Easy Money: Chapter 6, The Stash

It was quite late already, around 11 o’clock on a Monday night. The streets were very quite on Monday nights, probably the quietest night in the week, the Rumba of the weekend had ended, and most bars and clubs are closed on Mondays. Tom and Jim walked up the fourth avenue towards the intersection where it all happened. It was a surreal walk at that time of the night, and an almost full moon made it a bright night. Old Colonial houses lined up both sides of the 4^th avenue, and many of the house facades and porches were decorated with lovely black sculptures. When they got to the intersection, Tom pointed out the flower bed to Jim, “There” he said almost whispering, and pointed to the flower bed by nodding his head towards it, he did not want to point with his finger, afraid that someone would notice; the streets were empty except for the occasional by passer. “Wait here and keep and eye, while I take a look” Tom walked towards the flower bed. He stood in front of it and tried to concentrate; he brought up the image of the chase in his mind, and tried to remember which plants were raffled. Then he crouched down and looked under the plants in the flower bed, where he thought the object would have landed. In the faint light, he managed to glimpse a black purse, lying between the plants, just were he thought it would be. He looked up at Jim, and gestured to him to come closer. “I see something there between the bushes” he said. “Well, just get it” Jim replied, sounding impatient. “Don’t you think we should just call the police” Tom hesitated. “Let’s see what it is first, we don’t want to bother the police if it is nothing” Jim replied. “Alright” Tom resigned, went closer to the flower bed while still crouching, then reached for the purse and grabbed it. He then quickly stood upright, and looked around to see if there were any by passers. He saw none.

They both stared at the purse. “Let’s open it” Jim said. Tom was feeling less worried now and more curious. He took one more look around, and when he could not see anyone else around, he opened the zipper of the purse, and they both peered into the purse. Inside there were plastic bags of different sizes, filled with a white powder, his hunch was right after all Tom thought, “Its coke isn’t it?” he asked Jim. “It looks like it” Jim replied, then reached into the purse, took out one small bag, opened it, and licked a bit of the powder with the tip of his tong, “Its coke, strong stuff too” he said. “Shouldn’t we hand it to the police?” Tom said warily. “I don’t think it is a good idea to go to the police, there will be too many questions. We could get into trouble” Jim replied. “We could be in even bigger trouble if we get caught with this stuff” Tom said, not backing of. “OK, let’s not do anything rash, lets think about it first” Jim said in a reconciling tone. “Alright maybe you are right” Tom as well did not want to continue the argument there on the street. Then with the corner of his eye, Tom glimpsed the silhouette of two figures appearing from around the corner, and approaching them. He looked up and the two figures became clearer; they were two policemen, they looked more like military than policemen; wearing khaki uniforms, and bullet proof vests, but Tom already knew that this how policemen generally dress in Colombia. Tom signaled to Jim with a slant movement of his head and eyes that something was behind him. Jim turned his head and saw the approaching policemen coming; they were now only a few meters away. Tom felt nervous, almost panicking, but he held his nerve, closed the zipper, and just held the purse tightly under his left hand, and against his waist. Jim seemed to handle the situation with more cool, and when the policemen reached them, he just casually looked at the them and said “Buenas notches”, the policemen returned the greeting, and just kept walking on; they did not appear to be interested in them.

As the police man got further and further away down the street, Tom felt his palpating heart calming down. “Let’s go somewhere safe first, and take a good look at this stuff“, Jim suggested. “Alright, but you carry the purse” Tom said in an agitated tone. They walked up the hill, all the way to the edge of the city, where the forest starts. They sneaked into the forest, and found a secluded spot, they where away form the street lamps now, but the moon provided them with enough light. Jim unzipped the purse again, and they peered inside.

There were a lot plastic bags, and they came in three different sizes. “How much is in these bags?” Tom asked. “The small ones are probably 1 gram bags, like the ones I usually buy. These look like 10 gram ones, and I would guess the large ones are 50 gram each” Jim said, while sifting through the content of the purse. “There is definitely more than 1Kg in here, probably 1 ½ Kg” he added. “What do we do with it?” Tom asked. “We sell it, and we make some money” Jim answered swiftly. Tom stared at him, shook his head and said: “I don’t know, it sounds crazy”. “Look, we could both use the money, I know what to do with this stuff, just let me handle it, I’ll do all the work, and we split the money, you’re the one who found it after all” Jim continued. Tom just started it him, not knowing what to say. “For you it will just be easy money, no risk and no effort. What do you say?” Jim pressed on. “I don’t know, it sounds like crazy idea” Tom repeated. “Think about it for a minute. You don’t need to do anything, and you get half the money, I am basically offering you free money. You and I know how traveling with some more man can make things so much more enjoyable” Jim added. Tom thought about it; really what does got to loose? And I do need the money; with that money he could go on his trip to the coast, and will not need to stay in Bogotá to teach English classes. “Alright, it’s a deal, but I get half the money, right” Tom said looking Jim straight in the eyes. “Half the money” Jim offered his hand for a shake, Tom shook it, both were grinning. “But where are we going to keep this stuff” Tom asked with a wary tone, “I don’t think the hostel is the best place to keep it” he added. “I have an idea. Carolina, the chick I had a date with today, she said I could stay at her place; she has an apartment not far from here. It would be a perfect place to keep the stuff. Its kind of late now, but I will call her anyway”. “Sounds like a good plan” Tom smiled.

Easy Money: Chapter 5, The Incident

That evening Tom decided to go and try out a Kebab and Falafel fast food place, which somebody in the hostel had recommended to him; he had been thinking about checking it out for a few days now. The place was about seven or eight blocks from the hostel, going up the 4th avenue; a walking distance from the hostel. Walking down the streets of Bogotá was no fun at all; pedestrian crossings generally don’t exist, and even when they do, drivers just ignore them. When people talked about the dangers of traveling in South America, they would generally refer to either crime or diseases, but Tom thought that crossing the street was the number one danger in South America. Tom was almost hit by a car crossing the 3^rd avenue, the car came from the opposite direction, and made a sharp right turn without signaling, completely ignoring Tom who was crossing the street at that time. Tom wondered if he had just turned invisible; he seemed to be invisible to the car drivers. He continued his path, and he reached the 4^th avenue and turned left. Cars generally went quite fast up the fourth avenue, probably wanted to pick up some momentum for the climb, which might be crucial at such altitudes where car engines get strapped for air. Tom walked up the 4^th avenue, and when he almost reached the intersection with the 10^th street, he heard some police sirens in the distance. The sirens were followed by the high pitch engine sound of an approaching car, it sounded to Tom like a fast car is coming from behind, going up the 4^th avenue, and still accelerating. Tom flinched and moved away from the edge of the road, then turned around to look at the car. He saw a green Porsche Boxter about 30 meters down the street. As the Porsche approached the intersection it suddenly slowed down, which allowed Tom to take a look at the occupants of the car: A young white guy with long black hair, who looked Colombian was driving the car, setting beside him at the passenger seat was a blond woman. Her hair seemed fake to Tom, but he couldn’t be sure; he could only get a quick glimpse at the pair. The woman was also seemed to be holding something and looking very tense. The car then made a sharp turn to the right, into the 10^th street and sped away. But just before the car accelerated again, Tom heard a rustling sound, coming from the some plants in a flower bed on the right side of the road, and he thought he saw the plants get raffled. He didn’t pay much attention to that as the sound of the sirens, getting louder and closer, distracted him. He looked back down the 4th avenue, and saw a police jeep approaching. The jeep also slowed down at the intersection and took the same turn as the Porsche, then sped away. Tranquility was then restored, and he looked around and saw a few more people who stopped to see the action. Some of them exchanged comments. A few seconds later thought, everybody just continued walking. Tom also continued his walk to the Kebab place, which was only two more blocks up the road.

At the Kebab place Tom realized that the Kebab was not Kebab, it was actually Shawarma, and it was not even a good Shawarma. He was disappointed with his Kebab sandwich, but then his mind turned its attention to the incident he witnessed, what had happened there? The woman was holding something in the car, and now he also remembered a detail, he had seen before, but did not give it much attention during the incident; He remembered seeing a hand come out of the car, just after the car made the right turn, as if someone was throwing something out of the car. Did the woman throw what ever she was holding in the car? Then there was that raffle of the plants. That must have been what happened; she threw something out of the cars, now he was sure. Considering the car was chased by the police, it must have been something they did not want to be caught with; Tom would bet his money that it was drugs, most likely cocaine; this is Colombia after all, the world coke capital.

After his disappointing snack Tom went back to the hostel, found the hammock in the patio free, and threw himself in it to relax. An Australian guy, Tim, was playing the guitar, in the living room, and Tom could hear the music well from where he was lying. Troy liked to play his own music, generally sad music, but very beautiful never the less. The tunes of the classical guitar added to the relaxing effect of the hammock, and Tom closed his eyes and enjoyed it. His meditation was interrupted when heard a voice calling him: “Hay Tom”. The voiced landed him back in the real world, and he opened his eyes to see Jim standing beside him.

“Hey mate, what have you been up to today?” Jim asked him, while taking an empty seat beside the hammock. “Well actually, I witnessed something interesting this evening”, then told Jim about the incident. First he hesitated about telling him the part about the object he thought was thrown out of the car, but then he decided to go ahead and tell it. “I think I saw them throw something out of the car, I think it was drugs, it fell between some plants in a flower bed on the side of the road” Tom said, talking quick. “Do you think it is still there?” Jim asked him, “Assuming that there was something thrown out of the car…” Tom was now feeling less confident about it, and started to doubt himself. “I think it would still be there, I don’t think any of the other people at the street noticed it. There were only a few of them anyway and I didn’t notice anyone looking towards the flower bed”, now doubting himself even more, if no body noticed it, maybe it is because there was nothing to notice. “I think we should go check it out” Jim suggested. “Look, I am not even sure there was something thrown out of the car, I might be just imagining things” Tom replied in a defensive tone. “Well then let’s go check it out, it is not far away from here, and if it’s nothing then it’s nothing, what we got to loose” Jim reasoned. “OK why not, let’s go and check it out” Tom replied, convinced by Jim’s argument.

Easy Money: Chapter 4, The Orphenage

Next morning Tom headed out to visit the orphanage, which is located in a small town called Chia, in the suburbs of Bogotá. Getting there required taking the Trans Milenio to the north terminal. The Trans Milenio can best be described as an over ground metro system, which uses normal buses (sometime double length) running on exclusive lanes on Bogotá’s main streets; it was built as a cheap alternative to a subway, which the municipality could not afford. Tom's first couple of times on the Trans Milenio were confusing, but then he got used to the system and found it quite easy, his only gripe with it was it was always too crowded, no matter what time of the day he traveled, they definitely need to run more frequent buses, he thought. Luckily he got on the Trans Milenio at the first station in the line, which means he could get a free seat. Midway to the terminal the bus was already too crowded, more resembling a sardine can of people. He took the Tran Milenio all the way to the bus terminal, where he boarded a small bus going to Chia. It took about 45 five minutes to get to Chia’s terminal, where he hopped in an even smaller bus, that took him to the orphanage; everything exactly according to Ian’s directions. The orphanage was located at the edge of the town, where the valley ended and the slopes of the mountains started. The area was very green, and on top of a ridge, partway up the slopes, stood the imposing figure of a church, as if guarding the orphanage and its neighborhood. It could be a nice walk up to the church, Tom thought, maybe I will do it someday.

He called Ian just before arriving, and Ian was waiting for him on the main road when he arrived. He accompanied him to the offices, where he introduced him to the director of the place, Maria, who took him for a tour of the place. The facility was composed of several one story buildings, one housing the offices, the others each housing a different group of children. After visiting the offices, the tour continued to the home of the youngest group, children between 1-8 years old. They found the children playing in the yard and as soon they entered a few of them surrounded the visitors, welcoming and hugging them; demanding some attention. “Some of the children don’t have family, while others were abused by their family, and they’re better off here.” Maria explained to Tom

The next house was where they teenage mothers stayed. Some of them were mothers to be; still pregnant, while others already had their child, and they were carrying them or watching them play. All looked too young for motherhood, "the culprit is usually somebody in the family, others were just sold for prostitution by their parents" Ian told him, “either way their family environment was not an appropriate place for them to remain” he added. Going back they passed through the yard again, there one little girl, maybe four years old approached Tom, raised her hand and said vuelta. At first Tom had no idea what she wanted, a hug maybe? She incessantly repeated the word vuleta, now pulling on Tom’s pants. Then he remembered that vuelta means a turn in Spanish, and he thought he knew what she wanted; same as what his nephew back home wants all the time. He grabbed her hand at the rests, leaned back, and then spun her around in the air. The girl started laughing, and asked him to do it faster, after a few spins he put her back, he was feeling a bit dizzy, she was feeling even more dizzy, but pretty happy never the less. Before he could even recover he was surrounded by five other children, asking him to do the same to them, jumping up and down, shouting “a mi, a mi, a mi”. He knew it was going to make him really dizzy, but he felt he could not turn them down. He gave each kid a few turns, taking just enough rest in between each kid, to recover from the dizziness. “Would you like to spend some more time with the kids” Maria asked him. Tom hesitated for a second, and then decided he would, “Yes I would” he replied. “I will wait for you back in the office then, hasta luego”. Ian was just as busy, he was surrounded by another group of children at the slider, playing a different game, the kids would climb up the stairs, and then Ian’s job would be to ‘fly’ them back to the ground. He seemed to have his hands full with at least ten kids forming a long line; waiting for their turn.

After about an hour of playing with them, the children turned their attention to some other things, and Tom and Ian took advantage of the opportunity to slip away. They went back to the office where they met Maria again. "The children love it when they have new visitors; it breaks their daily routine. We can take care of them, but they still need the affection and attention of grown ups.” Maria commented. “Shall we go on to see the rest of the facility?" she added. Their next stop was kids with mental problems, "The attitude towards such kids in Colombia is very backward, they usually get sent to a mental institute. We are trying to pioneer a new approach, a more modern approach; treat them like human beings", Maria explained. There were children in various ages there, the severity of their mental disorder seemed to vary considerably; some of them looked like normal kids, while others clearly did not behave normal.

After the tour they went back at the office. “What does this orphanage need the most at the moment?” Tom asked Maria. "Well, we could always use more money; the land lord hiked the rent, so were having some budget problems, and we may have to vacate one of the houses. We are trying to buy our own land, build our own facilities, and save on the rent, but that is a long term project. We also would like to help the kids more when they become 18 and have to leave the orphanage; they still need support to get education and jobs, specially the single mothers. We are also full at the moment and we can't take any more kids, the social services call us often asking if we have room to take another child, and we have to turn them down" Maria replied. "One of the things I am trying to help them with is the fund raising, their fund raising at the moment is the nickel and dime approach, muffin sales, bingos, donations from individuals, they need to go for the big money, UNICIF, Christian churches, etc. As soon as I go back to the US I am going to try to approach some of these organizations" Ian said. "The children could also use more attention, we need volunteers to come and just spend time with the kids, like you did today. Some of the kids get adopted, but others will stay with us until the edge of 18, and they need some grown up people in their lives to give them the attention they need” Maria added.

It was getting late and he and Ian decided to head back to Bogotá. He felt uneasy leaving the place without at least making a small donation, but he was just too strapped for cash; the money he had left would barely last him a few days more. But he was impressed by the orphanage; it was very well organized, and the kids were definitely in the hands of good people. It was a shame though they could not get the funds they needed to realize all their plans; it made him feel happy and sad at the same time.

Easy Money: Chapter 3, Old Friend

Next morning back at the hostel, when Tom entered the living room, he noticed a face that seemed familiar. It can’t be, he thought to himself, but it was, it was Ian. Ian was setting over there in the living room, chatting with one of the cleaning ladies, who works at the hostel. He had met Ian exactly one year earlier, during his previous trip to Colombia, on his first day in Bogotá, in this exact same living room, they went out that night, and had a really good time at one of Bogotá’s night clubs. They made eye contact, but Ian also needed a few seconds to recognize Tom. Eventually Tom took the initiative; “Ian” he said, and then approached Ian offering his hand, Ian got up from his chair, shook the hand, and then they hugged each other. “Tom, Right?” Ian said uncertain, Tom nodded. “What a coincidence man, when did you get here?” Tom asked. “I just got here a few days ago”, Ian replied. “What a coincidence, to meet each other again in the same place after one year. What are you doing here?” Tom asked. “I am here to do some volunteer work with an orphanage, this time I am here for only one month, unfortunately. I just stopped by the hostel to say hi to some people”. Their conversation was interrupted when someone called: “Ian, Ian, cuando volviste?”, almost screaming. It was an old woman, another cleaning lady at the hostel, and Ian went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek and a warm hug. The woman’s the face was glowing with Joy at seeing Ian. “You are back again, how great, since you were gone I been having back pains; I am missing those back massages you used to give me”, she said. “Well if you need one now, I am ready, anytime you want”, Tom said. “That is so kind of you Ian, you were always so kind to me. I need to finish a couple of things first; I’ll be back soon”, the lady replied, and then went away with a happy smile still on her face. “I have to go now, I made some plans with some guys to visit the museum, but let’s get together for a drink sometime”, Tom suggested. “Yes sure, let’s do that, I’ll give you my phone number, I still don’t remember it though; it is a new Colombian mobile I bought. I think I have it written somewhere”. But Tom was quicker, he pulled a peace of paper he had written his new number on; he as well hadn’t managed to remember his mobile number yet, and he handed it to Ian, “Here, have my number”. Ian took the paper and dialed the number in his mobile, and after a few seconds Tom’s phone rang. “Ok now we both have each others number” Tom said. Then as Tom turned around and was about to go, Ian said in a hesitant voice: “Tomorrow I am going to the orphanage, maybe you would like to join me, I could show you around the place; show you what I do there”. Tom thought about for a second; maybe it is about time I do something other than partying in Bogota, in fact I am starting to get tired of this whole night life thing, “Why not? I’ll join you” Tom replied. “Would you like to go with me in the morning? I leave around 8 o’clock.”, Ian suggested. “I don’t like waking up so early in the morning, can I come on my own latter in the afternoon?”. “Sure I’ll give you the directions, and you can make your way there whatever time you want”. “Sounds great” Tom replied. Ian wrote down the directions on a piece of paper, explaining them while writing them at the same time, then handed the paper to Tom. “Common Tom, were leaving”, Tom heard Jim call him from the patio. “See you later man”, he said to Ian and left. On his way out another young woman working at the hostel seemed to notice Ian, and she let out a short scream of surprise, and then went over to give him a hug. He’s quite a popular guy, Tom thought, it doesn’t surprise me; he’s quite a gentleman and a good person.

Tom, Jim and the others went to visit the Banco Nacional Museum, the entry was gratis. The museum had some of Botero’s work; Botero the painter and sculpturer from Medellin, who became famous by depicting people exaggeratively fat: fat Pablo Escobar, fat Jesus on the cross, fat virgin Marry, fat bull fighters, fat everybody. But Tom had already seen plenty of his paintings at the Botero museum in Medellin, and they started to feel repetitive. There at the Botero exhibition, Jim asked Tom to take a photo of him, “I want to have a photo, to prove to my friends that I actually went to a museum, otherwise they would never believe me”. There were other works by other modern painters which Tom found quite interesting, though he had trouble remembering their names once he left the museum. There were also many works of strange modern art, which Tom mostly did not understand. And in one high security section; with thick steel doors and lot of security guards, they had a few valuable gold altar pieces, decorated with hundreds of emeralds, and tens of diamonds. They used to belong to the church apparently, the church must have been very rich in those days, Tom thought.

Easy money: Chapter 2, The Hang Over

Next morning Tom sat in the hostel living room sipping some coffee, and recovering from his hang over, his thoughts going over last night, a night that was pleasant, but it could have been better, he wasn’t lucky with chicks, unlike Jim. But he felt he left at the right time; it could have ended less pleasantly if he had stayed longer; he didn’t want to be around his friends after they started taking the coke. Anyway his mind turned to his more pressing problem; he was running out of money, and his flight home was still a month away. He had miscalculated his credit card payments, which came higher than he expected. He had also spent much more than he should have in Bogotá; hanging out with English young lads with a lot of money to spend was one reason; they would always calculate the prices in pounds, and then would say "That’s so cheap compared to England" or "That’s only like X Pounds". He enjoyed hanging out with them, but it was always expensive. Then there were those expensive hotel rooms he paid for when he would occasionally got lucky, always with a local chick; he had a rule of not hitting on gringas while traveling, they were destined for the local boys, he thought. Anyway he found a way to make some money in Bogotá; by teaching English lessons. But he would have to stay in Bogotá to do that, and he would not be making much money; enough to pay his expenses if he works daily until his flight, but he would not be able to do all the things he still wanted to do in Colombia; the lost city trek, diving on one of the Caribbean island, paragliding in Medellin, and the Barranquilla Carnival, among others. His other option was to ask money from his parents, but their relationship had been strained lately, and his decision to go traveling for a few months did not help matters; they thought he should start getting serious about his life and his career. He would only go to his parents as a last resort; he would rather teach the English classes and give up on all the cool stuff he wants to do.

His friends took longer than him to recover from their night out; after all they did stay out longer, and used more substances than he did. Only around 4 in the afternoon did they start to wake up. Everybody was feeling kind of hungry, and they decided on the local burger place, El Torro Rojo. They made their orders at the front desk, and then went to sit down. They were all having a hangover from last night, Andy had it the worst, “When I am high I just want to stay high, so I just keep taking more and more coke” he said still looking smashed from last night. “I think my nose is missed up, I can’t smell anything” Andy added while yawning. "But imagine how much that stuff would have cost us back home" Ryan commented. “The Charlie here is even cheaper than drinks, I’d just rather do the Charlie than buy some more expensive drinks in the club, drinks that I don’t want to drink anyway, Jim commented. He was the newest to the group, he just arrived to the hostel a couple of days ago, he seemed to be traveling on a relatively low budget for an English guy; in the club he was all the time complaining about he prices of the drinks. "Back in Medellin I used to be the middle man for the guys in the hostel. I knew the local dealer. I would get the money from the guys at the hostel, and buy them the coke. Sometimes I bought 10 or 20 grams at a time, then I would get it at a discount, not enough to make a big profit, but it paid for my share; I had my coke for free” Jim told them, seeming proud of his former coke dealings. “I wonder how much 1 Kg would cost around here” Ryan asked. “Around 1000 Pounds” Jim replied, and then added: “You know if we would just buy a large quantity of coke, we would probably get it for really cheap. I think we should do it”. Tom did not like the idea of his friends possessing large amounts of coke, and felt compelled to intervene; "Do you know what will happen to you if you get caught with a large quantity of drugs, you could get into serious trouble mate, forget about it". "Yah I wouldn't want to get caught with such a large quantity of drugs, one could spend a few years in prison for that" Ryan supported said in support. But Jim didn’t seem repelled from his idea, “No body cares in this country, all cops are corrupt. In Cartagena I got caught with some coke, and I paid the cop to get out of it. At first the guy wanted 100$, I offered him 20$, we haggled over the price, and in the end he accepted 40$. The purposefully search the gringos only for this reason; to get bribes; they really don’t care about gringos taking drugs. After the whole affair we even went and had a drink together, me and the policemen". "How much did you have on you then: 1 gram? 2 grams? I don't think that with 1 Kg you would get away with it that easily, you would go down mate, or you would have to come up with a really big bribe to get your way out of that mess”, Tom replied. Andy finally joined the conversation as well, "I don't think I am going be going near that crap again for a while, I am feel missed up man" he said in an absent voice. "Yes, maybe we should just take it easy on that Charlie for a while" Ryan said in agreement. At that point their conversation was interrupted, the guy at the order desk called them; their burgers were ready and they went to pickup them up.

Tom was feeling quite hungry, and the sight of his juicy burger raised his spirit; a double burger with cheese and bacon, but when he looked into his burger, he was dismayed to see they had drowned it with mustard and ketchup. He didn’t mind the mustard, but ketchup! Inside his burger! He couldn’t understand why anyone would do that, next time he will have to remember to tell them not to put any damn ketchup in his burger. “Me and Andy are heading for the coast tomorrow, how about you guys?” Ryan inquired. “I just got to Bogotá; I think I will stay here for a few more days at least. Besides I just came from the coast down here, and I am heading south after Bogotá” Jim replied. “I think I am going to be here for a while too, I am going to be teaching English classes; I need to make some money” Tom said in a depressed tone. Then Tom remembered something and turned to Jim, “What happened with that chick you were dancing with last night?”, “I got her phone number, I’ll give her a call later to set up a date for tomorrow. I don’t think I am up for a date today”. “Good for you” Tom said winking at Jim.

Easy Money: Chapter 1, La Rumba (The Party)

Tom stood in the middle one of Bogotá's famous night clubs, surrounded by young Colombians and gringos dancing wildly to the beats of Electronic music. But he was already feeling tired and sleepy and he was ready to head back to his hostel; his night of Rumba was about to end, for his friends on the other hand, the Rumba was probably just starting. They had just bought some cocaine of a guy at the club, and now they were taking turns going to the toilet and sniffing coke. Coke is quite easy to get in Colombia, at every corner in Zona Rosa there someone selling it, sometimes even inside the clubs, and if one looks like a gringo, he will often get offered coke without even asking for it. Anyway Tom did not want to stay longer in the club, he did not like the way coke changed people, he thought his friends were quite cool, but soon once they had taken the coke they will be become more aggressive and obnoxious, no longer the fun friends he met back at the hostel. It was De Ja Vu all over again for Tom; he had been through this experience a few times already in Colombia.

"We were already having good fun anyway, why would you need to take drugs?" he asked his friend Ryan, leaning and speaking directly into his friends ears, trying to make himself heard over the loud electronic beats. Ryan did the same to answer back, "It gives you more confidence, that’s what it does”. An artificially induced kind of confidence, Tom thought to himself buy did not say it. “Besides, do you know how much this stuff costs in England? 50 Pounds for one gram, here I can get it for 3 Pound. If I am going to try it, it is going to be here, I can’t afford it back in England. Have you ever tried it?", “No” answered Tom, “Good for you mate, if you just want to stay out of it, it’s cool, I respect that”. Andy had come back from the toilet, his eyes wider than when he left. It was Ryan's turn to go there, and Andy' handed Ryan the little plastic bag containing the coke, then he turned to Tom and said: "Why aren't you dancing man?" at the same time giving Tom a forceful two finger push in the right shoulder; those gentle friendly pats often turned not so gentle after a couple of dozes of coke, he then added “I think you need some Charlie mate, it will wake you up and put you in the mode for some partying”. Tom tried to act as if not bothered by the push, he could not remember how many times he had been offered coke in Colombia, but his answer was the same every time. Tom just smiled to Jim and said, "No thanks, I think I just need a drink, I am going to the bar to get one", it was his excuse to avoid staying longer with Andy. He already decided he did not want to stay longer in the club; he would get his beer, linger at the bar for a while, and then tell his friends that he had enough for the night. Staying there would be like being the only sober person in a group of drunken guys; it just does not work that well. His friends will be staying there for a while, the cocaine’s stimulating effect will keep them awake. Of course he could just join his friends and take the coke, but seeing what it did to his friends, he did not see why he would want to do that. Walking his way to the bar, he saw Jim on the dance floor, he already had a couple of sniff, and it seemed to inject him with a dose of energy, he was dancing with a brunet; Jim with his blond hair and blue eyes always got the most attention from the local chicks. The chick he was dancing with had a pair of very large tits, clearly silicon enlarged, and she wore a blouse that exposed a whole lot of them. Plastic surgeries in Colombia are cheap and of high quality, and many women just can’t seem to resist the temptation of having larger tits. Apparently the local men like them; to Tom on the other hand they looked too unnatural; they did not impress him.

Easy money: Introduction

This short story attempts to describe a typical travelers experience in Bogotá, at least typical for some travelers. I wrote this story during my two month in Colombia. I got the idea for the story while I was in Bogotá, after going through two distinctly different experiences, and I though bringing them together, and weaving them into a fictional plot would make for an interesting story. As I mentioned he main plot is completely fictional, and although some characters may be partially based on people I met in, the names are completely fictional. That said there is one thing that is not fictional in the story, and that is the 'Fundación Niña Maria', this place is real, and I visited it a couple of times. Also the difficulties facing the foundation are real, and for those who are interested in donating money, volunteering, or just visiting, then here is the contact information of the foundation :

Vereda Fonqutá
Chia - Cundinamarca
email : ninamaria03@yahoo.com
Dirección Correspondencia Cra 8 No 13-26 Casa 11

I will be publishing the story over the next couple of weeks, one or chapters at a time. This gives me the opportunity to review the content one more time before publishing it.