- In this episode of "FLY BROTHER," we take off for the Andean highlands and start out in Bogotá, Colombia.

Here, I stroll through the historic center of the city before meeting up with my BFF, actor Roberto Manrique, who takes us to the pinnacle of Monserrate for a few fried treats and spectacular city views.

Let's get physical... physical.

I'm Ernest White II... storyteller, explorer.

I believe in connecting across backgrounds and boundaries.

- I mean, look at us.

We're chasing the sunset.

- Join me and my friends... What's going on, boy?

♪ ...and discover that, no matter the background, no matter the history, the whole world is our tribe.

♪ Come with me.

Whoo!

"FLY BROTHER."

- Major funding for this program is provided by Marie Roberts de la Parra -- personal coaching, executive leadership, and self-empowerment.

Live your most extraordinary life at marierobertsdelaparra.com.

MetalShake by Sweden.

Additional funding provided by the following... ♪ - Bogotá.

At 8,700 feet in altitude, the capital city of Colombia is the world's third highest.

And with a metro area population of almost 11 million, that's a lot of people in the air.

♪ ♪ The Spanish conquistadors first barreled through this part of the Andes Mountains in 1538 in a brutal conquest of the Muisca people, in search of gold and the mythical El Dorado.

♪ Centered on Plaza Bolívar, a colonial Spanish town square named for the George Washington of South America, Bogotá sprawled over the centuries across the flat valley floor, becoming a showplace for the various cultures, histories, and experiences that make up Colombia, a nation with Indigenous, African, and European roots and even more complex branches.

♪ ♪ For a few years, I called Bogotá home.

I lived in the city as an English and social sciences professor at a university in the historic part of town, called La Candelaria.

♪ ♪ I walked these same cobblestone streets every day, sometimes running into my students on the bus or in the gym, sometimes while grabbing a warm bowl of ajiaco, a delicious Andean potato soup.

Back then, for me, Bogotá was the place to be.

♪ ♪ You know, I met some of my best friends while living in Bogotá, friendships that have lasted over a decade.

That time seems so long ago, now, but it's good to be back.

♪ Bogotá is a very modern city, the center of commerce, industry, and entertainment for the country.

Other Colombian cities have their charms, but Bogotá bustles and buzzes.

♪ ♪ ♪ This weekend, we're here on the <i> puente</i> before Easter, and the city hums with working folks enjoying their hometown on a three-day weekend.

Even in the cool mountain air, the atmosphere of Bogotá feels festive year-round.

Today is particularly festive, particularly at the sacred mountain peak of Monserrate.

♪ Yeah, bad timing.

♪ I mix in with the crowds that squeeze into the cable car on my way up to the Catholic sanctuary atop Monserrate.

♪ That's really high.

The mountain peak tops 10,000 feet in altitude, and the thin air definitely makes it hard to do jumping jacks or dance the Brazilian samba without wheezing.

The elevation, and its proximity to the equator, is also why the city's temperature remains on the cool side year-round.

The streets and skyscrapers of Bogotá hum under the watchful, benevolent presence of Monserrate, a special, sacred place since the time of the Muiscas.

♪ [ Laughter, indistinct conversations ] ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm headed up the mountain to connect with my buddy, broham, and BFF Roberto Manrique, actor and telenovela heartthrob who I've known since my teaching days.

We thought we could squeeze in a solitary hangout on the mountain between his shooting schedule.

Solitary?

That was a fail.

♪ Roberto grew up in the neighboring country of Ecuador, but he's lived in Bogotá for over 15 years and knows the place just about as well as the place knows him.

Roberto even helped me make my first Colombian television appearance as a feather fan-waving harem guard in MC Hammer pants and a turban in a mobile phone commercial.

He had recommended me to the casting agent.

And, yes, my university students recognized me in the commercial.

Often living in different places as we do, Roberto and I connect a couple times each year, but when we do get together, it's always -- well, mostly always plenty of laughs.

And there's usually plenty of eating, too.

♪ ♪ - [ Speaking Spanish ] ♪ <i>Y</i> coffee?

- [ Speaks Spanish ] - Okay.

[ Speaking Spanish ] <i>-Tres tintos.</i> <i>Que eso significa tres</i> coffees.

I'm so out of practice.

- [ Speaking Spanish ] - Ah.

Colombian coffee, always the best.

[ Ding! ]

See?

Stuffing our faces.

Roberto, what is this?

- Almojábana.

- Almojábana.

- It's a traditional type of bread, I guess, in Colombia.

And it's made out of <i>almidon de yuca y queso.</i> <i>-Almidon.</i> - Mm-hmm.

Please don't ask me how to say that in English.

I have no clue.

- Okay.

So it's made out of <i>almidon de yuca</i> and cheese.

- There you go.

- So it's a special cheese bread called "albojábana."

- Almojábana.

- Almojábana.

What's "albojábana"?

Nothing.

- I don't know.

And this... Oh, no!

I kind of destroyed it.

Oh!

It's an arepa.

This -- This you know, right?

Arepa Colombiana?

Yes, arepa with cheese.

- Colombian arepa.

- Yes.

[ Both laugh ] - So, like, dude, what are you working on now?

Like, the last time we talked, you were in a soap opera.

Now, what are you doing?

- A TV series.

- Okay.

- Mm-hmm.

I'm doing something called <i>"Sin senos sí hay paraíso,"</i> which, in English, is called...

Wait, wait.

Wait for it.

- Okay.

We'll wait for it.

- Wait for it.

- All right, all right.

<i>-Perdón.</i> - No.<i> Tranquila.</i> <i>Gracias por decirlo.</i> - Without breath, there is indeed paradise.

- Without breath?

- Yes, breath.

Breath?

Breath.

<i>-Sin senos?</i> <i>-Sin senos.</i> - Like chest.

- Like... - So, without breasts... - Breasts?

I said breath.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Which is <i> respiración.</i> - Okay.

Breasts.

So, you want to make fun?

- Breasts.

- You want me to say again, or you just gonna make fun?

[ Laughs ] I will go with make fun.

Please, I don't want to say it again.

- Without breasts, there is paradise.

Wait, without?

- Without, yeah.

Because the first season was called "Without Breasts, There is No Paradise."

Now the writer has decided... - That there is indeed paradise, even without breasts.

- Exactly!

There you go.

- Did you get that at home, audience?

- It's a show about... the world of -- there's a term -- of prostitution and how women could tend to value themselves because of their bodies and the way men see them.

You know, and a stereotype, a physical stereotype... - Okay.

- ...they need to become in order to satisfy men's expectations.

- Okay, so to be validated by men, they need to look a certain way.

- Aha, thank you very much.

- No, it's cool, man.

- Especially in the drug distribution and narcos world.

- Okay.

- You know?

So that's what I'm working on right now.

- What about that movie you were making?

Is it out yet?

- Yes, actually.

We went first to the Ecuadorian market.

- Okay.

- We did that, and then we did the US premiere at the Havana Film Festival in New York.

- At the Havana Film Festival in New York.

That's hot, man!

- Yeah, it was cool.

- Okay.

So, am I gonna be able to see it?

- Of course.

You better.

- All right, all right.

- This year, we're working on international distribution.

And after that, it's gonna go online.

- Okay.

What's the movie about, man?

- At the Havana Film Festival, I guy said a quote I love.

"It's a funny movie about death."

- Okay.

- Okay.

It's about a guy who has cancer and decides not to do treatment.

And what I love about the movie is the fact that it inspires and that you think and relate and go deep in how do we feel about death.

And, yes, it's something to respect but not to fear.

- Okay.

- You know, we don't need to fear, really.

- Right.

It's just a part of life.

A natural part of life.

- Exactly, exactly.

And that's basically it.

- You know, it's starting to rain, and even though my hair can get wet, I think we need to be rolling.

- Let's do that.

- All right.

All right.

Let me grab my coffee.

- Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Upstairs?

- Keep Bogotá beautiful.

Excuse me.

- That was easy!

You could have guessed it.

- I -- I...up.

- You could have guessed it.

Totally.

Totally.

- That's my boy.

Yin and yang.

Lightworkers, darkworkers, homies.

♪ So what had happened was, we had planned to meet up with my friend Katharine later in the day, but despite the lovely images you see here, the rain actually got heavier.

In fact, the rain turned to hail, and hailstones rained down upon us so hard, we literally had to call it a day.

♪ ♪ Thunderstorms scuttled the rest of our shoot in the Colombian capital.

But we know that the beauty of the place and the enjoyment of hanging out with a good friend, eating arepas on a mountaintop, makes for a scene you won't likely forget.

We'll definitely be back.

But we didn't want you to miss out on the beauty and silliness of a spring afternoon in Bogotá.

♪ ♪ ♪ But wait, there's more!

This is a double feature, after all.

This time, come with me all the way to Casablanca.

♪ [ Muezzin calling prayer ] Casablanca.

The commercial capital and largest city of Morocco.

Perched on the Atlantic Ocean on the far northwest of Africa, Casablanca has been a way point for pilgrims, immigrants, entrepreneurs, and legends for over a thousand years.

♪ ♪ The enormous Hassan II Mosque, named for the Moroccan king who ruled for the second half of the 20th century, reflects Casablanca's status as a hub for business and culture in Morocco, Africa, and the Arab World.

♪ ♪ Completed in 1993, with the world's second-tallest minaret and space for over 100,000 worshippers, the Grand Mosque, as it's called, also speaks to Casablanca's careful balance of the modern and the traditional.

Today, I'm connecting with my good friend, Thierry Kabeya, a Congolese-Canadian entrepreneur I became friends with back when we were both English teachers in... Colombia.

Now living with his wife and children in Casablanca, he takes me shopping in his 'hood.

Hey, Thierry, what's going on, boy?

- Nothing much, you?

- I'm good, man, I'm good.

I'm glad to see you here, man!

- Yeah?

Oh, man.

- So, like, what's special about this place?

- What's special about this place is that, for me, it's neighborhood.

This guy is your neighborhood guy.

It's where Moroccans buy, not foreigners.

There's no foreigners, I don't think.

I'm probably the only foreigner who buys from here.

- Okay, so it's not like when you go to a supermarket and everything's prepackaged and Western-style?

- Yeah, so the service is personal.

- Okay.

- So it's personal.

He cuts -- Like, he understands what cut I want and everything, and I'm saving money.

Like, you know?

It's fresh.

It's probably... [ Speaking French ] - He's speaking French.

- So, the meat is fresh.

It was killed yesterday.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

So, fresh meat.

- Killed yesterday, huh?

- Okay.

- I'm a vegan as of now.

All right.

[ Chuckles ] - Ernest, you know, what I like about living in places like this, besides the heat... - Okay.

- ...it's the warmth of the people.

- Right.

- But, going back to the heat, you know the heat makes our fruit very, very sweet.

- Okay.

That sounds kind of like a proverb from a tropical country.

- Exactly.

So, here is where I buy my weekly fruit.

- Okay.

- I say weekly because this fruit, I mean, if you don't eat them as fast as possible, they go bad.

- Well, yeah.

I mean, that is what happens in warm places.

- So, it's in season for cherries, so I come here to get my cherries.

- Okay.

- Ooh, see, this is what a kilo of cherries looks like.

Want to taste?

- Yeah.

- Quail eggs.

[ Speaking Arabic ] So, Ernest, as you can see, I got my goat meat, I got my cherries, I got my quail eggs.

- Yes, you did, man, and I hate that you got to run home, and I know you're a man on a mission, getting your hustle on, so I really appreciate that you took the time to show me around your neighborhood, man.

- Thank you, sir.

- All right, brother.

- All right.

- As always.

- Cheers, brother.

- Thanks, boy.

- Yeah.

- All right, man.

Thierry is one of the world's true global entrepreneurs.

He's lived as many years outside his home country of Canada as he has inside.

He's out here in the world.

Casablanca's over 4 million people anchor the economic engine of Morocco, where business, pleasure, and connection happen in Arabic, French, and sometimes English.

Lots of tourists, when they come to Morocco, they end up coming to Fez or Marrakesh.

What is it that Casablanca has to offer people that those places don't?

- First of all, we have to visit the big mosque.

- Okay, yes.

- Yeah, the big mosque is beautiful.

- Yes.

- So it's the biggest mosque in Africa.

- Mm-hmm.

- People here, they are generous.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah, I can assure you of that.

- People here, they don't sleep.

- 24 hours.

- 24 hours for 24 hours.

- I was thinking about this.

- Okay.

All right my brother.

I appreciate, man.

Thank you so much.

- Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- Okay.

- Next, I'm off to meet a buddy of mine, Omar Wydadi, a young doctor I met on my first trip to the city through my CouchSurfing host, his best friend, Hicham, also a physician.

Hicham was working when Omar takes me to the flea market for a tasty surprise lunch.

- I'm gonna show you around, Ernest.

- Okay.

Okay, cool.

- It's an unusual place.

It's a place where you can find anything.

Anything.

- Okay.

Anything you want.

- Like a lot of places, sometimes the ramshackle, not-too-polished markets of the world are where you get some of the best deals, and, in this case, some of the best food.

♪ ♪ - This is too small for you.

- [ Laughs ] Are you calling me fat, man?

What the...

He said I'm fat.

- What about the view?

- I love it, man.

I mean, dude, it's... - Fresh air.

- It's fresh air.

You've got satellite dishes everywhere.

So, I know that everybody's keeping abreast of current events around the world.

- I'm sure that almost everyone here, who works here, has never seen the place from above.

- Okay.

All right, well, I appreciate this special honor.

- I have the... - The food's coming.

- The food's coming.

- Excellent.

All right.

- I'm gonna bring it.

- That's for me, okay.

This is all for me.

- Let's discover what is inside.

- Okay.

Let's see what this is, okay?

Shall we?

Ta-da!

- You have to smell it.

Mm.

- Whoo!

That is...

I'm ready to eat, man.

Where are the silverware, where's the silverware?

Where are the forks and knives?

- No forks, no knives.

Your fingers.

- Ah, I wasn't raised to eat that way.

- I'm sorry, you have to.

[ Laughs ] You have to eat it this way.

- Okay.

Break the bread.

We're breaking bread.

All right.

And what's this called?

- That's the tagine.

That's the Moroccan meal.

That's the traditional one.

- Traditional.

Is it, like, the national dish of Morocco?

- Yeah.

And so, with the couscous.

The tagine and the couscous.

- Okay.

- And you will not find it in any place in the world.

So, let's have it.

- Okay.

All right.

Let's have at it, man.

I'm following you.

- We say bon appetit in Arabic, it's<i> besseha.</i> - Ha?

<i>-Besseha.</i> <i>-Besseha.</i> All right.

<i> Besseha.</i> Well...

I mean, we eat hamburgers and hot dogs with our hands in the States.

Pizza.

- That's not the same thing.

♪ Man, that tagine was delicious.

After lunch, Omar and I head down to the oceanfront for a chat about his hometown and his home country.

♪ ♪ ♪ So yeah, dude, like, people have so many stereotypes and expectations about Muslim countries, you know.

Like, when people come here, what do you want them to see, like, about how modern Islam exists, I guess you could say?

- Yeah, I think Morocco, in general, is the best example of modern Islam.

You can see...

I think what I love in Morocco -- I don't know if it's similar in other Muslim countries -- is that you can go in a small, small villages in the forest, mountains, in the city, you will find, in every village, in every city, a mosque.

They may not have electricity, they may not have flowing water, but you will find a mosque.

That shows the people have a big faith.

- So what do you love about Casablanca?

- What I love about Casablanca is that you can find modernity and you can find tradition side by side.

If you want to go to a club, you can go to a club.

If you want to go to a mosque, you go to a mosque.

If you want to wear jeans and a t-shirt and shirt, you can do so.

And if you gonna wear a djellaba and traditional clothes, you can, so, freedom.

And you choose.

- Freedom.

Choice.

Opportunity.

Love.

That's all human beings really want, isn't it?

Well, that and maybe some good music on the radio.

♪ ♪ Let's do a battle clap.

- A clap battle.

- Clap battle.

- Okay.

Clap battle!

♪ Die clappy!

[ Laughs ] - Ow!

Ouch!

♪ ♪ - Major funding for this program is provided by Marie Roberts de la Parra -- personal coaching, executive leadership, and self-empowerment.

Live your most extraordinary life at marierobertsdelaparra.com.

MetalShake by Sweden.

Additional funding provided by the following... To join the "FLY BROTHER" travel community, or to order your own copy of this episode, visit flybrother.net.

♪