Live River Crabs are just one of the ingredients that are blended into the drink called ‘Savage Love’
Being Bogota
Buenos, Bolivar, Bikes, Botero, Ben-Hur…and more
Mike our guide, came out of the small refreshment stand carrying a
goldfish bowl of live river crabs. He described the speciality of the
house—a drink called Poderoso Berraquillo (Powerful Mixture) made
from blended fruit juices, booze, a few secret ingredients, and one live
crab. The nickname for the drink is ‘savage love’ –supposedly a natural
Viagra—and he asked if anyone was interested in trying it for only 5000
Colombian pesos (about $2.50 US). This was the first stop on our bike
tour around Bogota. There was silence amongst the group, so I
volunteered in the spirit of ‘try anything once’. I took a sip—it tasted like a
crabby-fruity milkshake—and then offered tastes to the group. While we
all agreed that ‘savage love’ was a bit of marketing hyperbole, the drink
certainly brought the group together and kept up our spirits and energy
for the 5-hour tour.
And why bikes? Well, the traffic in Bogota can best be explained by picturing the chariot race
from the movie ‘Ben-hur’, but substitute thousands of cars for the 9 chariots that actually took
part in the famous movie race. The same fierce determination, conniving, swerving, cutting off,
jumping ahead and avoiding collisions is the norm for traffic in and around Bogota. We referred
to it as Ben-Hurrying around the city.