Milly's [gay] Guide to Bogotá, Colombia

  It all started with yet another shitty walk. There I was, barely trailing behind a large group of my peers. We made it midway through the diagonal dimension of Universidad De Los Andes when I realised, I had forgotten by QR for leaving the building. My group, about an escalator ahead of me, was too far for me to ask anyone to scan me out, and I wasn’t exactly about to yell. With no other choice, I turn around, and head back up the stairs with one thought floating in my mind;  I am done with this ableism. Don’t get me wrong; for the most part, my group is amazing at taking care of me. But when they slip up, they’re not the ones who fall, it’s me. And to be honest, after a month of travelling with these people, I kind of expected more. Well, if you asked past-tense-steam-coming-out-of-her-ears-level-of-infuriated Milly I expected and deserved a LOT more. Nonetheless, a plan is born. It didn’t start as a protest. Initially, it was an angry text drafted on a bench in the rain...

It's been a little while. Just completed my last week in Bogotá, and it was hectic. There was so much going in both Bogotá and Wellington that the blog got ended up being pushed to the backburner. But it's okay, I am back now. So, what's been happening since you last heard from me? Mostly just finishing up everything. Lots and lots of goodbyes. There was an exhibit we did, but there's a separate post coming on that. We also went to Modern Art Museum and the Gold Museum, and both of those were epic. I did a second trip up Monserrate to do the bird trail. Apparently some species of hummingbirds don't have legs, which is a fact that is haunting me. And, of course, 30+ hours of travel back to New Zealand. I had been told that Santiago Airport is a "shithole", but when we were there the first time I didn't see it. After an 8 hour stopover however, my opinion has shifted. Why is there nowhere to refill your drink bottle? Why is the airport the same shape as ...

 Would this really be a gay guide to Bogotá if I didn’t go to the biggest gay club in the world? For a first clubbing experience, Theatron was certainly an experience. Last night I went to the biggest gay bar in the world, Theatron, located right here in Bogotá. Boasting around 13 different different rooms, it would be an insult to writing a blog about queerness in Bogotá without touching on this place. First impressions were fantastic. I was enjoying exploring all the various floors and was having a good time dancing. There was such a great variety of music from floor to floor, with interesting themes, great cocktails, and an excessive amount of Heineken ads. To think that I was in this massive club, designed for and filled with other queer people, how could I not be having a great time? But then, it happened. The alcohol wore off, and all of a sudden, I was aware of my surroundings. A Colombian told me that “party in Latin America is loud as hell”, and they did not lie. T...