Adios Colombia

Hola mis amigos!

LEAVING COLOMBIA
I finally managed to leave Colombia and head into the bordering Venezuela. It was hard to leave Colombia because I had such a fantastic time there and can´t believe I managed to spend over 7 weeks there as it flew by!

I spent my last few days in Colombia in a beach resort called Taganga, just outside a city called Santa Marta. Taganga is quite small but it was awash with tourists as it was holiday season and interestingly enough most of them were Spanish speaking from all over South & Central America. I took it pretty easy there as I needed a break after partying hard in Medellin and it gave me some time to prepare the next part of my trip in Venezuela and Brazil. My pictures are below and apologies as they are pretty boring as I keep on forgetting to take my camera out with me!

The city Santa Marta itself was a bit of a dissapointment and there was little to do or see in the city. The most famous aspect of the city is probably that the infamous Carlos Valderrama (the old Colombian footballer with the dodgy hairstyle) is from there.

The only night I really went out when there was New Years and as per usual with me there was no shortage of indicent! The only place I could get accommodation was in a 2 room hostal in Taganga so having arrived late Dec 30th, I had nobody to celebrate the New Year with. I decided to head into Santa Marta, the neighbouring city but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn´t find anywhere that was busy. After spending circa two hours walking around like a Zombie, I decided to head back to Taganga.

I got back to Taganga c 10.30 and was pretty pissed off so thought I would just head back to my hostel and call it a night. I arrive back at the hostel to realise I had left my key in my room and the owner was out so I couldn´t get in! It was nearly 11 at this stage and I was stuck in Taganga on me tobler but I had to stay out for the night. I ended going to a local bar (more like a shop where people stood outside and drank beer) where beers cost c 50 cents and started throwing back the Pilsen (favourite Colombian beer). After an hour, I got invited over to join a young local couple who were out with their two kids............or so I thought. The guy was 19 and the girl 24 and the two kids were 9 and 1. She had a kid with another guy but was now going out with this other guy. They had a very open relationship as she started to breast feed her young child right in front of us while all he did was talk about all the women he wanted to be with that night. I can´t remember the guys name but he really kicked things off when he started to buy large bottles of Aquardiente (sambuca) and a few hours later me and him are in the local disco next door. Don´t really remember much after that bar the fact I got very drunk and he tried to chat up everything that moved.

I left Colombia on January 4th. It was a bit surreal as after so long in the one country you start to get accustomed to everything there like the menus, drinks, currency, costs of things, slang etc............

When in Merida Venezuela 8 years ago, which is close to the Colombian border, as an Irish citizen it was nearby impossible to be allowed into Colombia. At that time, there were 3 Irish IRA guys being tried for training the FARC so it was a hot political topic in Colombia and as a result they were reluctant to let any Irish people in. Ever since, I have always wanted to go to Colombia and I was not dissapointed.

OBSERVATIONS ON COLOMBIA
Colombia has a reputation of being an incredibly dangerous country but in my experience there, this is far from the truth. Colombia is very conscious of its international reputation and as a result goes out of its way to leave visitors with a really positive impression of its country.

It´s a very easy-going country where people are only too happy to go out of their way to help you out. One great example of this was in Medellin one evening out with the Cathal and Ger (two tall Irish lads) and its Tuesday and pretty dead so we ask this couple at the next table where it is there anything happening on a Tuesday. The guy directs us in the right direction and next thing we knew he arrives on the street in his car and tells us to hop in, while he proceeds to take the two baby seats out of the backseat into the boot and he drives us to the next bar! These are the kind of experiences that occur to you in Colombia and you hear plenty of simlar of stories from other travellers.

By and large people were really friendly and helpful and I met some fantastic Colombian people including:
David from Bogota - I met David in our hostal in Cali where he spent his entire time making sure everyody in his company was happy and enjoying themselves. Class bloke!
Luisa from Bogota - really nice girl from Bogota who was kind enough to put me up for a few nights and also showed me around her city.
Angelica from Bogota - Luisa´s sister. The two girls went out of there way to help me around Bogota.
Adriana from Bogota - another great girl who myself and Danish Michael had a great night out with in Bogota.
The Guys from the shanty town in Medellin - all sound guys and great characters!
Pedro from Cali - our barman in Cali who always looked out for us and always enjoyed it when he saw me and Pontus entering the El Viejo Barril bar!
Pablo from Parea/Bogota - a great character who I had the pleasure of meeting in Medellin. A really funny guy who, unfortunately for him, supports Arsenal.....!
Maria from Santa Marta - my Spanish teacher in Medellin and a really sweet girl
Enrique & Veronica - a great couple from Taganga who had just opened a restuarant. On a couple of occasions, I went to eat in their restaurant, I would just spend the evening having a few drinks and having a laugh with them!

I met tons of great Colombians but it was these guys that stood out.

Colombia has a lot to offer to the tourist including a contrasting landscape with lots of mountains and beaches, an interesting history, contrasting cities, nice climate, great nightlife, lots of things to do and see and above all fantastic people. The only complaint is sometimes people working in bus terminals can be very short with you but other from that I hardly met a rude person.

For those interested, I added a bit more info on other famous Colombians come below:

Camilo Villegas (or be jaysus as we call him at home) - not very famous in Colombia by the way but he´s from Medellin with all the beautiful chichas!
Shakira - again not that popular in Colombia in my experience but she´s from Barranquilla, which is a big city on the Caribeean coast a few hours from Cartagena. I never heard Sharika´s music once on tv or radio when in Colombia. The few times it came up in conversation, Colombians expressed their dissapointment that she had negelected her roots in search of money in the US!
Faustino Asprilla - the crazy footballer who was a class player but probably derailed Newcastle´s title aspirations under Kevin "I´d love it if we beat them" Keegan. He´s from Valle de Cauca, which is on the Pacific Coast not from Cali.

Like every country it has it´s own intracancies. The unique things that stood out for me in Colombia were the:
1 - Love of soup - most restaurants would offer a menu of the day offer and this always included soup, a meat dish with rice and a juice. Was a bit strange to be taking soup so much in a hot climate!
2 - Love of arepas - pretty much every food was given to you with an arepa. A small corn like pastry dish and nothing to write home about. Being honest I was not a massive fan of the Colombian food.
3 - Great selection of Natural Juices - very like Brazil here and most restaurants would have close to 10 juices on offer and pretty much all of them were fantastic and really refreshing!
4 - Differences in temperature dependent on terrain - a 20 minute drive could mean the difference of 10/15 degrees in temperature. With so much montainaus terrain this is kind of to be expected but still a little strange all the same.
5 - Love of Aquardiente - the locals loved their Aquardiente - sambuca subsititute and drank it at regular occasions and as if it was water!
6 - Argentina Football Jerseys - A lot of people wear Argentina football jerseys which was really strange as it is a very different country, culture and at the other end of South America.
7 - Safety - Colombia is far safer than the what you read in the Internet. They are not an agressive race and the police presence is abundunt on street corners throughout the country. I am currently in Brazil which feels a lot less safer than Colombia, which is the opposite to what you would imagine if you were to believe what you read.
8 - Size of People - The average male height in Colombia is c 5 foot 7 inches so by and large they are quite a small race and those who are tall get a lot of looks and attention!
9 - Kids Love of Life - The young children in Colombia have a great life. They are given a huge amount of freedom and the have great personalities. Thier parents do not disclipine or try to control them much and all the time you see kids roaming the streets and beaches having a ton of fun and really enjoying themselves!
10 - Love in all Colombian music - from my experience pretty much every song I heard and somewhat understood when in Colombia was either to do with love or a relationship!!!!! It´s a country full of lurve!!!!!

Colombia is also full of tourists and I reckon this is only going to grown further over the coming years. Things are very stable, the terrorists seem pretty non-existent, you feel very safe and the people are by and large really happy to see you.

I think I will definitely return to Colombia as I made some good friends and had tons of positive experiences. It´s up there with the best countries I´ve visited!!!!

Over and out ,
James.

                 Old French guy who owned the hostel I stayed in when in Taganga. Bit of a character!

                                                View of the Taganga beach from afar

                                 People returning on the boat from a day of water-sports!

                         Playa Grande (next to Taganga beach) which means Big Beach but it actually is tiny!

                               Beautiful view of sea and mountains in the background in the sun!

                Taganga beach by day which could be very busy especially as this was holiday season!

                                                 Kite surfing is a very popular activity in Taganga

At Enrique & Veronica´s restaurant in Taganga where in the picture you have half of Enrique, a mad Italian guy and the chef from the restaurant! Really sound bunch of people!