Crazy for Love: El Café de los Locos

El Negro Chivas in front of el Café de los Locos.

Manuel González Guzmán and friend.

The ambitious law student went crazy after his girlfriend betrayed him. The widow was driven crazy by her husband's death in one of Colombia's many civil wars. The fast runner who chased streetcars fell in love with his sister - until she escaped from him on a streetcar. He went crazy and chased streetcars trying to find her. The son of high society loved cheese and a woman. But she left him on the altar, driving him crazy.

All went crazy for kinds of love. 

These four semi-legendary characters of La Candelaria are on display in new café, appropriately named 'Café de los Locos,' located in the Hotel Continental's shopping area, just off of Jimenez Ave.

The café, just one week old, is the brain-child of journalist Manuel González Guzmán, and won several historical and cultural recognitions. When I visited, the café was vacant, but that hopefully will change when neighboring stores are rented and open.

El Bobo del Tranvia

'El Bobo del Tranvia', or 'The Fool of the Streetcars,' loved chasing streetcars and also fell in love with his sister, who fled from him on a streetcar, driving him crazy. He then pursued streetcars with more fervor, hoping to find his sister on one of them. In the end, El Bobo helped direct the city's streetcar system.

The café's interior reflected in a mirror.

'El Bobo' close up.

La Loca Margarita

La Loca Margarita's (The Crazy Margarita) husband died fighting for the Liberales under Rafael Uribe Uribe in the Thousand Day's War. She possessed the ability to predict the future and predicted Uribe Uribe's 2014 assassination in alongside Congress, in La Candelaria. That killing drove her completely mad, and, dressed in red, she roamed La Candelaria denouncing the Conservative Party.

Manuel Quijano y Figueroa, known as Pomponio.

The son of a wealthy family, Pomponio loved cheese and a woman, who left him at the altar. Driven crazy, Pomponio nevertheless eventually became a capable letter deliverer.

El Negro Chivas.

El Negro Chivas was an Afro-Colombian man from El Chocó, who traveled to the capital to study law. Soon after his arrival, however, his parents died and his fiancé left him for a white man. Crazed with fury, Chivas turned his anger against the sun, at which he yelled until his eyes were burned out.

The patio at the end of the commercial center provides a peaceful, secluded spot to sit.

Most of the shops are vacant and for rent.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Homeless Tour Guide

Sergio, a homeless man who frequents La Candelaria, where he's a common sight scavenging stuff from the garbage, also doubles as a tourist guide.

Living on the street and sifting thru garbage provides lots of opportunity for reading, so Sergio stays well informed on current events. And that serves him well as tour guide. For those versed in Colombian politics and its social vocabulary, Sergio's irreverent and pointed commentaries strike home. He talks about the parapolitica scandal, which called into question the legitimacy of the Uribe administration, but has since been forgotten.

Sergio gets laughs by referring to Congress as a Cartucho of gamines of estrato seis. Translated, he's saying that Congress consists of wealthy street children from the notorious, drug- and crime-ridden neighborhood located a few blocks from the presidential palace, which was bulldozed in the early 2000s.

Sergio asks his audience for a few thousand pesos, and gets them. He also hits me up for a few bills, "to pay for my room.

"I'm no longer living in El Bronx," he says proudly.

Maybe not. But he shuffles off downhill in that direction. Maybe he's not living there, just shopping there.

Walking off towards El Bronx.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

An Irish Troubador in La Candelaria

The last few days, we've passed this colorful fellow strumming his guitar and singing popular tunes in English. He is Fin, from Cork, Ireland, who's lived in Colombia for the past 20 years.

Fin didn't seem to want to elaborate on what brought him to Colombia or kept him here.

"I came and I stayed," he said, his Irish brogue still intact.

Fin seems to favor popular classics: the Beatles, country music...'everything's gonna be alright,' he sings, and then 'baby you can drive my car.' And then, 'rollin', rollin' down the river...I never saw the good side of a city until I saw the view from a riverboat queen.'

That doesn't exactly describe Bogotá, but could come from a Gabriel García Márquez novel.

Fin says he doesn't often play in the street for coins, but when he does, the Callejon del Embudo, off of the Plaza del Chorro, is a favorite spot. He's here now, because he recently returned to the city and hasn't gotten any pub gigs as yet.

"I'm waiting for my phone to ring," he says.

In any case, it's been a long afternoon of singing and strumming, and Fin's throat is dry. So, in the best Irish tradition, he's off to a pub for a wet one.

If you want to hire a real Irish voice, give Fin a call: 314-237-6109

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Wilson of the Red Light District

We often run into Wilson while passing thru Santa Fe, the central red light district, during bike tours. Wilson is killing himself by drinking rubbing alcohol, but he's doing it cheerfully. I have no inkling about what Wilson lives off of, but he generally seems to have bathed and washed his clothing.

And Wilson retains a sense of curiosity. He was delighted to learn the meaning of 'Chicken Hell', the fried chicken place in the heart of Bogotá's low-life red light district.

Chicken Hell, in Bogotá's red light district, is poised to challenge KFC for world dominance.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Luis Gonzalez's Pedal-Powered Campaign For President

'Against the Free Trade Agreement, the gringos and the fatherland's sell-outs.'

Luis González campaigning,
one voter at a time.

Luis González has been carrying out his self-powered presidential campaign along Ave. Septima for the past months. I often see him pedaling along on his beat-up one-speed bicycle mounted with the sign denouncing the gringos, free trade agreements and a loudspeaker blaring the speeches of assassinated politician Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.

Colombian politics is already buzzing about next year's presidential campaign, in which Pres. Santos looks likely to seek reelection, and Time Magazine says that his most likely opponent is his relative, ex-Vice Pres. Francisco Santos. Either one would likely support free trade agreements, a close alliance with Washington, a continued military campaign against the guerrillas and a privatized economy.

González, 52, would take a very different route if he makes it into the Casa de Nariño, which he's sure he'll do. In his administration, foreign military advisers would be expelled from Colombia, the state would nationalize all public services, health and education would be free and everybody would be guaranteed a job.

But before getting elected or even getting onto the ballot, González needs to collect the signatures of 520,000 voters. He's is planning a cycling campaign tour of the coffee region.

González motions toward the memorial for his hero,
Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.

He campaigns many days on Ave. Septima, by the spot where his political hero Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assassinated in 1948 and where he seems to find a supportive crowd. But Gaitanistas are today a limited constituency.

Would González's policies work? Will he get the chance? González doesn't have any political parties behind him, nor money (he survives off of donations and by selling CDs of Gaitan's speeches). But, he says, he does have 'the people' behind him, and that's all he needs. Neither does his political history bode well. He ran multiple times for city council and mayor, mostly in his native Santander Department, and lost every time. Those failures don't disappoint him - he's sure that the only political position which matters is the presidency, so why not go directly there?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours