The New Septimazo

Looking for some style?

On Sunday afternoons, Carrera Septima transforms spontaneously into Bogotá's biggest variety store, with all the random and wonderful things you can imagine - clothing, electronics, art and food. Check it out. You'll find something you want.

Found what I needed.

Refreshment stand.

The world's literature, at your feet, for a few thousand pesos.

Need a charger for that old cellphone?

Want to fire up the old VCR?

Someone's got the time.

Nearby, rises the BD Bacatá tower, Colombia's tallest.

A battery for every (old) phone.

Just the thing for the kitchen.

South of Calle 19, the offerings move up an estrato in cost and sophistication.

A running exhibition about (government sponsored) human rights violations.

Sweaters from Ecuador.

Get your portrait painted.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Flea Market Without a Name

The San Alejo Flea Market on Carrera Septima and 25th St. and the artsy Usaquen Flea Market attract locals and tourists looking for antiques, art, books and foods.

A traffic jam of push-carts. 

But Bogotá has lots of other flea markets, where you won't find any fine art or antiques. Instead, people hawk random stuff to make a peso, and customers look to save a peso. This one forms spontaeneously each Sunday on the sidewalk of a run-down stretch of Carrera 10, beside Tercer Milenio Park. Here, the selection run towards used toys and clothes, old equipment and bicycles - possibly stolen.

I bought a pair of shoes, Made in Vietnam, and some used batteries for my old cellphone. Perhaps they'll hold a charge. But if they don't I'll only have lost 1,000 pesos each.

Tercer Milenio Park itself was created on the site of El Cartucho, a neighborhood notorious for crime and vice which was bulldozed in 2004-5. So the flea market, in a way, provides a reminder of the old neighborhood.

Notice the little girls playing amongst the toys for sale. 

These two women asked me to take their picture and then turned shy. 

Where else can you find a computer monitor, jeans and cellphone parts all in the same place?

A sidewalk tree doubles as a display case.

A cart ready to carry stuff to storage. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Images From Times Past

The San Alejo flea market, a Sunday/holiday institution on Ave. Septima beside the Museum of Modern Art, is Bogotá's best flea market thanks to its varied and eclectic items, low prices and informal atmosphere.

Hold still, and smile!

Today, I was taken by this guy making portraits with his 80-year-old Kodak box camera. The equipment is so old, that it doesn't even have a Facebook app.

First, he takes the picture.

Hold still!

He lifts the lens cap for the proper amount of time, then closes it.

Then he develops the picture. The camera's box also serves as a darkroom and in a few minutes the photo emerges - but it's a negative.

The photo is rinsed to remove chemicals.

The photographer then places the negative in front of the lens and photographs it, producing the positive.

The final product is black and white and a bit fuzzy - but it's a classic.

And rubbed dry on the photographer's forearm. 

But that's a negative, which must be photographed to produce the positive. 

Photographing the negative, to produce the positive. 

After four steps, the final product. 

Old and new cameras at work. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours