Bikes and Tinto

Bikes, coffee, tea, cigarettes and something more...

I passed this tiny bike repair shop in Bogotá's Palermo neighborhood. As the sign says, they repair bikes and also sell coffee, tea and other drinks. Inside, about four bikes hung from the right wall, in back stood a work bench and crowded against the left wall two tiny tables for sipping coffe and tea. The good-natured owner said he'd been in business for eight years and that things were going well. When I told him about Bogotá Bike Tours renting bikes for 15,000 pesos for four hours, he laughed hard and said that back in the 1970s he'd rented bikes for five centavos per hour. That seems too cheap even for way back then. Today, the smallest Colombian coin in circulation is 50 pesos.

(Ignore any possible conflict between cycling and smoking.)

This blog written by Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours