Viviendo Villavo!

Crazy weekend in Villavicencio but a great one nevertheless. Brian sent Oliver and I on assignment there to cover the Señorita Meta pageant. We went on a bus full of RCN journalists, including famous Colombian gossip journalist, La Negra Candela. (this time doing a piece for her RCN show El Lavadero) I was asked to do as many reports as possible but we didn't arrive in Villavo until dark, so I couldn't do anything.

As a journalist, it's my job to report the news. It's rare for journalists, however, to be the news, but that's what exactly happened to me. At the Señorita Meta pageant, one of the judges didn't show up, so the officals then asked me to be the replacement. You can easily guess what my answer was.

So for one night I felt like a celebrity. They announced my name over the loudspeaker and I stood up in the spotlight, waving to a screaming crowd. There were several intermissions throughout the contest and lots of young ladies came up to me, asking for a picture. I even signed my first autograph. Wild stuff!

Judging the ladies of course was a very nice experience. Colombian women, as you know, are among the most beautiful in the world, and here I was, judging the best of the best from the department of Meta. There were also some gorgeous waitresses giving me free aguardiente and rum, which only made the women look better of course. ;-)

When you're a foreigner working in television, you often come across some interesting people without knowing who they are. One of the judges I sat next to was a very pretty lady. She spoke English and was a very nice person, and we had some funny conversations throughout the competition.

Eventually I asked her what she did for a living. Turns out she was Anna Beatriz Osorio, a famous Venezuelan actress working here in Colombia. She works mainly for Caracol (the other major Colombian television network), acting in novelas; but she's also starred in shows on Telemundo; some shows I actually used to watch long before coming to Colombia. It's funny how I meet these famous people not knowing who they are.

The competition ended at 2 a.m. and Oliver and I had to wake up at 6 a.m. that morning to do some more reports. All of the RCN journalists and I went to Bioparque Los Ocarros, a little zoo with 150 species of animals. I dedicated an entire show to just the park and Oliver was featured in a portion of it as well. There was also a place where you could practice shooting ''poison darts.'' I of course gave it a shot. (pun intended)

After our taping, it was time to go back to Bogotá. One thing I will say is that the road between Bogotá and Villavicencio is absolutely gorgeous. You just see one giant green mountain after another and it's absolutely breathtaking. At the same time it's also a little sad to look at because in between mindboggles me, however, is that some of these people are still able to afford DirecTV satellites. It makes me chuckle seeing a rusty old shack with a modern, polished piece of technology standing at the top. I honestly think the satellites cost more than the houses.

I couldn't help but think of the stark contrast Colombia has with the United States. In the U.S., the small towns are traditionally more rich while most of the poor population tend to live in the cities. In Colombia, however, it's the exact opposite. All of your small towns are very poor while the cities are more rich and generally much more developed. At the same time, it's funny because there's very few cars in the towns between but once you hit the cities, you're smacked with your usual bumper-to-bumper traffic. One moment, you're free; the next moment, you've teleported to a different world.

On my way to Villavicencio and back, I got to see Ciudad Bolívar for the first time. Ciudad Bolívar is one of the southernmost localities of Bogotá and is also by far the most poor and from what I've been told the most dangerous. Ciudad Bolívar is one gigantic slum; well-hidden from view from the main area of Bogotá, and so isolated that it's considered to be a city within a city. You see layers and layers of poorly constructed brick shanties stretch for miles and miles over the landscape and onto the sides of the mountains. Some of the houses don't have roofs and from what I've been told, some don't have running-water either. Apparently, some people keep a barrel to collect rainwater, using that to drink, bathe and wash their clothes. I couldn't help but gawk in amazement not only as to how poor Ciudad Bolívar was but as to how enormous this slum area was. I really couldn't believe this place was still considered a part of Bogotá.

When I finally arrived back to the station - tired as I was - I had to work on all of my reports. I could hardly stay awake around 8 PM., since I was running on four hours of sleep, but everything got done; and, Farandula - the entertainment portion of Noticias RCN (the Spanish RCN newscast) - featured a little tidbit on me in Chismes, Chismes (Gossip, Gossip). They basically talked about how I was the judge at Señorita Meta and showed a clip of me doing my standup and waving to the camera. I looked like such an elegant celebrity. Who would've thought? Hahaha!