*rumba = party

The border is crossed, I’ve got new stamps in my passport (out of Colombia, in and out of Ecuador, and in Peru) and I am now out of the ground I so loved. I immediately missed Colombia! I really fell in love with this fantastic country, as I jokingly predicted when asked about my travel plans. I ended up deciding to leave without having seen everything I was attracted to, because covering it all would involve all the time of this trip and I still wanna see other countries. I thus crossed Ecuador and arrived in Peru. The last days in Colombia reached my expectations, a nice way to say goodbye to the country…

After my stay in Minca, I said bye to Jeronimo and Margot and left for the Santander region, Bucaramanga to be precise. There live the parents of a Colombian friend met in Indonesia and now living in Berlin, Diego. Diego was a fantastic informal travel agent during my time in his country, regularly asking where I was, how I was doing and giving me advice as to what next to do. This way, he really honored his people, which I have only ever met preoccupied by the image I’d have of Colombia, of its people, of its food. They say that Colombians are extremely kind, and I verified it during the 7 weeks I spent on their territory (instead of the 4 initially planned). Always relieved that nothing bad happened to me, and so happy that I enjoyed Colombia! Very adorable people, and Diego was an outstanding long distance ambassador.

His parents, extremely thoughtful and warm, welcomed me in their home and treated me as a special guest, even though (or rather because) I fell sick. Nothing serious, probably mostly my body telling me to stop and let it rest for a bit. We still had time to visit the Chicamocha canyon before I couldn’t go any further. This canyon, I learnt later, is deeper than the American Grand Canyon (2km vs 800m, but the Grand Canyon is about twice as long). It spreads over 227km long and 108,000 hectares wide, and it is one of the icons of Colombian geography, according to Diego’s dad (by the way, both father and son are very proud of their region, it’s really cute). How lucky I was to see it! We took the cable car up to reach a superb 360 degrees viewpoint, then had to go home because I wasn’t feeling well.

My hosts treated me with great care, pushing me to rest and forcing me to eat before being sure they would let me take the bus back to Bogotá. The trip was long but comfortable, and once in the capital I went back to my friend Alex. It was strangely familiar and nice to go back to this apartment and city where it all started, after many weeks on the road! A bit like finding your marks again when you go back home. There I was again, this time with my mind full of stories, landscapes, new friends, and armed with a knowledge of the country I was missing at the beginning. I also met Margot again! Who spent the weekend there before going back to Belgium. Together, we walked around this city we both kind of knew, and spent some last nice moments enjoying the friendship that had begun over the few weeks and will lead us to meet again… in Europe!

We were lucky: on that Saturday evening there was “Salsa al Parque” on the main square, a little salsa festival, a way for the city to bid us, or rather dance us farewell. What an experience to stand among all these people, dancing and singing in the open, knowing each song’s lyrics and moving graciously along their melodies! This Colombian musical culture is clearly something I most miss in Switzerland: dance, which is a special relationship with music! Wonderful moment. The evening went on on the same tone, because Alexandra took me to Gaira, a bar North of Bogotá that belongs to Carlos Vives, famous salsa singer from Barranquilla (he sings with Shakira in Bicicleta, the summer hit, see my playlist in the previous article). Live music all night and hours of dancing, pure bliss! Dancing in that club on those happy rhythms I told myself that I am at the right place when on the dancefloor, and that I feel really good in Colombia. I see it a bit like the second country of my heart now, I believe (just after Italy, still irreplaceable… and Indonesia and Ireland follow short after).

Given that I was enjoying this salsa atmosphere, I chose to leave the country going through the unmissable: Cali, the self-proclaimed* salsa capital. I stayed only for a night and two days, but it was enough to take one or two classes and go out for the night. Let’s just say that where I am normally fine, “at home” when dancing, taking classes with a pro observing my steps critically made me feel like a big whale lacking basic psychomotricity! But it was good, good to finally be taught some theory about salsa and to have someone judging me (does it surprise you that Latinoamericans aren’t very judgmental when dancing with a girl? Me neither). That night, we went out with those of the hostel and it was also quite nice, cool music and locals (“Colombia’s best dancers”) to make us twirl around! By the way “caleña” salsa (from Cali) is special, different from its Cuban or Caribbean cousins… and gosh are they good at it! Colombians really have it in their blood, and it’s beautiful to see them dance together. By the way I never told you but at some point on the Caribbean coast they made me dance the famous lambada. Awesomest!

(*this detail makes me laugh a lot, but psychology worked and all Colombians now see the city as such)

Right at the border there’s a little town called Ipiales, remarkable for one thing only: the beautiful Las Lajas church, standing on a bridge, by a cliff. Stunning! After this short visit it was sadly already time to cross the border, which was done by foot crossing a bridge between both immigration offices, fun and not common. Then I spent a fews days in Ecuador, of which I so often heard and so positively – roughly, it’s got as much variety as Colombia but on a smaller territory where everything is more accessible, and beautiful mountains, as well as the Galapagos. Seeing this list I keep asking myself why it is again that I skip this country, but of course I know the answer. Because I spent more time in Colombia, I wanna see Peru, and I hadn’t included Ecuador to my list of destinations before leaving. Yes, you can travel for six months and be out of time. That’s actually what happens to everyone here, but it’s inevitable. The more you see, the more you wanna see; you must learn to accept that not everything is possible and that what matters is what you do, not what you miss.

Of Ecuador I’ll have seen only Quito, the capital, and Cuenca, a big city more to the South. In three night bus trips I’ll have crossed the country to reach Peru! This way I had a very restricted experience of the country, essentially urban. Not extremely different from Colombia at first sight, cities with a colonial historical center, very friendly people and a little more indigenous people on the streets (often fruit or gadget vendors). Traveling by night to save hostel nights, I’ll have missed even the beautiful volcanic Ecuadorian landscapes. And it feels weird to be in a country without learning to know it, regions or main cities names, national highlights, regional differences, food or accent. I don’t really like traveling this way, I miss way too much. I’ll come back, better!

On the other hand, I did get to know Colombia quite well… I’ve got so much to tell you! To start with, who are the Colombians? A great cocktail due to their history: there’s indigenous people who where there before anyone else, blacks descending from slaves imported from Africa (like in the US), and many rather white that are a mix between Spanish/indigenous or Spanish/black (nowadays you don’t find any Spanish/Spanish). The indigenous live rather in some specific regions (like the Amazonia or the Guajira), whereas blacks are concentrated on the Pacific and Caribbean coast, among others there are particularly many in Cartagena, proportionally. Of course, guess which areas are poorer and less developed- those where these groups tend to live.

Then, a comment I heard more often than not was that “Colombians are very different from one region to another”… mmh… I’ve heard that before (in Italy – but actually in many countries, if you think about the UK, Spain, Indonesia, France, Switzerland etc etc). But people take it seriously, I was repeated so very often! Grosso modo, the Antioquians (Medellin department) would be hardworkers and honnest, those from the Bogotá department wouldn’t be very straightforward, on the other hand the Santandereans (Bucaramanga department) are very/too frank. And if course, given that the costeños (from the coast) are a bit the Southern Italians, the same prejudices stick to them: they’d be lazier but happier and open, influence from the sun that bathes their region. Each has got their own accent, more singing to the North, and they say that the most charming is that of Medellin.

I won’t drown you in economic data, but just to give you an idea here are a few pieces of information: in 2002 about 50% of the population was living below the poverty line, whereas last year they were only 27.8%. As for unemployment at national level, it went down from 10.8% to 8.9% between 2011 and 2015. The national average salary is about 555,000 pesos (almost 200$), and it’s in Bogotá that the average salary is the highest: about 890.000 pesos (almost 300$). The population is administratively divided into social strata from 1 to 6, and this ranking (depending among other on the area one lives in) sets for instance the amount to pay for water and power, or offers free entrance to certain museums to the poorest strata (from 1 to 3). It’s a special system I had never heard of before, and I’m not sure yet what I think about it. It seems interesting to me, though it has structural weaknesses (I was for instanced explained that lowest classes, not having to pay for certain goods or very little, waste them by ignorance, or that class 6 includes people way too different for the system to be fair, the rich, very rich and extremely rich paying the same sort of bills, which is of course not exactly fair). It’s in Cartagena that we find the widest strata 1 (36.7% of the city’s population) and in Bogotá the tiniest (6.9%).
(source for all this)

They say about Cartagena that it’s the most unequal city in Colombia, and that the coast is generally more unequal than the rest of the country. And indeed it struck me. I already told you the Wayuu in the Guajira desert, but it wasn’t my only contact with rough poverty. In Cartagena, I took a bus from the station to the center, and I observed misery for 40 minutes. Not the most brutal poverty I’ve been faced with in my life, but it was clear that the “real” Cartagena wouldn’t be the one I would be visiting. People’s life in Cartagena is mostly a life of little means, but the center is a little gem where the privileged live; and tourists see of course only the center (from the airport you get very quickly to the center by the way, without passing through the suburbs I crossed). Oh and other comment: suburbs essentially black and center principally white. Very impressive. Don’t forget, therefore, when you see my esthetic pictures of Colombia (and elsewhere), that you only see a portion of reality. Behind the shot theres what we don’t show, and it’s sometimes only a matter of framing. I swore myself not to forget the poor I was seeing, I was thinking that their image would prevail over what I would see of Cartagena. But several days strolling around the center of course dimmed the strong impression that my first contact with the city had left. You don’t see them much and are soon to forget them. It’s handy of course, otherwise you’d have to really face the sense of guilt that takes you when you see how they live, you’d have to look at yourself critically, well-off middle class visiting what they wanna see of their country. It’s always odd and it’s the deep injustice of real life. It’s also this, traveling.

Without transition because there’s nothing more to add, a few little things I wanted to tell you…

1. Safety is almost as relative in Colombia as I found it in Indonesia: no belts in taxis, sitting or standing at the back of an over-full jeep, having to insist to be given a helmet for a motorbike ride and… that’s it, I tried my first ride with three people on one motorbike!
2. When it’s warm, many Colombian men like to… refresh their belly by pulling up their t-shirt (like in Indonesia). Classy.
3. Colombians are crazy for their national alcohol, the anis-based aguardiente. Since I like neither ouzo nor pastis, well… ok I did try it, but it’s really not my cup of tea. People were drinking only this at the Salsa al Parque festival in Bogotá. And among those who weren’t drinking… Margot and I were amazed to see not only guys sniffing coke in public, but even to be offered some! (we refused)
4. The strongest demonstration of religious feeling I observed in Colombians was on transports. Pretty standard: they sign themselves at the beginning of a trip. Way more fun: a man who was (loudly) preaching on the plane before we took off for San Andrés, who seems more of a weirdo to me than anything else and was probably bothering the other passengers. Except that when he was done praying everyone repeated “be it as God wishes” and signed themselves (ok not everybody but I’d say about half the people). Fun but also quite weird, really.
5. Music is really ubiquitous in this “alegre” (happy) country, from shop fronts to buses and restaurants, a friend once said that the wealthiest man of Colombia probably sells speakers! Salsa or merengue are styles we more or less know around the world, as well as the rhythmic reggaeton. I already told you about champeta, this coastal music of African origins, and to finish the picture one must add the vallenato (pronounced “bahilenato”), a Colombian traditional whose capital is Valledupar, in the North, and which is played among others with an accordion. Here’s again the link to my playlist of last time, where you find a bit of all this (but I know it’s not an exhaustive list of what Colombia can offer, just what I noticed and heard).
6. Even though I was often told I have a beautiful name, it is to be honest not a very practical one when I speak with non-native speakers of French (which is often). I like saying that my parents didn’t see it come, that I would travel around the workd and its languages when they chose what to call me! I ended up giving up explaining 10x/day the strange prononciation of my name and, refusing to be called “Ut”, I rebaptised myself “Aurora” for these few months of traveling, name that Latinoamericans never make me repeat! Of course it didn’t take long until I was called Aurorita.

Let’s come back to Colombia. I was happy to notice, reading the country’s history in some sort of ugly illustrated history book, that I have toured the country in a pretty complete way. Indeed, I can not only spot on the map but have even been to numerous places that show up across the history and that my book was mentioning! From Santa Marta, first city founded by Europeans on the continent, to the Boyaca bridge where took place the final battle of the country’s liberation between the Spanish and the Colombians, helped by the British army (then enemy of the Spanish crown), not forgetting the liberal leaders that were executed in Cartagena during the civil war, Escobar’s drug cartel in Medellin, numerous statues of Simon Bolivar (Venezuelian) and General Santander (Colombian), liberators of the country from the European yoke and a lost city dating back from before Spanish arrival, I traveled in time and history taking buses.

First, the country was inhabited by indigenous people, then the Spanish conquered it in 1499 and exterminated those who were resisting, before importing slaves from Africa for work in mines and banana fields. Later, the Spanish crown taxing always more to finance its wars, the colons fought for their independence and, liberated with the help of Bolivar, founded their own country in 1819. Then Colombia was torn by a succession of internal wars between the conservative and liberal, or even between the proponents of centralism against those in favor of federalism (you get a glance of that in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “A Hundred Years of Solitude”). Guerilla- and paramilitary-related violence in the XXth century are a continuation of this antagony, and to all that jumble is added, more or less from the 1960s, the production and trafficking of drugs, and the cartels’ power that goes with it. Reading that book was a bit like traveling across my memories, even more so because I had already managed, through discussions and visits, to form a pretty correct general idea of Colombian history. A perfect cherry on top of the cake of my two first months of travel. I have the feeling that I won’t get to know nor fall so much in love with other countries during these six months, but the future will tell…

I conclude with a little double list end of Colombia statement…

Things I managed pretty well:

• Spanish – practicing regularly and getting better
• Not being too frustrated about my travel plans – I really followed my desires and adapted my programs according to what I wanted, hence the loger time in Colombia, but still not to the point of having to completely skip other countries I wanna see
• Updating this blog (though it’s increasingly complicated to be regular)

Things I kind of failed at:

• Not losing my stuff (i’m a catastrophe! more than I’d have ever thought!) – to mourn are my sunglasses, my towel and my… kindle. You have no idea how angry I am with myself
• I wish I had danced more and enjoyed that aspect of Colombia a bit more
• Not throwing the toilet paper in the toilet but in a bin – necessary to prevent overflowing of the pipes but more than half the times a lifetime habits just take over, I really suck at that!

What I’ll tell you about in a coming post: North Peru with Máncora beach, chacha and inca ruins in Kuélap, the wonderful Gocta waterfall close to Chachapoyas
Where I am now: I wrote this post on a bus through Ecuador and then in a hammock on a boat over a river taking me to the earth’s lungs, in the Amazonian jungle, where I disappeared for a few days, and I finished it in a cybercafe in Tarapoto
What’s next: Amazonia (!!!), Trujillo and its pre-inca pyramid, Huaraz and its temple Chavin de Huantar as well as the Cordillera Blanca (perhaps the Santa Cruz trek to hike up), Lima, Cuzco with the Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. But time flies because I have to make sure to be in Santa Cruz, Bolivia by the 26th of December to meet my Emanuele, and even though there is still so much more I wanna see in Peru it can be that I don’t even manage to see what I mentioned to you!