This was my first 7/20 in Colombia. for the last few years, I always went to the Colombian Independence Day celebration at Tamiami Park in Miami. it was fun, but nothing like this!
My morning started at 4:45am. I got up to the sound of Shakira singing on La FM. I jumped in the shower and started the day. It was cold and drizzling outside. By 6:30am, I was at the computer putting together the plan for the day. At 6:45am, I heard from our Executive Producer Jason Franco. He was at a 6am "all hands on deck" meeting at the network to go over final plans for coverage. He said everything was set for me to go live from the Parque Nacional. We were very excited because the Vice President, Francisco Santos, had agreed to do an interview with us before the march at 8:30. By 7:15, my producer Camilo Jimenez and I were in a cab making our way up la Septima to the park. The streets were empty... but you could tell something big was about to happen. As we walked around the park looking for our crew, we could hear the Colombian National Police troops in formation in front of the clock tower. In unison, they shouted "Buenas Dias Senior" to the commander who was doing roll call. It was really cool. Then it hit me. I was in Colombia... on what was shaping up to be a beautiful and exciting day. It was my first July 20th in Bogota. What an amazing time to be here.
Soon, the park started to fill with people. Everyone was wearing Colombia Yo Soy T-shirts, waving flags, and carrying handmade banners. Some of the banners had the names and photos of hostages still held in the jungle. As I looked around, I could feel myself starting to well up with emotion. One after another, I saw banners with the photos of different hostages. Some were held for more than 20 years. Their families were all there in the park, ready to march, ready to send the message that it is time for their loved ones to come home.
Just before the huge crowd hit our location, I had a chance to meet the Minister of Agriculture, Andres Felipe Arias. He was very nice and spoke perfect english. Then, I met Vice President Santos, who himself was a hostage for several years. He spoke with conviction as he talked about getting everyone out of the jungle. He wore the photo of a friend still held captive on his t-shirt, and as he talked about him, he welled up in tears.
After the interviews, I watched as a long Colombian flag made it way down la Septima. it was carried by hundreds of thousands of people. I jumped down off our truck to help carry it. It was really special. It was as if this giant colombian flag was a long ribbon, wrapping up Bogota like a beautiful present. The gift inside, of course, is peace for the country.
We had some difficulty feeding our stories because the microwave signal we were using was being shared by the helicopter. So, we couldn´t feed in as quickly as we wanted to. I called Jason back at the network and he sent a runner on a motorcycle to pick up with tape or "cinta." After we handed off the tape, we decided to move down into the center of Bogota, to the Plaza Bolivar. As we made our way through the crowd, you could hear the chants of "libertad libertad" grow louder. It was really moving.
When I arrived in the Plaza Bolivar, Shakira was singing on the big screen. It was beautiful. There I was in the middle of a sea of people. People who were waving flags, singing, dancing, crying, hugging each other, and holding hands. I shot a couple of stories with the crew there, then made my way down to the Transmilenio with the tape to return to the network since the Satellite was only a single path and there wasn´t any other way to feed tape.
I waited for the Transmilenio for 15 minutes. By bus didn´t come. So I hailed a cab and got to the office. When I arrived, RCN was giving lunch to everyone who was working this holiday. It was a Cali Mio box of chicken and potatoes. It was great, considering my breakfast was a Tinto and Pan des Bono from a Willy on the side of the Park Nacional. Jason was up in the internet office, uploading some of our reports. I had a chance to look at 2 of them. I was really proud of what we were able to pull off considering the limited resources, language challenges with the crews in the field, and the lack of a microwave signal.
It´s 3:30pm now and we´re putting together a rundown for our remaining stories for tonight. We´re planning a really cool piece on a group of Indians who sang the Colombia National Anthumn in Leticia. Also there, Shakira and Carlos Vives sang "La Gota Fria," a famous vallenato song. We´re going to do a special piece on their performance. I also touched base with several of our correspondents in the field to remind them that I need their stories in english fed in time for tonight´s production.
I also met some really great people. I met a couple who works at the US Embassy who are big fans of the blog. We´re going to try to meet up for coffee next week. I also met a really nice lady from St. Louis, another couple of Miami Lakes who remembered me from my time in Miami TV, and a lady from Cartagena who just wanted to dance with me in the Plaza Bolivar.
What a day!
