let's talk about safety

A lot of you have asked about safety here in Bogota. When it makes the news that a car bomb went off 4 days after our arrival, people like my grandmother get concerned that we're dead.

There are lots of safety rules we have to follow. We have to live above a certain floor in our buildings (hurray for the penthouse on the 6th floor), we can't eat outside if a restaurant has sidewalk dining, we can't use public transportation (thank goodness for that rule), we're not supposed to hail a cab off the street, etc.

There are lots of armed guards everywhere, and maybe more so in our fancier neighborhood. Lots of muzzled scary-looking dogs like rottweilers and German shepherds with these armed guards. Lots of bodyguards and drivers. You get the picture.

With all that said, I feel remarkably safe here, even more so than in Sao Paulo. Granted, I don't walk around anywhere but in our nice neighborhood and I don't wear any jewelry fancier than a Timex and a wedding band, but my security radar doesn't beep at all. We've taken a lot of taxis with and without Jimmy and I don't feel at all threatened. In fact, one taxi driver told me last week that as a foreigner or an American or a diplomat (not sure which one because that was beyond my espanol), I was the safest person in Bogota because the penalty is so severe if somebody messes with either a foreigner, an American or a diplomat (take your pick?). I just hope the bad guys got that memo along with the taxi driver!

There are all these security measure everywhere, but ironically it seems the easiest target is our apartment building. To get inside our building in Sao Paulo would've been almost impossible. But here, you just walk off the street, and the porteiro unlocks and cracks the door to see what your business is. At this point, somebody could wave a gun around and enter the building with no problem.

To actually enter our apartment, though, you'd have to be a serious locksmith or have a chainsaw to cut through the door. We have the fanciest locks I've ever seen. The deadbolt is on the top of the door so it slides into the upper portion of the doorframe (and not the side by the doorknob). And this other lock on the side by the doorknob? Well it's not your mother's door lock. This sucker has five bolts (four together by the doorknob and one down at the bottom of the door) and with each of four turns of the key, those five bolts go deeper into the doorframe. Very cool and very secure and I hope there's never a fire in the middle of the night where I can't figure out how to get out!

So don't worry about our safety. We take all the recommended precautions and we use our common sense, like we would in any big city. I promise it's safe for any of you to come visit us!