It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a sniper!

It wasn't long ago that the sight of a military man holding a machine gun would have caused me to stop and stare.  Since living in Africa, Mexico and now South America, it seems almost common place. 

But this weekend, from my balcony I was amazed to see a huge military presence for what I thought was a run of the mill, 10k road race.  Fighter jets buzzing the city, helicopters circling overhead, armed officers every 50 feet along the course, and a sniper on the roof of the building beside us.  What? For a road race?

Below:  Check out the sniper with his eye in his scope of his machine gun on the building to the left of us, and the helicopter, which had men with machine guns hanging out of the open door.

There were some groups that sang or recited chants as they ran along the race course -- hard to imagine being able to sing and run at 8500 feet above sea level!

Roger was at the gym during much of the race but while he was walking the 6 blocks back to the apartment on a walkway through parks (and about 2 blocks from the race course), he encountered heavily armed men patrolling the area.

After a bit of "Googling", I discovered there were participants with prosthetic legs as a result of landmines and mining accidents who were raising awareness of the causes for their disabilities, as well as Colombian's President Santos who was one of the 10,000 runners. --- which explains all the top guns.

An hour after the race -- the barriers were taken down, helicopters and fighter jets landed, and much of the heavy duty security was probably returned to the presidential palace.  Business as usual in Bogota.

Curiosity killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance.

Harry Lorayne