of Tostao' Café & Pan. 

It offers fairly decent-quality fare at affordable prices in a modern, half-fancy environment -- OK, what constitutes 'fancy' for us may be open to questioning, but it's well kitted out nonetheless. From an Irish and UK perspective, think Costa Coffee or Insomnia Coffee Company.

Regardless of how it's viewed, Tostao certainly has caught the imagination of large swathes of the Bogotá public. 

Pass by any of its now ubiquitous cafés and there's a good chance there'll be a sizeable queue waiting to get their coffee and 'whatever you're having yourself' fix, especially in the morning and at lunchtime. It does seem to be the, um, toast of the city right now.

In a similar fashion, the Aldi/Lidl-style D1 and Justo & Bueno stores have changed the grocery shopping habits of the working-to-middle classes. 

They aren't, though, low-cost leaders for all household goods. The more established Éxito and Olímpica can still offer lower prices and similar quality, depending on the product type. 

Plus, we've the smaller supermarket outlets as well as the local fruit and veg stores which very often offer better value for the same kind of quality.

The thing is, the local store, just like our beloved local panadería for coffee and bread, isn't cool enough for some to frequent. 

Tostao, on the other hand, has hit a sweet spot for many Bogotanos. It's certainly in right now. A sign of a ‘race to normality’ is how we’ll put it.
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Colombia: The only risk is becoming too relaxed

As mentioned in our previous post, you can never drop your guard in Colombia. It’s up to you, naturally enough really, to be responsible for yourself and your belongings. 

Be that as it may, it still doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, make it more acceptable if you do happen to have something stolen while having ‘a moment of weakness’.

Scene of the crime: Oma may be upmarket, but that doesn't mean it's safer.

Que pena 

That such things happen, as they do across the globe, doesn’t mean that we should just shrug and accept them. Disappointingly, this is often the reaction of many people in these parts.

It’s the whole ‘dar papaya’ mentality, that it’s the victims' fault for allowing themselves to be robbed. ‘Silly you.’ This is linked in with the ‘que pena con usted’ expression, ‘isn’t that awful for you, but I don’t really care.’ ‘Eh, thanks, guys.’ 

Personally, having been based in Bogotá for three years now, I feel relatively comfortable in my environs and I am usually clued in to any potential threats. 

Yet, there is always the risk that you can become too relaxed. My excuse for the latest incident where I let the city’s ladrones (thieves) get one over me was that I’d just donated blood (for the first time in my life it must be said) and perhaps I wasn’t my usual shrewd self (don’t laugh).

Now, this time around the scene wasn’t your typical Wrong Way working-class venue, but rather a much more upmarket Oma café (the newly opened one in Torre Bicentenario on Carrera 4 with Avenida Jiménez), equipped with a security guard and cameras.

However, therein lies the danger; the feeling that you and your possessions are a little safer in such a place. 

In fact, it could be argued that the sheer volume of security guards employed in this country dilutes each individual one’s impact. I certainly wouldn’t be relying on many of them to have my back in a tight corner.

The "fatal" errors on my part were not having my bag in eyeshot or tied around something secure and not taking notice of the movements around me; the intense conversation I was having with an old friend was occupying my mind.

Whatever the case, the relatively well-dressed ladrones saw their opportunity and seized it.

'On the ball' security. Well, not quite ...

Thankfully, it was far from spectacular the booty they got. Basically, there was the bag itself, a few USB sticks, an old jacket (of sentimental value albeit) and a pocket-book of Spanish grammar along with an English-Spanish dictionary – at least those latter items might help our pilferers overcome their illiteracy problems.

Predictably, when we reported the robbery to the building’s administrator, her initial reaction fell firmly into the ‘dar papaya’ mindset. 

To her credit, though, she eventually showed some morsels of taking affirmative action, agreeing to set in train the process of reviewing the premise’s security cameras.* Perhaps next time she'll realise that this should be her first response.

You see, as official Colombia grapples with a potential peace agreement with the Farc guerrillas, real peace and security must come from the people, ‘el pueblo Colombiano’, each and every part of it. Taking a strong stand against all who jeopardise this is what’s needed.

There are positive signs in this regard, but by its very nature, it’s a never-ending process, consisting of many different, overlapping strands. This country, however, has too many decent people to let a thuggish minority dominate the landscape.

Yet, turn a blind eye to that minority’s behaviour and the vicious cycle will continue.
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*That process is still ongoing. Hopefully, if and when the cameras are reviewed, we’ll have a good picture of the thieves, something that we can publish.

Chasing a star(bucks)

Wow! How the lot for some Colombians is improving considerably.

'James, you haven't a spare euro or two?' (Photo from Facebook.)

For one, the country's new hero, James Rodríguez, has ensured Real Madrid will have about 40 million new followers thanks to his big-money move to the Spanish giants. 

OK, footballers operate in a completely different galaxy to us mere mortals. Thus, that things are looking up for James should be put into its proper, ludicrous context. It's not his fault, of course, that this is the way the football world is, so we can only wish him well in his new life as an overpaid galáctico.

On a slightly more comprehensible and, going by the reaction, palpable level, Starbucks' arrival to the home of coffee has signalled the country's passage into the big league; or so some locals appear to believe. A case of: 'Now things will change; we've got Starbucks.' 

It certainly does gel in nicely with that popular Colombian notion that 'outside (especially North America) is better than home.'*

So having the US coffee label here is another step towards becoming 'US Americanised'; that should fix all the problems. Then again, maybe not.

In a way, the opening of the company's flagship Colombian café in Bogotá is a further sign of the country's growing middle class and, with that, the extra disposable income in a few people's pockets. 

Plus, it shows in a very visible way that multinational companies no longer see the country as the big risk it once was in which to do business, or indeed most activities.

Yet, the much-publicised excitement exuded by a segment of the population on Starbucks' grand opening has only served to demonstrate yet again the huge inequality that exists in this land. 

On the one hand, you had people queueing for up to an hour to get their hands on a cappuccino retailing at 5,500 pesos (almost $3US), while alongside them, as they waited to enter, you had street vendors selling their equivalent for less than ten per cent of that price.

Starbucks Bogotá: The fancy decor has a price (photo from Facebook).

Yes, those in the know will talk about the quality of the Starbucks fare (alongside the local equivalents such as Juan Valdez and Oma), but at more than ten times the price of a perico (coffee with milk) in my local panadería, it just doesn't make sense to me. 

And whatever about it not making sense to me, for a large chunk of Colombians, paying 5,500 pesos for a coffee is just not a runner, ever.

If your monthly earnings are about 600,000 pesos ($320US), roughly Colombia's minimum wage, and you're in a six-day-a-week job where you have to commute by public transport, you're not left with much money to play around with. 

The transport costs alone would be more than 72,000 pesos per month.** Take food and general living expenses out of the remainder and you can see why 5,500 peso coffees are a pipe dream for many. Throw dependants into the mix and the picture is even grimmer.

Such inequality is not unique to Colombia, although the scale of it here is intense. Like many others before him, re-elected president Juan Manuel Santos has made reducing it one of his priorities.

But while we strive to improve the lot of the poorest in society, we also have to look at the other side of things. 

That is to say a much more even distribution of the world's current wealth. Many of us could have as equally a fulfilling life – if not more so – minus a lot of the non-essential extras we accumulate.

Something to mull over whilst sipping on your Starbucks cappuccino watching James make his Real Madrid début. Isn't life just bliss?
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*Colombia's police often exhibit this trait that the Western foreigner knows best. For more on that see Colombia's good cops.

**It has been brought to my attention that a travel allowance of 72,000 pesos is available for those earning 1,232,000 or less. While this is no doubt a help, it still won't see the masses flocking to Starbucks.

Bogotá's simple pleasures

It should come as no surprise to you that we’re far from high-maintenance here at Wrong Way. It’s the simple, small things in life that we tend to derive most pleasure from.

Keep it simple, stupid

That’s why, for example, we like to do our grocery shopping in Bogotá at La 14 – the supermarket that feeds you for ‘free’ while you stock up. 

It is said that you should never shop on an empty stomach but having something to eat before you hit for La 14 (on weekend afternoons anyway) will only spoil your experience. Between the various complimentary servings on offer – meat, pasta, biscuits, cereal, fruit, ice-cream, you name it – you generally leave there quite satisfied. 

We’d nearly (nearly that is) pay a little bit more for such customer service. But get this, it’s about the best value supermarket around – as close to a win-win scenario you’ll get in these parts.

'Me regalas 'una grande' Servio, por favor.' Quality service with a smile.

When it comes to our favourite vice of alcohol we’re more than happy out knocking down a few 750 ml bottles of the national brews Aguila or Poker in a local tienda (‘old man’s bar’, as we’d refer to them in Ireland) for the very agreeable price of 2,300 pesos (about €1 or so). 

Go to the more upmarket Bogotá Beer Company (BBC) chains or the "Irish" Pubs and you’ll pay at least four times more for just three-quarters the quantity of booze. 

 

Plus, in those places you tend to be just another number. In our local tiendas, we’re greeted with a handshake and a smile each time we visit. It’s nice to feel welcomed (the fact we tend to polish off a nice few bottles plays its part in our being gleefully greeted. We do, after all, have to play up to the Irish stereotype).

The same goes for our regular café visits – we find the simple, rough-and-ready local ones far more agreeable in price, atmosphere and customer service (the latter we refer to in Latin American terms – the standards are pretty low on that front. See ‘Doing Business in SA’ http://bit.ly/LVpK8p for more). 

What’s more, we don’t tend to see a major difference in the quality compared to a "fancy" Juan Valdez or an Oma coffee house.

Simple, cheap & very satisfying - the local café.

For many Bogotanos, though, it’s not hip to be seen in your bog-standard café – the same goes for drinking in the tiendas. Such an approach is usually fine for the women because they don’t expect to pay anyway. 

You would think, then, that they’d allow the men choose the location, but no. We, however, are quite principled on this one, usually. 

Forking out greater-than-European prices to drink in places where, firstly, you're treated no better than dirt and, secondly, the clientèle and environment are generally very fake is not our thing. We can happily live without the people who frequent such places.

The above simple pleasures are ones we now know and expect. They still, of course, do the trick but it’s always nice to get treated from an unexpected source every now and again. 

However, such unplanned random experiences can be hard to come by in this city. We had one, though, on a recent buseta/colectivo journey.

OK, we have expressed before (see ‘Bogotá’s Transport Truths’ http://bit.ly/N68gKL and ‘Dulling Down Bogotá’ http://bit.ly/XdUg5U) our preference for these old-school city transport buses but that was more because we felt they were the least-bad option, not because we found taking them overly pleasurable.

What made this particular commute to one of our classes a stand-out experience was the conduct of our conductor or bus driver, if you will. 

As it was initially unclear from the colourful but confusing route display (nothing unusual there) if this bus we’d flagged down was going in the direction we needed, we had to ask the driver to make sure. 

Once Señor Conductor realised we were native English speakers, he immediately ushered us into his screened-off zone – a place usually reserved for family members or very, very good friends. 

This is the business class/VIP section of Bogotá public transport. A front-row seat right next to the driver, out of view from the "commoners" in the back. How privileged we felt.

The 'special' bus seat next to the driver - usually only reserved for family.

The reason he invited us in to his sanctuary was because he has a desire to learn English (although, our conversation was all in Spanish). We’ll let the fact slide that he has so far failed to follow up on his offer of inviting us to dinner – sure you can’t win them all. 

In any case, the special bus journey was enough to put is in a positive mood for the rest of the morning.

So as you can see we tend to be easily pleased here - very much subscribers to the 'keep it simple, stupid' principle. Alas, it can be hard to get the ladies to sign up to the same programme. We'll keep trying, though.