Colombia (Summer 2009)

First impressions can be tricky. For some reason, every flight I could find into Bogotá arrived at 10pm. Not ideal when you’re unfamiliar with the city, transportation or don’t have a hotel reservation. Thankfully I have a friend in Colombia, and as I soon learned, Colombians are about the friendliest people on earth. My friend couldn’t meet me that night but assured me her friend from Bogotá would be waiting for me at the airport. Unfortunately she was leaving early the next morning so I found myself on a nightbus heading south to Neiva. After a long day of traveling I was asleep in no time. Unfortunately my next memory is a “bang” and waking up covered in glass. I soon remembered I was in Colombia and half expected to feel a burning feeling from where the guerrilla bullet entered my body. It turns out it was big rock or chunk of concrete that flew through the window in the middle of the night. The bus stopped but I don’t think anyone had any idea what happened. It was encouraging to see the police though…apparently this isn’t something that happens everyday. So yeah, this was my first impression. Super friendly people and random destruction. I didn’t know what to think.

Normally when I travel I’ve got a limited amount of time and a giant list of “must sees”. This time was a little different. I’m lucky to have a friend living in Colombia. No better way to see the “real” country than with a local. I also soon realized that family is everything in Colombia. In my friend’s city it seemed like everyone knew each other or was related in some distant way. You know how you behave differently around friends or family compared to the general public? There’s less privacy, less personal space, less hesitation or distrust, and it’s ok to be a little late for meetings. That’s kind of like what life is like there. Driving is completely chaotic but I think part of it is because everyone feels like they know the other person. It’s ok to race around and cut people off as long as they’re your friend right? Equally ok is to be (hours) late even if a specific time is agreed upon. Just imagine that on a huge scale. One thing I learned is not to have any plans or be in any kind of a hurry. Besides my headaches at the airport, the chaos became so overwhelming it was actually amusing.

I spent that first week basically living in Neiva. My friend’s family adopted me immediately and I even found myself joining them on a drive up into the countryside while my friend was busy at work that first day. Apparently the trend for city dweller is to buy a little land in the countryside and have a little house to escape to. That first day I visited my friend’s cousin’s house and it was a great little place up in the hills with horses, a garden, natural swimming holes, and a pool. Everyday I met new family members and friends, and everyone seemed genuinely happy to have me join the daily festivities. We visited the local hot springs, desert and even piled 10 people in a car to drive off to a local festival in a nearby town. I definitely felt off the tourist trail and would have been shocked to see a fellow traveler. I’m not sure what the locals thought of me but am pretty sure they were amused to see me thrown off the mechanical bull. The rest of the evening was spent watching amateur bullfighters, eating large portions of barbecued meat, drinking larger amounts of whiskey and watching the local beauty parade and pageant. My friend’s cousin also brought a couple horses so I found myself riding though the city streets later that night.

After a week in Neiva I was ready to see more of the country so my friend and I drove south to the town of San Agustin. It’s a little town stuck in a valley near several important rivers and surrounded on all sides by green hills. At some point in history a nearby volcano erupted, sending giant stones flying throughout the area. The locals (with time on their hands) ended up carving these stones into giant figures of people and animals, which can be seen in the local archaeological park or on random trips into the hills. We visited the park and then went to “El Estrecho” which is a narrowing of the huge Magdalena River. Unfortunately I came down with something so we headed back that night instead of sticking around for more fun the next day. Probably a wise move since I was burning up and in no mood to have any fun. I was sick for a couple days but didn’t let that stop me from heading back north to Bogotá (which was not very impressive due to the cold, overcast day and the traffic gridlock). I stayed with another of my friend’s cousins who was able to show me some of the more interesting parts of Bogotá that night and the next day. Highlights were Usaquen, Parque 93, the Gold Museum, old churches and the Botero Museum. I also couldn’t resist some of the local temptations like cheese in my hot chocolate and giant “fat bottomed” ants, which were about an inch long, fried and tasted like rotten, burnt mud.

Either Colombia is a huge country or it’s because of the rugged terrain, but travel can take forever. That’s why I flew up to the North coast, saving about 12 hours for that extra $10 I spent. I flew into Cartagena and this time stayed with the brother of my friend’s friend’s husband (I told you everyone knows each other) who again instantly made me a part of their family. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay long because I was determined to explore some of the North coast and headed east to a little fishing village called Taganga. Several unrelated people said it was a beautiful place but to be honest I was a little unimpressed. Definitely not the nicest beach in the world and with the whole main street under construction it felt like the town had been built overnight. Then again, I didn’t have any plans except to relax so it did the job. There was a nice hike to a bay and beach around the corner, and little things made it worthwhile like the amazing fruit smoothies (my favorite was lulo, a local fruit). After a few days relaxing I headed back to Cartagena and got a nice surprise when I found my friend there waiting for me.

We spent these final days in the Old Town of Cartagena, which is amazing. Tons of old buildings that have been fixed up and painted in every color along with random little parks, plazas and tons of energy. Nearby is the Castle of San Felipe, which is a huge, old Spanish fort that you can explore, including some of the old underground tunnels. We spent the first day walking around town and found a huge difference between day and night. In the daytime, the streets are full of locals and vendors. In the nighttime, many locals vanished and were replaced by tourists, horse-drawn carriages and local performers. On the last day we headed south of the city to Bocagrande beach for some relaxing, bodysurfing and lots of “no thank you’s”.

Thankfully that first impression of super friendly people and random destruction was only halfway accurate. I don’t think I’ve ever met friendlier, more genuine people on my travels. I’m sure some of this was because I was far from the tourist trail and living with my friend. I know a big part is the people as well. I saw many examples of complete strangers meeting people not because they wanted something but because of their natural, curious personalities. There’s definitely a closeness in Colombia that I don’t find in the US. That and the complete chaos that I mentioned earlier. It’s a funny place but somewhere I would love to visit again. Oh, and the coffee’s not bad either.