Another Sign of the Venezuelan Invasion

A sign in the red light district offers to wire money to Venezuela.

A window sign in a different part of town
offers to send money to Venezuela.

Venezuelans everywhere! It's not news that many thousands of Venezuelans - some guesstimate more than a million - have fled into Colombia from the shrinking economy, hyperinflation and raging crime in their own country.

As a result, it seems as tho nearly every hotel, restaurant and shop has at least one Venezuelan employee.

More notoriously, reportedly many Venezuelan women have also gone into prostitution in Colombia. That was evidenced dramatically in Bogotá's red light district the other day: I saw at least four signs offering money transfers to Venezuela on a single street.

For some, prostitution must be a rational professional choice in which the dangers, risk of suffering abuses and social stigma are compensated by a relatively high income. But many Venezuelan evidently enter the profession out of sheer desperation, to bring some food home, or to send a few rapidly devaluating bolivars home to Venezuela.



By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Dressing Right for the Red Light District

During a bike tour yesterday, we spotted this fellow dressed peculiarly on a street behind the Central Cemetery, around the corner from the Zona de Tolerancia, Bogotá's red light district.

Don't have much of a backstory to recount, except that the smartly-dressed fellow had come by pushing his cart piled high with scavenged materials. A man in one of the shops, dressed in the white shirt, called out to the scavenger, who stopped and produced the costume. Perhaps a theatre costume, or from a safe sex skit.

The jaguar on the wall doesn't appear too pleased to see him.

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

Bogotá's Own Osama bin Laden

Bogotá's own bin Laden, ready for action.

You thought he'd been hunted down and killed in Pakistan. But Osama's still alive and well, and quite cheerful, living in Bogotá's red light district.

bin Laden, full of fun and games.

I'd heard about this man, read about him in the newspaper, and even glimpsed him once or twice with his long beard, Arab headress, and camoflauge uniform, not to mention the wooden machine gun. Who wouldn't be intrigued?

But I felt trepidation. After all, this was a guy who modeled his appearance after the leader of al Qaeda, a man who's come to symbolize evil and hate against the United States for our generation. And here I was, a U.S. citizen in his country.

Today, we encountered him while passing thru the Santa Fe neighborhood during a bike tour. And Bogotá's Osama bin Laden, who doesn't seem to use any other name, turned out to be a friendly, good-natured guy. He gladly posed for photos with us, even using his wooden gun as a prop. He explained that, like the more famous bin Laden, he'd been born in Saudi Arabia. but then grown up in Cali and lived for the past 15 years here in Bogotá's Santa Fe neighborhood, the site of the city's main red light district. Here, he is his own crime patrol and apparently lives off of tips from neighbors, like the one we gave him.

Off on patrol thru the red light district.

"He's a real good guy," a bystander told us, "a real gentleman."

But, after al Qaeda's Sept. 2001 attacks on New York and Washington D.C., which killed thousands of civilians and destroyed the World Trade Center, he started dressing like the other bin Laden, which can only be interpreted as a kind of tribute. Yet, Bogotá's bin Laden expressed only friendliness towards us tourists.

The 'other' bin Laden never had this much fun.

Bogotá's bin Laden didn't denounce the U.S., but he did give his own pro-bin Laden version of history. Bogotá's bin Laden pointed out that the other bin Laden had worked with the U.S. government back when the Americans needed Islamist allies to throw the Russians out of Afghanistan. Yet, the U.S. government, he said, had taken away bin Laden's fortune. I imagine that the U.S. government did its best to sieze the other bin Laden's fortune once he began attacking U.S. interests. But the bin Laden family are still billionares.

'Take that! you evil westerner!' Fortunately, it's all pretend.

The Bogotá bin Laden's ideas also veered into conspiracy thinking.

"The CIA and George Bush planned the 9-11 attacks," he added, echoing a story bouncing around the Internet with absolutely no evidence behind it.

When we pedaled off, Bogotá's bin Laden warned us to be careful. After all, Santa Fe is not Bogotá's best neighborhood. That's thoughtful advice we probably wouldn't have gotten from the original bin Laden.

Related posts: The Red Light District's Guardian Angel

Not Such a Glamorous Profession

A Profession Like Any Other?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Red Light District

 

Bogotá's red light district, known formally as the 'Tolerance Zone,' is sleazy, down-market and, late at night, dangerous. But the place is honest, and, hopefully, the world's oldest profession is practiced here more safely and with less exploitation than it would be if it were prohibited. Tragically, there are also children who prostitute themselves around here, often to support drug habits. Here's a news report about a police sweep which detained five underage girls working as prostitutes in the Santa Fe neighborhood.

A transvestite prostitute prances on Carrera 16 and Calle 20

Bogotá has several other designated tolerance zones, where prostitution is legal. But in no others are the prostitutes permitted to work the streets - as they do quite flagrantly here. The Santa Fe neighborhood is even informally divided between female sex workers and a smaller number of transvestites, each group with its own area. In a recent decision, the city decided not to legalize expanded street prostitution, pending more evaluations of Santa Fe's situation, and to try to tone down exhibitionism there.

In Bogotá, lots of illegal prostitution also goes on outside of the designated areas. High class prostitutes are callede 'pre-pagos,' because they charge in advance by credit card. Don Juan magazine recently did a story about the city's prostitution. Colin Post chronicles his adventures in some of these establishments on his blog.

Related posts: A Profession Like Any Other?

The Red Light District's Guardian Angel

Exhibitionism - a transvestite shows off his stuff to bike tourists.

Many prostitutes at least seem quite satisfied with their profession. But critics of legalized prostitution say that many of them were tricked or forced into the profession while still minors.

Not all those working the streets are women, or at least born women, anyway. 

The children of Patos al Agua (a local school?) planted these plants full of love and friendship. Help us to protect this gift we give to the neighborhood.' A few weeks later, the note and plants had disappeared. 

La Piscina (The Swimming Pool), a famed brothel.

So celebrate! For its anniversary, La Piscina is throwing the bed out the window!

El Castillo brothel, and beside it Dolls House

El Castillo's building has been designated as having 'architectural patrimony,' which is probably the main draw for clients

Waiting in a doorway

Related posts:

The Red Light District's Guardian Angel

Selling Sex: Colin's Career in Bogotá's Brothel Trade

A Profession Like Any Other?

Bogotá's Red Light District

Not Such a Glamorous Profession

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours