Colombia, Pt. 1
¨Welcome to Colombia, Welcome to my country, Thank you for visiting´ is the mantra I heard throughout my travels in Colombia…..
A country riddled with stereotypes…sometimes accurate and sometimes not.
One stereotype that should be dismissed is….¨Colombia is dangerous¨! As a tourist, I did not feel unsafe (I visited five cities, a national park and one village). In fact I felt just the opposite, I was greeted with warm, kind and helpful people. Colombia had the friendliest people out all five countries I visited during my travels. I definitely recommend visiting Colombia, especially right now, because from my short time in Colombia it appeared to have the least amount of tourists. The majority of the tourist were Colombians…the ratio was about 3 backpackers to every 7 Colombian tourist….
Second stereotype….´drugs are everywhere,´ more specifically, cocaine. Well, the answer to this is yes-no, depends on your definition of ¨everywhere¨. Yes, cocaine is easily accessible, accessible by my standards, e.g. a person doesn’t have to go to a seedy part of town to make a purchase of an illegal substance from a shady character. But, rather a tourist can go about their daily activities and be approached by one or more friendly Colombian´s who may say: ¨I can take care of all your needs´. I suppose it is up to the individual to determine what their ´needs´are….but this approach did not seem seedy, shady or threatening, just seemed as simple as ´would you like some cream with your coffee´. If you say ´no´ he continues to converse with you awhile, possible asking follow-up questions, regarding your ´needs´, e.g. suggestions on restaurants, excursions you might enjoy, bars or clubs, something of that nature (it´s all about diversification)….if he cannot assist you with one need, he may be able to assist in another area….after all he is a business man.
Granted the Colombia I saw during my travels is certainly not the Colombia it was years before. The Colombia I was greeted with was full of beauty, energy, culture and warm people! As a result, my experience during my visit is my experience and mine alone…..
As stated above i visited several cities in Colombia. The goal was to make it to the Caribbean coast of Colombia (next to Venezuela)….which is about a 3-4 day bus journey from the border of Ecuador and Colombia (the point Mia and I started our journey…..Yes, yet another border crossing, five in total, thus far) As a result, we decided to break the journey up by stopping in additional cites along the way.
The first stop on my Colombian extravaganza was:
Cali, Colombia- Cali is the third largest city in Colombia and has more Salsa bars than I could count on my hands and feet. Everywhere I looked there was a Salsa bar!! Needless to say, I went out and danced with the locals. Oh did i look ridiculous….I don’t think my four week Salsa lessons prior to my travels helped me much. I could not compare or even keep up with them….they were on FIRE! It was an amazing sight to watch. I enjoyed watching them much more than participating.
After my very, very, long night out in Cali, I went to the zoo and took in some sights around the city and then headed to our next destination.
Medellin, Colombia- Medellin pronounced ‘Medajean,’ - I find the pronunciation of this city very strange…it doesn’t fall in line with the ‘proper’ double l usage, because in Spanish double ll’s are pronounced as a ‘ya’ and for someone who doesn’t know Spanish very well (that’s me….for those of you who have not read my previous posts 
it was a little odd to hear the correct pronunciation of the city….but I got it now!
Medellin, was very different than what I expected….I thought it would be more gritty and dirty, given it’s history. But to my surprise, what lay before me was an ultra-modern city, with a subway system, nice restaurants and of course wonderful, wonderful people.
Cartagena, Colombia- This city tops all the cities i visited in Colombia and many outside Colombia. Cartagena holds a special place in my heart. Cartagena is about thirteen hours from Medellin (if I remember correctly), by bus. However, our bus ride took about twenty hours!!!! Apparently, the day before a bus was set on fire by protesters, as a result the bus company’s would not travel during the night…..so our bus company pulled over on the side of the road until daylight and then proceeded with the journey. Oh, did it make for a never ending journey! Not to mention the bus terminal in Cartagena is about forty more minutes by local bus to the center. So once we got off one bus….we had to get on yet another bus to the center.
Upon stepping off the bus in Cartagena there was a very distinct weather change…..the weather had gone from comfortable hot to very, very humid! Oh, was the air thick! Once we disembarked from the bus we headed straight to the local bus, for our forty minute bus ride from one end of the city to the center. During this bus ride, I noticed how dirty, gritty and poor the city was. I was told by the owner of the hostel in Medellin that Cartagena is one of the poorest cities in Colombia…..and it definitely looked like it. Garbage was overflowing EVERYWHERE! In the streets, in the ravines and around the ‘houses’.
Eventually, we made it to the center of the city by bus…but not before missing our stop and riding the same bus route in reverse for another forty minutes!
This post will have to be continued……stay tune!
