Vacation from Colombia

I've been in Colombia for six months now and it continues to fascinate me--I feel like I've just scratched the surface. just when I think I got things figured out, or start to feel like I'm fitting in, something that's totally at odds with my "Leave it To Beaver Seattle suburb upbringing" happens and I'm put back in my place as the "Gringo Outsider". I call these my "HUH??? WTF" moments.

A quote from "Paul Theroux"book I just hammered out - "What was so strange about a man wearing bunches of garlic around his neck? Perhaps nothing, except the he would have not done it if he were not a Mexican and I would have not noticed if I hadn't been American."

NOW it's time to take a vacay from Colombia, go back to the US, visit friends, take care of personal biz, enjoy the end of summer in the PNW. take a rest, let my eyes reset so they can continue to notice the details--before the Salsa loses its sexiness...

So in what has continued to be life of contrasts, i'm leaving Colombia tomorrow--having spent the past few days working a story that's taking place 560 meters down a 1 meter diameter coal mine shaft w/ some of the most incredible people working in the toughest conditions i could imagine--make the jump from here into a tin can continental airplane and out the other end to the comforts of familiarity, friends and family in San Francisco and Seattle!

See you there!

Bike Race is Over

After 15 days of traveling with Colombia es Pasion through several thousand miles of Colombia, the Vuelta a Colombia has come to an end. I wonder if this couple realizes it yet????

Colombia National Cycling Team - Medellin Training Series

Medellin CEP - Images by Gregg Bleakney

Some photos of the CEP team training camp as they get ready for La Vuelta a Colombia

My Cycling Money Is On...Team Colombia es Pasion

Colombia es Pasion Cycling Team Bogota - Images by Gregg Bleakney

I love cycling, I love Italy and I especially love taking pictures of cyclists in Italy. However, I quickly loose my stoke if I have to stand next to a posse of other photographers doing the same thing I'm doing--taking pictures of cyclists in Italy:) Yesterday, while nearly every cycling photog and their mom is in Europe covering Lance Armstrong's big comeback at the Giro d' Italia, I was standing by myself, with a street slung Arepa in my left hand, Cafe con leche in right hand, at 5:30 am at a lonely gas station on the outskirts of Bogota waiting for a group of cyclists to show up.

What the hell am I doing???

I'm betting that a scrappy group of Colombian kids, --the U-23 Colombia es Pasion/Cafe Colombia cycling team, who just came back from Europe to train in their hometown (the third highest major city in the world)--is going to blow everyone away in the big European races over the next few years. I want to be here, by myself, as this story begins. For me it started yesterday during a 105 KM training ride that kicked off at 8,700 ft.--hitting 85 KM/HR on the flats and who knows on the descent of Altos del Vino.

Oh...and BTW - I'm liking the odds of my bet so far:) these guys just secured a #1 world ranking and cyclist Fabio Duarte already won the U 23 world Championship. They want it bad--and also happen to be a great group of people to work with.

I'll be with them in their training camps and during the toughest stage race in the world "La Vuelta a Colombia" over the next month or so...it's going to be a wild ride.

Some pictures from yesterday with the Colombia es Pasion Cycling Team:

Bogota - The Guitar Master - Shakira

"Shakira is not Colombia anymore--she is business"

- The Guitar Master of Bogota

Just one of the conversations I've had wondering around Bogota...snapping pictures of the interesting things and people I encounter along the way. I've started a gallery of Bogota photography where I'll keep droppin' shots as time goes by.


Bogota - Images by Gregg Bleakney

Things that go bump in the night

I ate Piranha head soup last week and it seemed quite normal--In fact, normal enough to get me thinkin' that I've become pretty used to being away from Seattle, WA. Well...maybe not quite yet...there's always something about a good ol' scary looking spider, snake, or whaterver else that gives you a nice chill up the spine. I've been to 3 very wild areas in Colombia during the past 2 months...and there has certainly been no shortage of critter sightings to keep me shaking my shoes out every morning and wonderin' "is that really my Croakie strap tickling the back of my neck again?"

Here are some of my favs and their given names (I included some not so scary things too):

A "holyshitthatthingisHUGE"-apede.



A classic Tarantula



A classic Tarantula that walks on water



A classic big spider that you think is a Tarantula and you don't see until after you walk through its web.



Cool lookin' really fast lizard



A centi-worm-ish thing



A really poisonous snake on the ground that the entire village summons "gringo gringo" to look at before they cut its head off and throw it in the Amazon



A really poisonous snake sleeping in a tree above you that you notice after your canoe gets stuck on a log--you hope will not fall on top of you



A cool bird with big eyes



A cute frogster

Pictures in the Candelaria

In-between trips to far-flung places in Colombia I always come back to Bogota.

Recently, I've been spending time in the Colonial district called the Candelaria. It's a pretty inspiring place to hang--I'm just two blocks away from the Botero Museum, a cobblestone's throw from Magnum Phtogorapher Rene Burri's exhibit, and a hop skip and a jump from new public library which hosts a series of concerts and conversations...the last as with National Geographic explorer Wade Davis paired with a photographic exhibit "Lost Amazon" by Richard Evans Schultes.

I wander around the new digs and shoot as much as possible--trying to make at least one interesting picture per day--here's 7 daily shots from my new basecamp.