Just Around the Corner: Wilder's Pizza

Welcome to Part I of my new blog series: Just Around the Corner.

I love our neighborhood, La Macarena. It's really the first place I've lived that has felt like a true neighborhood (in a different sense of the word than the neighborhoods of Dunwoody). By "true" neighborhood, I mean that we know all of our neighbors, namely the shopowners. I know where my money goes.

The Just Around the Corner series will feature a different small business owner each post. I'm using the blog as an excuse to sit down with the dueños of La Macarena and learn more about our neighborhood. As a bonus, y'all get to learn, too.

There is really no other place to start than with Wilder of Wilder's Pizza. He opened up Wilder's Pizza in La Macarena about two years ago. Before he started his own pizzería, Wilder had been working for ten and a half years around the corner at Monapizza, the rival neighborhood pizza joint. The interview was conducted in Spanish, but I've translated it here for you gringos.

Have I mentioned the ridiculously tempting pizza smells that torture us every day as we walk in and out of our apartment? I mean, this place is literally two doors down.

RCT: Why did you want to open your own pizzería?

Wilder: I wanted to be independent, to bring in more income.

RCT: Where did you learn to make such delicious pizza?
Wilder: At Jeno's Pizza (a pizza chain in Bogotá). But our recipes here are all our own.

RCT: How many times a week do you eat pizza?

Wilder: Every day! I never get sick of it. Lasagna is my favorite thing on the menu - the one with mushrooms, onions, bacon, chicken, and cream. But I only eat that about once a month or so.

RCT: How has La Macarena changed in the time that you've been working in the area?

Wilder: There are more businesses, more restaurants. Lots of foreigners come from all over the world. I have a lot of foreign clients here. But of course I also have lots of Colombians from the neighborhood who are regulars. It’s a Bohemian barrio, lots of painters, artists, journalists, politicians. Now lots of tourists are coming in, lots of foreigners; it wasn't like that before. Also, it’s a lot more expensive to rent in this neighborhood now. The estrato has increased from 3 to 4 or 5. This restaurant is estrato 4. (Editor's note: The Colombian government ranks socio-economic classes on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being the poorest of the poor and 6 being the richest of the rich. Your estrato determines how much you pay in taxes, and the price of utilities varies widely depending on which estrato you live in. We live in estrato 3.)

RCT: Is there some kind of association of businesses in La Macarena?

Wilder: No, there are just independent small businesses.

RCT: Does the city of Bogotá or the Colombian government provide any kind of support to small independent businesses?

Wilder: (chuckle) No, not really. To get support from the government, you have to pay higher taxes. (Editor's note: I wasn't really sure what he meant here.)

RCT: How has Bogotá changed in the years since you have lived? You're from Bogotá, right?

Wilder: Yes, I'm from Bogotá. The parks have changed, there are a lot more now. TransMilenio (rapid bus lines) changed the city – it’s a lot quicker to get around the city now. There are lots more malls. Before, if you needed to buy something, you went to street vendors, and that was dangerous. Robbery was a lot more common, it never felt safe to buy from the street vendors. Now there are malls everywhere and it’s safe; you can buy whatever you need in just one place.

There isn’t as much trash in the street, people are more educated about keeping the city clean, it’s much cleaner now. People have learned to actually put trash in trash cans. Before about eight years ago, there weren’t trash cans in the sidewalks in the same way there are now. And the city has grown, there are lots more people here than there were before.

RCT: Why do you want to learn English? (Note: Wilder always tries to practice his English with me every time I walk by the pizzería. Think of the Colombian equivalent of my father.)
Wilder: Well, mainly because I like speaking English. Lots of foreigners come here. I like speaking English with them. I taught myself. I often see words in English on signs around the city, so I write them down and look them up in dictionaries when I get home. I love listening to music in English. I love 70’s and 80’s music. I like listening to Gloria Estefan's songs in English.

RCT: Has Wilder's Pizza been successful?
Wilder: Yes, the restaurant has been very successful because lots of people know me in the neighborhood. Since I'd been working here for many years before, everyone already knew me.

RCT: What are your future plans for the restaurant?
Wilder: I have plans to open another pizzeria, of course! Of course I want to expand. Eventually, I want to open a restaurant in La Candelaria (historic neighborhood to the south), and I'll be expanding the one we already have here in January or February.

Selling my soul for $10/hour

Yes, yes. I know that some of you would argue that this is actually the second time I've sold my soul. And, well, Mark, I really don't have a comeback for that.

Today, Robin and I went to an English-teaching institute called Smart to see if we might be able to make some money and teach some English lessons. Over the last couple of weeks, we'd heard that October through December is kind of a dead season for teaching English, so our odds of finding work would be slim. As a result, we decided that we would focus our energies on lining things up such that when we come back from the 'States in January, we'll be ready to start working.

Fortunately, Smart has an immediate need for English teachers, and the guy who interviewed us even asked if we could start tomorrow. Good news, right? Even better, they'll sponsor us for a work visa, and, depending on my negotiation skills, might even pay for it... Now, of course, none of this is written in stone -- no contract has been signed, I'm not actually going to start working tomorrow (of course a phone call went unreturned), and this does mean that an 8-hour work day would be 6-9, 12-2, and 5-8. Fun, I know, not to mention the weekend work...

Robin worried that this meant we were "selling out," acting as our own dream assassins. I reminded her that we would only be selling our souls if we stopped looking for other work (preferably something where we could speak Spanish/where Robin could do GIS). At the end of the day, being able to work in a country legally and prevent your savings from dwindling away to nothing is definitely a good thing.

Once upon a dinner party

So, we've continued with our tradition of hosting ridiculously large dinner parties here in Bogotá. In many respects, this is the most important thing we can do to try to find a job. Networking is the best way to hear about work, so there's added reason for us to make lots of new friends, beyond the fact that we're trying to build a community for ourselves. It makes it a lot easier to cement friendships when we can invite everyone we know over to our apartment almost every week. Besides, who doesn't like delicious free food?

The only problem with this approach is that there isn't really much of a dinner culture in Bogotá. Most people eat a huge lunch and a very light dinner, and most of our friends work late into the night during the week. As a result, we had a "late lunch" party instead of a dinner party on Sunday. I made empanadas for the first time, and they were the most amazing things I've ever eaten. Shockingly, we didn't run out, and I've been able to snack on leftovers that I've kept frozen. We went to a play (awful, but we got a free glass of wine) yesterday with the vet who works below our apartment, and he said that there are lots of types of empanadas in this country, but his favorite is Jerry's empanadas. On the other hand, the challah that I tried to make didn't turn out quite as well. Robin's convinced it failed because I didn't compensate for the altitude, but the extra hours and hours that we let it rise probably didn't help either. In any case, all the goyim loved the challah and said it tasted great.

We're making steady progress on the friend front - gradually meeting new people, meeting their friends, and then inviting them all over for food. Little by little, we're living the dream. After inviting 40 people to the late lunch on Sunday though, it might be time to start being a little more discriminating.

Yoga at 9,000 feet

Respira.

Espira.

Twenty-nine abuelitos (literally, little grandparents, a euphemism for elderly people) sit in a circle in the cement-walled room.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

One abuelo can't stop laughing, this whole yoga thing is surely different from anything he has ever done ("Really? This niña is telling me to breathe?"). Other abuelitos refuse to close their eyes. But most of them are getting the hang of it.

The abuelitos settle into the yoga experience. Of course, I'm no yoga instructor, and my Spanish instructions are not flawless, but I see them relaxing, letting their old muscles succumb to gravity. Then their joints are moving, and they're breathing, and when I tell them to smile they all crack up.

Instructing them to take in as much oxygen as possible seems particularly relevant at this altitude. Though Bogotá's official altitude is 8,661 feet above sea level, we must be at at least 9,000. We're in the barrio Paraíso in Ciudad Bolívar on the southern fringe of Bogotá. I don't use the term "fringe" lightly - this part of the city is filled with desplazados, internally displaced persons. At lunch, one abuelo told me that none of them were born in Bogotá. The economic infrastructure is lacking here, to say the least; most people who live in Ciudad Bolívar commute two hours to get to work, where they're paid 30,000 pesos daily if they're lucky (with today's exchange rate ~$16.67). The bus to get here drove south and climbed up, up, up, fulfilling the stereotype of Latin American cities where the poor live in the south and up in the hills. That bus ride gives the best view we've had so far of this immense city of more than 8 million people.

So, we'll be heading to the end of the Transmilenio line (rapid bus system) and catching an alimentador (feeder bus) every Wednesday to Fundación Social Oasis to do various activities with the abuelitos. If anyone has any recommendations for activities, let me know! We will theoretically also be helping with after-school and English tutoring for the young kids affiliated with the program, but today it was raining and no one showed up. We'll see how that goes.

And no, we don't have jobs yet. I promise to write about that as soon as we have more information. In the meantime, we're very much enjoying our sabbatical, we simply wish the exchange rate were more favorable to the dollar.

For now, we're just breathing it all in.

Love in the Time of Cholera

The title of this post, of course, is also the title of one of Colombia's most well-known products: the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, which Robin is unironically reading in English as I write this post. Time for more stereotypical travel writing: I think I have/had cholera. Average conversation that Robin and I have had over the last 2 weeks:

Jerry (on WebMD): Robin, I think I have cholera.

Robin: What are you talking about? You're being silly. You don't have cholera.

Jerry: Do you want to come to the bathroom with me?

Robin: Fine, fine, you have cholera. Want some tea?

Robin has become so thoroughly Colombian that her solution for all ailments of the stomach is a tea made with fresh hierbabuena (literally: good grass, though we know it as peppermint). Placebo effect or traditional medicine, it still tastes good.

As for the love part of the title, two days ago Robin and I celebrated our one year anniversary. Really, it was the second time we celebrated the anniversary. Two Fridays ago while Evan was still here we celebrated our Jewish calendar anniversary with a wonderful dinner party. Monday was a bit less extravagant. We decided to cook a nice little meal for ourselves: red pepper soup, rhubarb cake, and 40 garlic clove chicken. Robin said that we're probably the only married couple in the world that gorged ourselves on garlic for our anniversary.

A Trip of a Lifetime (guest post by Evan)

Greetings from Colombia to all you loyal Tolombia blog readers out there. It’s Evan, Robin’s older brother (and Jerry’s brother-in-law), writing you with the latest updates of our adventurous family. Please excuse the brief change in literary style!

I arrived the night before Erev Yom Kippur and spent an uneventful time going to the local Chabad synagogue with Robin and Jerry. The next day, we took off by plane to the coastal city of Santa Marta and our 10 day adventure along Colombia’s magnificent coast was underway.

Shortly after touching down in Santa Marta, we hopped a couple of forms of transportation (taxi and then bus) to our first stop, the village of Palomino. When we arrived in Palomino, it was pouring down rain, so we were forced to take a mototaxi. Glad that we arrived safely, we were met with a beautiful beach-side hostel. We spent the next day lounging around, playing cards, opening fresh coconuts, catching mammoth Caribbean waves, cooking lunch over a fire we built ourselves, reading, and walking up and down the palm tree lined beach.

We woke up early on our second morning and caught our first glimpse of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada, the tallest coastal mountain range in the world. Afterwards, we headed further north along the coast to Cabo de la Vela. This day, by far, was the craziest day of transportation in my life - near death by overloaded truck (email for details).

After getting thoroughly drenched at 2a.m. in our outdoor hammocks covered by a “roof,” we awoke to a town unlike any I’d ever been to. This place is desolate! There is no running water, the electricity is scarce and almost all of the buildings/homes are on the verge of collapse (but don’t worry, several people in the town owned Blackberries). We spent the day hiking to a gorgeous beach and lighthouse and the evening eating a succulent lobster dinner. The following morning we were off to Parque Tayrona, the highlight of the trip.

Parque Tayrona is spectacular. In order to reach Cabo de San Juan, the area within the park that we were staying, we had to hike in for 3 hours through deep mud, lots of ants, then along the beach and in light rain. The first “Holy shit!” experience we had was after hiking for about an hour through the jungle, we stepped onto the beach and the view was breathtaking. Tremendous waves crashed onto the sand, which was lined by lush vegetation and ringed by huge, green mountains. Scattered throughout the park are massive granite boulders that make you feel like you’re in Jurassic Park (or that someone tried to airlift Stone Mountain to the Colombian coast and it shattered into a million pieces).

Our hammocks were on a peninsula, about 150 feet higher than the mainland. This area provided a 360 degree view, to witness both sunrise and sunset. Sunrise was amazing, watching the sun come up over the water, with all the colors splashed against the clouds, the snow-capped Sierra Nevada in the background (only visible early in the morning); this place was paradise.

After saying goodbye to Tayrona, we hiked out and spent the day traveling to Cartagena. The closest city I can compare Cartagena to is New Orleans. There is a very touristy old city (similar to the French Quarter) surrounded by many areas that are not that popular for tourists.

We’ve spent the last 4 days relaxing here at Robin and Jerry’s place and exploring Bogotá. On Friday night, the three of us prepared a Shabbat feast for 20 of their new friends (incredible to see how many people they’ve met in such a short time) and much fun was had by all. Last night we went to a restaurant/club/freakshow, Andrés Carne de Res, which was one of the coolest and most unique places I’ve ever eaten at. This is a not-to-be-missed experience when visiting Bogotá.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and tomorrow night I will head back to Tel Aviv. It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve already been here for more than two weeks. I am so grateful to los Tolochkos for sharing their life here in Colombia with me, feeding me (often), and being wonderful hosts. Although I’ve only been here for a little more than two weeks, I’ve definitely got memories that will last a lifetime.

Photos to come soon...