Colombia - miscellaneous thoughts and a few pictures

One last post for Colombia --

There´s just a mishmash of stuff that I thought might be interesting.  Starting with:

APPEARANCES
99% of all women in Colombia wear jeans, regardless of age or size.  And if there is one visual image we will remember from the people of Colombia, it is the (apparent) widespread shortage of fabric available to make women´s jeans and the generosity with which they share cleavage.  Yes, whether or not they should pour themselves into jeans 5 sizes too small or whether they have attractive cleavage....

Duane was going to get a picture...  but he chickened out.


SAFETY
First,  Colombia is a safe travel destination - something that many people might still question.  I was shocked to be told in the first small town we went to that we could hike anywhere night or day and be safe.  I was also in disbelief when we were told that we could leave our bikes unlocked outside a museum while we did a tour.  While that took place in a small town, it is an example.  We didn´t hear from other travelers of getting pick pocketed or of anything worse.  That isn´t to say that nothing bad could happen.  And, this isn´t to say that you don´t need to pay attention to where you go.  But it´s is very clear where not to go.  We had the practice of asking about any precautions we should take when we got to a new town.  We were only cautioned in the large cities we visited.  Big safety concerns these days are a concern of residents of Colombia, not of travelers.  Colombia is definitely off the ¨dangerous to visit¨ list.

TOURISM
Tourism is not huge in Colombia.  Not yet.  Probably becuase a lot of people think it is still unsafe.  For me, that is good.  I do like meeting people from all over the world, but I don´t like feeling like a sheep.  There is the down side that there is not a lot of information at tourist sites that is translated into English, but I can live with that.

In terms of how Colombians seemed to view us as tourists, I would say that for the most part, it felt like they were indifferent.  Not unfriendly, but kind of neutral.  Definitely not curious - with just a couple of exceptions.  We definitely had to take the initiative to make conversations happen.  It will be interesting to compare other countries...



The biggest down sides of Colombia are typical of other latin american countries, I think.  It really sucks to see all the trash in such an otherwise beautiful country.  And, they are way to sharing of their music - on buses, in town, sometimes at 7a.m....

HISTORY and POLITICS
Colombian history is rife with conflict between conservatives and liberals, which at least some blame for the uprising of the leftist FARC and other guerrilla groups.  Add in the drug trafficking and paramilitary groups and things heat up to dizzying proportions.  Especially now that there is spill over of cocaine exportation by the guerrilla groups and paramilitaries, not just the drug cartels.  Colombia has truly suffered significant loss of life and quality of life up to as recently as 2000-2001.  Things have improved dramatically since 2002, such that their safety and ability to travel around their own country has completely turned around.  What is fascinating is that the things are so much better from the standpoint of day-to-day life, but the underlying issues are by no means resolved.  It´s odd that this country has an ongoing armed conflict going on yet you would never know it from the places we visited.  The Colombians we saw don´t seem to carry concern around with them.  As interested as we were in learning about how politicians and citizens thought about the issues, it was clear that a lot of Colombians just don´t pay much attention to what is happening.  Their quality of life has improved so dramatically since about 2002 that I have to wonder if it just isn´t easier to not listen to the news and hope for the best.  If we had been way out in the campo, we might have seen differently.  Peasants and their land are sometimes taken by guerrilla groups.  All said, I was surprised that the general standard of living of Colombians was not lower.  I guess I figured with all the fighting and bloodshed that it would show when it came to standard of living.  This goes back to my theory that there has been widespread benefit to Colombians from all the money that the drug trade has produced.

TRANSPORTATION
Given that a lot of people had motorcycles or mopeds or bikes, it was very entertaining to see how dogs were transported.  My favorite was seeing a large white lab being called to board a moped, where it sat between its owners legs on the footrest of a moped.  This is a picture I took in the center of Bogota....

We have seen a lot of interesting vehicles - small, colorful, not always recognizable material...:

 

Then there is how humans transport themselves... and their children.  Forget car seat laws.  There are helmet laws someplaces, but from what we saw, less than 50% would fasten the strap on the helmet.  We wanted to get a picture of what we often saw, which was mom, dad and two kids on a motorcycle.  But the best we got was this.  And it was the ONLY time we saw a kid with a helmet on.

COMMUNICATION
If you don´t have your own cell phone, there is always a vendor of ¨minutos¨ close by where you can pay to use a cell phone.  If there is no answer, you don´t pay.  It´s the new pay phone.

 
MONEY
The exchange rate was anywhere from 1750 to 1850 COP to $1.  That made for getting used to 1000 to 50,000 bills. 

Meals:  2500-10,000
Hostals:  18,000-55,000 (double)
Internet per hour:  1000-1600
Buses:  somewhere around 50,000-70,000 for 8-14 hours.

AND EVEN MORE MISCELLANEOUS
I really liked this:

Part of the upcoming National Geographic series on toilets and urinals around the world:

On a dock.

And, the Colombian flag:

On to Ecuador and beyond....

Buga, Popayàn, and Las Lajas Colombia - Nov 12-29

Buga (population 120,000) is about 8 hours south of Medellìn.  We took an overnight bus and got to Buga about 6 in the morning.  It was a decent night sleep for bus travel.  As it turns out, Buga was one of our favorite places.  Part of it is definitely the name.  But most of it was the hostel where we stayed and the small town feel.

Buga, like so many places we´ve been, has so many churches!  And their bell ringing is not synchronized.

I realize the pictures may be too small to see it, but trust me...  These cows are relaxing in the middle of a humble soccer field.

Cool stick bug.

 

In the reserve we saw lots of interesting small creatures. We also saw some really cool red monkeys, but they weren´t so easy to photograph.

There is no regularity in sidewalk width, height, or stairs leading to front doors!

The motorcycle is the vehicle of choice in many parts of Colombia - and they have to make a way to roll their motorcyle into their house.  There aren´t garages.

This is a parking lot for motorbikes.  You pay the attendant to watch your bike - and put a piece of cardboard over the seat.  I guess that is to protect it from the heat?  From bird droppings?  This town had no car taxis - just motorcycle taxis.  Drivers wait in designated areas with an extra helmet for the passenger.

We fixed ourselves some tastey breakfasts and the rooftop terrace made for great dining.

The hostal kitchen area.

The hostal rooftop terrace view.

The Buga Hostal is in the 2nd story of the building in the middle of the photo - the one with the balcony.  They serve some great pizza!  And that is coming from someone who doesn´t really love pizza.

I love the juxaposition of new and old.  I doubt sports nutrition was around back when these wooden windows were  constructed.

This was a great site.  This horse is carrying wooden boxes on both sides.

We had some great interactions with people in Buga.  No pictures of these....  One was with the guard of a communications tower that was on top of one of the biggest hills overlooking the city.  With a 12 hour shift virtually alone, he was happy to talk.  Then there was the day we took the frisbee out in search of somewhere to throw.  We ended up playing a game of hotbox in a plaza with a 6 or so elementary school boys.  That was followed by a shorter game of hotbox with some elementary girls.  After a while they asked if we could just talk.  Ha!  The next day we returned to play again.  This time it there were a LOT more kids who wanted to play - and to talk.  It was a game with two endzones and a whole lot of mayhem in between.  I played with the kids while Duane talked with had a crowd of 15 kids.  Every few minutes a couple kids would come running over to where I was to ask how to say something in English....  It was a pretty funny scene. 


Popayán is about 4 hours south of Buga (population 250,000) and has the fame of producing 13 Colombian presidents.  We passed through Cali on the way to Popayán and the only time we spent there was in the bus station.  Ah, yes, and now I am remembering that the ride from Cali to Popayán was the one where the back of my seat was not stationary.  So I got a not-so-fun bounce with every bump.  Ah, good memories!  Popayán is known as a university town and so it´s only logical that we ended up making friends with some universtiy students.  I thought I had a picture of them, but maybe that was something they were going to email me... Popayàn also has some very well known churchs.  Of course.  But as you might be gathering, I may have reached saturation point on churches...

One of the 4 o5 5 notable churches.

Much of the non-artistic graffiti is speaking out against a recently passed law that would privatize higher education in Colombia. We saw a lot graffiti protest to this in many cities along with some demonstrations.  Not surprisingly, the university students in Popayán are currently on strike because of this.  We learned from the group of university students that we got together with a few times that the President recently retracted the law saying that he was willing to talk with the students.  There was not 100% consensus among the students as to if this meant that the President was truly going to be willing to reconsider privatization.  Oh, this is also the entrance to our hostal.

 

A highlight of our 5-6 days in Popayán was being driven an hour out of town with bikes to some thermal baths.  The idea is to soak and then return on bike.  We had met a scottish couple and the 4 of us went.  The day started out sunny, the baths were great.  There were pools of varying temperatures including a large one with a fun slide.  But, about the time we got out it started raining.  And the rain here is no Portland rain.  It is a serious downpour.  We decided to wait it out.  An hour and a half later we suited up knowing that even though it wasn´t raining anymore didn´t mean we weren´t going to get muddy.  The good thing here is that rain doesn´t necesarily mean ¨cold.¨ We very much enjoyed the scenery even though we got pretty dirty on the return.

An exciting occurence was an explosion that took the roof off of a building which houses among other things a military office.  This is right on the main plaza of Popayàn, so there was quite the stir!  The first reports pointed the finger at FARC - a retribution for the recent killing of their leader.  But it got much less interesting quickly.  Turns out it was a mishandled grenade by someone in the military office.

From Popayán we took a bus an hour northeast to the small mountain town of Silvia.  The attraction there is the market where the indigenous Guambiano come to sell (both agricultural and hardgoods).  The interesting thing is that many of them still wear their indigenous garb.  While we sat in the main plaza (picture) recovering from the windy road, a pastor of the tribe started talking with us.  He along with the ¨true¨ men of the tribe wear a long blue skirt.  I would have taken pictures but even the guidebooks say not to.  If you have a magnifying glass, there are several Guambianos in the above picture, but at a distance.  The market was one of the best we´ve seen.  Full of everything from food to furniture to fowl.....

Las Lajas, the last city in this post, is 10 or so hours south of Popayán and very close to the Ecuadorian border.  There was some very picturesque scenery in route.  Steep mountains and deep valleys.  Lots of up and down - but very beautiful!  Las Lajas has not official population - the only categorization I found was ¨very small.¨  But this place will probably be big in our memories for-almost-ever.  Three reasons:  the very amazing scenery of the cathedral, the rain and landslide, and the dog bite. 

El Santuario de Las Lajas was built here because the Virgen Mary is said to have appeared in the verticle rocks of this percipitous canyon.  Even though I had tired of churches, this was simply amazing.

There are thousands of plagues that people have placed along the walkway down to the catedral which give thanks to the virgen for miracles.

 And once again, it started raining.  We had descended from our side of the canyon, visited the church and then had gone way up on the other side to try to get a view of the area.  We got soaked.  And we were thoroughly amused by the river of water we were walking in by the time we were down toward the cathedral again.

These poor vendors!!

After we got dry clothes on and it had stopped raining, we ventured out again.  This was back on side of the canyon where all those plaques are.  A small but nevertheless impressive landslide along the walkway down to the cathedral. 

As we walked around the small town a bit more just to see what there was to see, we walked passed a boy and a dog.  The dog seemed to be with the boy, but we aren´t sure.  Right after we passed them, the dog suddenly turned around and bit Duane on the back of his knee - totally unprovoked and with no warning.  Don´t worry, we found the post-exposure shots and Duane should be fine.  But, there was some serious googling and consulting and worrying there for a bit.  Chances are the dog didn´t have rabies given very strong effort to vaccinate all dogs, however, rabies isn´t something to mess around with!

Ah, traveling....

Medellín, Colombia - Oct 23-Nov 11

Yes, we lived in Medellín, from about 1969-1972.  It is commonly called the land of eternal spring.  Indeed the climate is very agreeable year around.  More often, Medellìn brings to mind drug cartels and Pablo Escobar.  Duane & I now know a lot more about Colombia´s side of the cocaine story.  I could write quite a bit ... about how it has likely increased the standard of living for a large number of Colombians...  I could relay the frustration that many have that there is still so much money tied up in fighting a hopeless war...  But, I will just say one thing and then get on with pictures:  to think of any drug as a ¨recreational drug¨ when it has had and continues to have so much blood shed, pain and suffering in the countries from which it originates is a terrible misnomer. 

Like many large cities (2.5 million), Medellìn has a lot of contrasts:  modern-old time, clean-dirty, beautiful-ugly, etc.  In comparison to Bogota, the capital, Medellìn actually seemed cleaner, safer and more modern.  I also found the people of Medellìn to be more friendly than anywhere else in Colombia.  More than once perfect strangers asked if they could help us with directions.  One girl insisted on walking us to the park we were trying to find.

Part of the modern feeling of Medellìn is due to the integrated metro and cable car transportation system.

Underneath the modern cable car...

A new bus system is under construction that will feed into the metro.  Meanwhile, these dedicated lanes are great for biking.

Very close to where we stayed is a huge sports complex that has facilities for every sport imaginable - available for use by residents of Medellìn.  It was VERY impressive.

Cars stopped at lights are frequently the target of some sort of attempt to make money - whether it is by entertainment or selling of goods.

The main Medellìn cemetery.

Flower vendors outside the cemetery.

At the botanical gardens.

Home of Fernando Botero - the voluminous prone artist - Medeillìn has quite a collection of his works.

There is definitely more of an effort toward recycling than I expected.

It was fun to be there during Halloween.

A row of shoeshiners.  I don´t think it is as common, but it hasn´t disappeared.

Cooking in our hostal.

Right next to our hostal was the large and popular supermarket (plus computers, plus washing machines, etc.).

In the streets right outside the supermarket there were still street vendors.

Even in the middle of modern Medellìn here are  couple of cows on the loose.

The house where one of our fellow missionary´s kids from back in the day now lives.   We ended up moving from the hostal and staying with her and her family for about a week.  ...And the dog in the foreground chased those two cows that are in the previous picture.  Duane & I then ran after the dog to try to make sure it would come home and not get run over.

A rainy afternoon at the artesan´s market.

Brenda, Jenine & me - trying to stay out of the rain.

Lunch somewhere near Jenine´s.

These picture may not do justice, but the clouds in Colombia are amazing - something I remember from childhood.