Salsa, Paisas, Rain

Pasto, Colombia
Cali
Medellin
Bogota
September 5, 2013
September 6-8
September 9-November 4
November 5-7

Thus Far...

It was time for me to stay in one place for a while.

I had long wanted to visit Colombia for a variety of reasons. Primarily, for the people. I had met a few Colombians in Australia and in South America, and they were largely open, friendly, and interesting. I was intrigued. Moreover, in nearly every country I had been in before, I met travellers who kept telling me that Colombia was dangerous. Was this really the case, or did the emperor have no clothes? Reputations lag, and while it may have been dangerous a couple of decades ago, it was possible that the country had ¨moved on¨ from this period of history. Finally, I wanted to see where Colombia fit within the cyclical stages of a society (dictatorship, oligarchy, democracy, and chaos) described by Plato in his Republic, as I had done in Argentina.

Cali, City Of Salsa

In Quito, I was warned numerous times that the Colombian border was closed by land, and that the country was too dangerous to travel in as a result of country-wide strike by farmers, students, miners, and other groups over the past few weeks. Several travellers in Quito, the people running the hostel. and my taxi driver, all ¨confirmed¨ this rumour. 

However, I was determined to stick to my rules - no flying over land - and boarded the bus. The ride to the border town of Tulcan was uneventful, but five minutes before the border, the bus stopped and the drivers told us that they could not cross - the bus company had informed them that it was too risky as a result of ongoing strikes and a bridge that had been blown up on the Colombian side. We would have to wait in Tulcan, possibly for a few days. Rumour confirmed? I decided to dig a little deeper.

I had met a Colombian named David during the ride. Upon hearing this news, we hopped off the bus, approached a police officer hoisting a large automatic weapon, and asked him if the border could be crossed. He made a phone call and told us the border was open - no problem, although he did not know what the situation was within Colombia. David and I returned to the parked bus and spoke with two other passengers, Yardo from Ecuador and Brian from Alaska. It seemed that we could either wait for the bus company to deem it safe, or the four of us could hire a taxi to the border, cross it, and catch a different bus on the other side. The others wanted me to decide for the group. I chose the latter option.

We headed to the border in a taxi. I was a bit nervous during the crossing, as the Colombian border guard was suspicious that my passport was not authentic (as I mentioned earlier, at this point I only carried a small emergency Australian passport). She scratched the passport and performed a few other tests on it, and asked me detailed questions about my trip. Eventually, I received the almighty entrance stamp and we were across.

The four of us passed through the little Colombian border town of Ipiales and caught a bus to Pasto, the nearest city. We arrived in the evening, found a hotel, and went out to see the nightlife. The neighbourhood was unsavoury, and I reckon that walking alone at night along some areas of Pasto might make life interesting. However, nothing happened and we woke up early the next morning  and caught a bus to Cali. I noted that one bridge had indeed been reduced to rubble as we crossed over a hastily constructed alternative. Every bridge was guarded by military personnel; they all gave us a ¨thumbs up¨ sign. Upon arriving at Cali, I parted ways with my border-run companions.

With a greater population of over three million people, Cali is the third largest city in Colombia. The origins of the name, Cali, are disputed: some think that it relates to the local native tribe, the Calimas, and some believe that the name is Quechua in origin. Whatever the origins of its nomenclature, Cali is the salsa capital of Colombia, and salsa was indeed prevalent. Cali also has a murder rate four times as high as that of the capital, Bogota. There have some been attempts to reduce this statistic - I was told that drive-by shootings in Colombia have been reduced by a law stating that two men are not allowed on the same motorcycle (however, a female passenger is ok).

My hostel was empty, only two other guests, and I wonder if the reason for this was the uncertainty outside of Colombia, scaring away other travellers. I woke up early the next morning and bumped into a German fellow named Mattias who was just about to hike up Cerro de las Tres Cruces (Three Crosses Mountain), a mountain overlooking Cali with three large crosses on top. I had been warned that the it could be a dangerous climb as there were often thieves along the trail that robbed unsuspecting hikers. More danger? I joined Mattias, grabbed a freshly baked bunuelo (a kind of fried dough ball) for breakfast, and we ascended the mountain. It was a short climb and an hour got us to the top where some people were serving salpicon, a delicious fruit cocktail beverage famous in Colombia. There was also a gym on the summit, with a few large guys pushing tin. Mattias and I descended along a different path, passing through some poor areas near the base of the mountain, but as for the danger, there was none to be had.

We explored the city for a few hours afterwards, seeing the sights and stopping frequently to sample Cali´s coffee. One thing that struck me was that yes, Colombians are friendly. For example, we were checking out Plaza de Caicado, one of the central plazas in the city, and an elderly man approached us and said hello. Now, usually when someone approaches a couple of foreigners they want some money, but not this guy. He introduced himself as Gilberto. Gilberto mentioned that he had lived in the US many years before and that many strangers had helped him, so he enjoyed returning the favour now. He turned out to be a caligraphy ninja and he wrote down both of our names for us right there in several different styles. After giving me the piece of paper with my name beautifully embalmed on it, Gilberto asked for nothing in return.

Over the next couple of days, I explored the streets of Cali with the aim of seeing both the more affluent and poorer areas. The upper and middle class neighbourhoods I visited were quiet and relaxing, with more character than the usual cookie-cutter suburbs. Wandering along some of the poorer and more industrial areas, I witnessed ongoing strike action by groups of workers refusing to work on grounds of exploitation by Michelin, the tire manufacturing company. They gave me the ¨thumbs up¨ sign. There were disabled people asking for money in some areas. I had no problem giving money to these people, who clearly were unable to work. In the city center, a couple was salsa dancing in front of traffic. They were good, although upon closer inspection it was apparent that the woman was actually a mannequin - the guy was entertaining the people in their cars for a bit of extra money. 

Cali was a vibrant city, and I could have spent more time there. However, I reminded myself to stay focused and stepped onto a bus bound for my premier destination in Colombia - Medellin.
The bus to nowhere. Barely five minutes from the border, our drivers told us that they had been instructed to stop as a result of ¨unsafe¨ conditions in Colombia.
Yardo and Brian walk along one of the streets of Pasto. The city was nothing remarkable, but perhaps I did not see the best side of Pasto.
View of Cali from midway up Three Crosses Mountain.
Mattias overlooks Cali from near the summit of Three Crosses Mountain.
Great views!
Various cultural events are hosted in Plaza San Francisco in downtown Cali.
Plaza de Caicado near the center of the city. Busy yet scenic.
The friendly Gilberto draws out my name in several styles using his ninja caligraphy skills.
Parqu de Gato, or Cat Park, is dedicated to cats and consists of many large  colourful statues.
Lots of graffiti and art in many areas of the city.
One of many signs on the street where Michelin workers were on strike. The sign states: ¨Michelin Assassins.¨

Medellin, City Of Paisas

I had wanted to visit Medellin for years. Ever since having that map of the world on my wall back in Australia, I had noticed a city embedded in the northern mountains of Colombia. It looked like a good place to live. 

The bus from Cali was boarded by military police three times, and one time everyone was taken off the bus for half an hour while the bus was checked over for illicit substances. I struck up a friendly conversation with the fellow beside me, an off-duty police officer. He was friendly, which seemed to be par for the course in this country. Eventually, we arrived, and I was finally in Medellin. I ended up staying for several months.

I found a hostel called The Wandering Paisa, which I chose for the name, and was greeted at the front desk by a girl with a beautiful smile. Her name was Milena. The hostel was one of the best I had stayed in, and it was nice to just park myself somewhere for a few weeks. The Wandering Paisa was located outside of the downtown area of the city in a pleasant area containing all of the necessary shops and restaurants, as well as a nearby university, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB). A big plus for me was that the area had mainly Colombian residents, and only a handful of foreigners.

Medellin has a metropolitan population of three and a half million people, making it the second-largest city in Colombia. It was founded in 1616. The city won an award in 2013 as most innovative city in the world for advances in politics, education, and social development. The people of Medellin call themselves ¨Paisas¨, which is derived from the word paisano (fellow countryman). Paisa culture has a Spanish background, and the people are traditionally Catholic, entrepreneurial, hard-working, hospitable, and quite proud of their city.  This is not to say that everyone in Medellin is of Spanish descent, however - like the rest of Colombia, the ethnicity of the people is strongly heterogenous, with backgrounds from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (in addition, it should be mentioned that many people are Mestizo - of mixed European and Amerindian descent). In terms of climate, Medellin is hard to beat. Although it is near the equator and classified as a tropical rainforest climate, the city lies in the Andes Range at an altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level, resulting in a spring-like climate year-round with minimal temperature variations. For this reason, Medellin is also known as La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera (City of the Eternal Spring).

Medellin has had less flattering titles in the past. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was given the dubious distinction of being the most violent city in the world as a result of urban warfare between competing drug cartels. The main organization at the time, the Medellin Cartel, was headed by a man named Pablo Escobar, who arose from middle class obscurity to become the most powerful drug lord in Colombia and one of the wealthiest men in the world. In the late 1980s, the Medellin Cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market and was smuggling over half a billion dollars worth of cocaine per day into the US. Interestingly, although seen as an enemy by most, Escobar was a hero to many people in Medellin, especially the poor. He died violently when a special Colombian police force, with its members chosen for their immunity to corruption from the cartels, eventually hunted him down and killed him in 1993.

While the crime rate in Medellin now is nothing like it was in Escobar´s time, it is still high . There were nearly 3,000 violent deaths in 2009, equating to about 9 people per day. Petty robberies are common. Even where I was, one or two foreigners would be held up at knife-point every week, one time right in front of the hostel. Personally, I never experienced any problems. While some might interpret this as luck, I believe a number of factors are pertinent in making one a ¨target¨.

Despite the persistence of homicides and robberies, Medellin has tried to overcome its violent past through its many city innovations. The Metro de Medellin (Medellin Metro), an overland train service, is second to none. It is speedy and clean. The MetroCable, a network of gondolas, is a fantastic transport service constructed over the last few years. It is cheap and efficient. Like many cities in South America, poverty is apparent in parts of Medellin, with the poorer people live in the higher areas along the sides of the mountains around the city, and the MetroCable was constructed in no small part to service some of these poor neighbourhoods. Additional constructive works around the city include designated spaces for public libraries, ecological parks, and sports complexes. One public library in particular deserves special mention - Biblioteca Espana (Spanish Library). The library has an ultra-modern design and state-of-the-art facilities, yet sits in the middle of a poor neighbourhood on the edge of a mountain. You can take the MetroCable to get there. Going inside, I saw hundreds of computers with many kids and adolescents surfing the net. It seems to me that building such an educational resource in an area where it is really needed could go a long way to boosting the living standards for these people. Time will tell.

I signed up for Spanish classes at UPB, a picturesque university near the hostel. It was a bit strange to become a university student once again, but I must also say that it was an absolute pleasure. I had three hours of Spanish every morning, followed by a class on philosophy or problems in Colombian society on some afternoons. My Spanish classes were great fun. There were students from all over the world, and often we had five or six continents represented in the classroom. I had two different Spanish teachers, Jorge and Janet. Both were great teachers. Jorge was inspirational. He was a devoted teacher, despite the fact that he had fairly severe generalized myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neuromuscular condition leading to persistent fluctuating weakness and fatigue, especially in the muscles of and around the eyes. During my time in Colombia, Jorge was intermittently flying to Bogota every couple of weeks to participate in ¨La Voz¨ (The Voice), a national television singing competition. At the time of writing this, Jorge was one of the final ten contestants, and he has a legitimate shot at winning.

The people in Medellin seem to smile a lot, at least compared to the countries I had visited before. It seemed to me that, although people in Medellin work hard, they are somehow more relaxed. Chronic stress does not appear to be as prevalent as it is in the west, or perhaps they just deal with it differently.

After a month at the Wandering Paisa, I switched to renting a room in a house near the university.  The hostel got old after a while, as the formula for many of the people staying there was often the same: check out the city a bit, drink a lot of alcohol on the weekends, abuse the occasional substance, and leave after a week or so. The house I moved into, Casa Verde, also housed mainly foreigners, but they were of a different sort - generally, older and more interested in learning about the country. I took the time to read a lot and watch documentaries about history, economics, and the brain.

I made several great friends in Medellin:

(1) Milena, my Colombiana amiga from Manizales, a smaller city a few hours south of Medellin. She was sincere, honest, energetic, kind, and helpful towards anyone in need of anything.

(2) Alex, my Paisa amigo whom I had met in Chile earlier in the year. Together with his girlfriend, Ana, Alex showed me around the city a lot. I also attended his kickboxing classes twice a week. The guys in the class were super-friendly (as fighters usually are). While I had done a bit of boxing before, the kicks and take-downs were new to me, so it was  a sharp learning curve.

(3) Steve, actually from South African, was also travelling the country for a few months. An excellent fellow with which to discuss many things historical, economical, and philosophical.

I made many other friends in Medellin too, Colombian and foreign. It was never hard to meet people.

Medellin is famous for its nightlife. Fortunately, Milena would take me salsa dancing, and Alex showed me some of the more authentic places to hang out. In other parts of Medellin, however, the nightlife is - even more so than other places - a bit of a game. The game was most apparent in a suburb called El Poblado. This place is dedicated to nightlife, and is somewhat targeted towards foreigners; many of the locals call El Poblado ¨Gringoland.¨ There was no shortage of beautiful women in El Poblado, and they were not shy in letting you know if they were interested. If you wanted a fun night and did not mind paying for it one way or another, no problem, but I rarely - if ever - witnessed any meaningful relationships come out of El Poblado.

Medellin is not so well known for its food. Typical Colombian cuisine is ok, but not the best. Fortunately Milena came to my rescue, and showed me several different great restaurants with a variety of cuisines at good prices. I was surprised to find some amazing organic and vegetarian restaurants in Medellin. Neither of these are my usual kind of restaurant, but the food at these establishments was really good.

To sum up, the stronger points of Medellin were:

(1) The people - Friendly, helpful, hospitable, and fun.

(2) The city - Excellent infrastructure (the Metro, the MetroCable), spaces dedicated specifically towards large impressive public buildings, often built in the areas where they are needed (such as the Spanish Library).

(3) Climate - Consistent sunny weather, not too humid, occasional brief showers.

The weaker points included:

(1) Poverty - Still apparent in the outer and higher suburbs, but no worse than many of the other cities I visited during my travels. Moreover, the city is trying to combat this to an extent.

(2) Crime - Did not experience this myself, but I spoke with several unsuspecting foreigners held at knife-point. One guy even had a knife pressed against his throat, another was threatened with a gun.

(3) Attitudes of some foreigners - Some people come to Medellin largely for the nightlife, the women, and the drugs. This gives foreigners a bad name.

Overall, the stronger points of Medellin vastly outweigh the weaker points. If you are aware and do not solely pursue nocturnal activities, the second and third points can be avoided. It is the first point, the poverty, that is not so easy to elude. Sure, if you wanted to stay in a hotel in El Poblado and take taxis everywhere to other well-off areas of the city, you could avoid exposing yourself to the poverty. But if you want to see the real Medellin, the reality of the poorer areas in Medellin is inescapable, just as it is in every other city in South America.

Beautiful Medellin, like the rest of Colombia and South America, has open veins.
The Wandering Paisa Hostel, my first port of call in Medellin. I stayed a month here, longer than any other hostel in all of my travels.
Spent a few evenings chilling in the bar at the Wandering Paisa with the lads - from left to right, John Paul from Scotland, Niall from Ireland, Ben from the US, and me.
Plaza Cisneros in Medellin is an artificial forest with the posts up to 24 meters in height.
One of Medellin´s many busy downtown streets.
The gothic architecture of The Culture Palace was formerly the seat of the regional government. Now, the palace houses cultural and historical archives, a library, an art gallery, a documentation centre, and a museum.
View from one of the many bridges in Medellin, near the city centre.
The Spanish Library provides state-of-the-art facilities for the poor neighbourhoods around it.
Many poor neighbourhoods like this one are near the Spanish Library.
UPB is a beautiful university in Medellin. I studied Spanish here every weekday, and attended courses on both philosophy and Colombian issues.
My Spanish class was diverse, with students from around the world, from left to right, Mike from the US, John from Tanzania, Gokcey from Turkey, me, Miah from the US, Ekky from the UK, and Cristoph from Switzerland.
One of my two terrific Spanish teachers in Medellin, Jorge, was competing in ¨The Voice,¨ a national television singing competition.
We entered the annual UPB games and won the award for best team costume, from left to right, me, Seb from Quebec, Stif from Colombia, Steph from the UK, and Luke and Piers from Australia.
Milena and I are proud of our cheesecake.
Alex and I messing around at the end of one of our kickboxing classes.
Taking the cablecar up to Arvi Park provides lovely views of Medellin, and takes you far beyond the city and deep into the surrounding forest.
Alex and Ana. Alex is chatty and clever. Ana is quiet and philosophical.
A group photo at the end of the cablecar in the forest, from left to right, me, Ana, Alex, Steve from South Africa, and Jason from Australia.
Getting ready for Halloween, from left to right, a Viking (Doc from the UK), Guy Fawkes (me), a Wizard (Tyler), and a Witch (Pilar from Colombia).
Halloween party at the Wandering Paisa.

Excursions Around Medellin

On weekends, it was nice to get out of the city. I went away several times, always with friends.

One weekend in September, a group of us went to a small town called Guatape. The group included Milena, Steve, Jason from Australia, and Josh from the US. Guatape is a quaint little town a few hours east of Medellin. It is vacation town for Colombians, although I saw a few foreigners there too. The main attraction of the town is La Piedra de Guatape, The Rock of Guatape, a single rock 200 meters high that provides triumpant views of the surrounding countryside in all directions. It is an easy climb, as there is a staircase built into the side of the rock that clambers all the way to the top.

Upon arriving, Milena, Steve, and I took advantage of a few of the local attractions:

(1) The zip-line - A contraption with a seat attached to a pulley on a cable that zoomed us from one high point to another. The line ends with a satisfying ¨thump¨ as you careen into a padded bag at the end.

(2) The Rock of Guatape - As I mentioned earlier, we climbed to the top of this rock and took in its impressive views.

(3) Boat ride - We had a leisurely cruise along the lake near the town, calm waters and peaceful weather.

One weekend in October, a group of us went paragliding in the mountains surrounding Medellin. I had never been paragliding before, so it was a great opportunity to do something new and see the city from above. Six of us went from the hostel. The weather was brilliant, slightly windy with a few scattered clouds in the sky, and we donned our gear on a ridge overlooking Medellin while loud dance music reverberated from the loudspeakers around us. The guy who went with me did all kinds of spiral dives; he must have thought I needed some excitement (though I was used to the feeling during my pilot training a few years ago). It was a thoroughly exhilarating day for everyone.

One weekend in November, Milena and I took a bus several hours south of Medellin to Jardin, a place that felt like the ¨real¨ Colombia. Seemed like I was the only non-Colombian in town for the weekend.

In addition to its lusty mountain views, Jardin is widely known for having remained essentially unchanged for about a century. The farmers in the surrounding mountains grow coffee as well as banana, yuca, uchuva, and granadilla fruit, to name but a few. Possible activities include:

(1) Jardin Plaza - A lively plaza by day and night, with fellows trotting around the perimeter on horses constantly. In the future, when I hear trotting hooves on pavement, I will probably associate the sound with Jardin Plaza.

(2) Dulces de Jardin - Candy and coffee store that makes delicious chocolates, jellies, and jams. Milena requested a personal tour of the store, and we were shown into the back to see how the sweets were actually made. I almost never buy local wares, but I bought a bag of coffee grown just outside the town.

(3) Teleferico - A gondola that takes people into the surrounding mountains. We relaxed at a cafe at the top, admiring the town and countryside, and ambled along mountain paths surrounded by coffee and banana trees.

(4) Cafe Europa - A  delightful abode contianing the finest coffees. I shall say no more.

The trip to Jardin was too short. I could have easily spent a week there. Or a month. Or a year. Milena and I met some really, really nice people, from the lady running our hotel to the guy who gave us a glimpse behind the scenes of Dulces de Jardin. If you are ever in Colombia, I highly recommend a visit to Jardin.
A super view is granted to those who stand atop the Rock of Guatape.
Group photo from the top of the Rock of Guatape, from left to right, me, Milena, Steve, Jason, and Josh from the US.
Some of us went paragliding an hour outside of Medellin. It was a peaceful day.
The final shot of a thoroughly satisfying day of paragliding, from left to right, Jason, Ben from Australia, me, Kobek from the Netherlands, Steve, and Milena.
Jardin Plaza is colourful and full of people, with fellows trotting around it on horses all day.
Finally, some top quality coffee. Lots of chocolate for chocolate loving Colombianas too...
Milena ambles along one of the many paths in the hills around Jardin.

Bogota, City Of Rain

I visited Bogota on my own for a few days. I love walking around unfamiliar streets for hours and hours, getting lost on purpose.

Bogota is the capital city of Colombia and has a metropolitan population of nearly eleven million people. It is cosmopolitan and cultural. Like the other Colombian cities, the 1980s and 1990s were far more dangerous times to be in Bogota. It is a much safer city now.

I was struck by three things.

(1) The weather - Bogota is cold and wet. In fact, the all-time heat record in Bogota - ever - is a measly 26 degrees Celsius! Moreover, it rains nearly every single day. It certainly rained off and on every day that I was there.

(2) The people - Again, extremely friendly and helpful, more so than in any other capital city that I had visited in South America. By now, friendliness had become normal for me in this country.

(3) Traffic - Excessive, though it was easy to walk around.

I arrived at my hostel late at night, and was almost never there over the next few days. It was nice enough, but as far as I could tell, most of the foreigners there were up to the usual business of foreigners in Colombia, and I wanted to spend some time alone anyways.

I wandered along a lot of Bogota, again trying to see both the more affluent as well as the less affluent areas. In terms of safety, walking around for many hours, even at night, was not a problem. I found a couple of places that deserve special mention:

(1) Cafe de la Provincia - I had been told about a tiny cafe that made its coffee from only the finest coffee beans grown one or two hours outside of the city where the owner grows, harvests, selects, toasts, grinds, and prepares the coffee himself. After a bit of difficulty, I found this cafe - and I was not disappointed. Finally, a 10/10 coffee!

(2) Museo del Oro (The Gold Museum) - Containing the largest collection of pre-Spanish gold in the world, this museum is a testament to the reverence that early people in Colombia had for gold and other precious metals before they had any contact with Europe. Numerous figures and bodily adornments carved out of gold were littered throughout the museum. Aristotle himself defined the unique properties of gold that make it ideal as money: durability, portability, divisibility, and intrinsic value. For these reasons, it has existed as money for 5,000 years, well before fiat (paper) money was first introduced to the world by the Chinese Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). It should also be noted that the Chinese abandoned their fiat currency in 1455 after soaring inflation, an historical inevitability in any fiat currency system (in history, no fiat currency has ever survived, and no gold-backed currency has ever failed).

While the city architecture is not striking, and the weather a tad dreary, I enjoyed my short time in Bogota. You can really feel the pulse of Colombian history and society in this city.
Bogota is a thriving and busy city. This means lots of traffic.
Not many parks in Bogota, but the ones I saw were clean and pleasant.
People going about their daily business in downtown Bogota.
Bolivar Square. Started out as a public market, then became the place for public executions, and now it is a nice place to take photos.
Finally, the real stuff. A 10/10 Colombian coffee made from the highest quality coffee beans.
One of many artifacts to be found in the Gold Museum. This giant gold sea snail is nearly the size of a football.

Looking Beyond...

Things are not what they appear to be; nor are they otherwise. To date, this Buddhist quote sums up my impression of Colombia, in many ways. With regards to violent crime, for example, Colombia appeared dangerous before I went there, yet after living there for a couple of weeks I discovered that the crime is not as bad as it appeared to be, and finally, after sticking around for a couple of months, I concluded that violent crime does exist in reasonable doses - nor are they otherwise - and yet the nature of crime is no longer related to drugs and cartel wars; it stems from the ongoing poverty. Even Medellin, the best city I experienced in South America, is not immune to the poverty, though it is trying to combat it. In relations to Plato´s description of cycles within a society, I figure Colombia has concluded its oligarchy stage, and is now in the early stages of democracy. Well, I had experienced urban Colombia. Now I wanted to see the rest of the country.