When I came to Bogota with a contract to teach in a private school in the north of the city, the school provided the housing for me, and they put me in an apartment in El Chico, which is a strata 6 neighborhood and one of the safest in the city, and possibly the most boring one, also. The school does this, of course, because they want to be able to assure Americans coming here that they will be as safe as possible.
But they also put me in an apartment with a roommate, which was contrary to the agreement that we had before I came. So, about six weeks after arriving, I was apartment-hunting for a place where I could live on my own, and the mix-up (if that’s what it was) with the roommate situation turned out to have been a blessing, because I got to choose my own place in my own neighborhood (within budget limitations of the school, of course).
I looked around in El Chico and pretty quickly dismissed it because it’s an almost entirely uninteresting neighborhood. I decided to focus on Chapinero and Chapinero Alto because they’re vibrant areas with lots to do and lots to just watch on the streets, and also at the southern limit of where I could live and still have the school bring me to work each day. (La Candelaria might have been interesting, but I wasn’t interested in a two-hour commute to work each way).
So, I would cruise around Chapinero and call signs in windows (one of the main ways to find a rental in Bogota), and also looked a bit in El Tiempo classifieds (El Tiempo is the main newspaper in Bogota). One of the newspaper ads happened to be the apartment I now live in, and was in a neighborhood that I hadn’t even been aware of before, Rosales. I’m at the south end of Rosales, just a block from Chapinero, so it’s a little funkier than most of this sector is. Beautiful streets and beautiful sidewalks (very rare in Bogota). And the thing that sealed it for me is that there’s a seafood restaurant right next door and directly across the street is the beginning of a two-block long strip of restaurants. I’m living smack in the middle of Zona G (Gourmet), which I had not even heard of before finding this apartment.
The rent was right, the space was good, and coincidentally the landlord plays golf with the father of a secretary at my school who is in charge of helping out the Americans with their living arrangements. Landlords love to rent to my school, because there’s no question that they’ll get their rent. In fact, the school signed the lease, and I am just a cosigner.
So, I painted the apartment with two walls the color of a common flower here in Bogota called Poet’s Eye–it’s a really rich orange color (and I’m not normally a fan of orange). I have a solarium which is a really cool space with brick walls, and also an outside patio. I bought some great prints from an artist I met through a friend (who’s also an artist), had them framed, and started entertaining a bit. My place is great for starting or ending an evening, since I’m in such a great location for heading out to restaurtants or clubs or sightseeing.
Here’s a few photos of my space…………..
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