Colombia
My first visit to Colombia was an unexpected one on the back of my Peru startup. Knowing that I was operating locally they asked me to call in on the way home BUT when I arrived in Bogota at the weekend no-one was waiting to meet me and the office was closed! What to do . . . . Find the airport terminal hotel desk and sort out a bed for a couple of nights and then a taxi. The hotel was best described as `adequate` but popular with tourists as the drugs war was only just getting started and tourism still existed. However in the weekend that I stayed there no less than six of the guests were mugged in the streets outside. Mostly by motorcyclist`s pillion passengers snatching cameras , watches, wallets, etc. and making a fast getaway. The local laws had addressed this by making pillion passengers illegal - not that this had much impact. One Monday morning I rang the office and full of apologies they collected me and moved me to a `posh` hotel near them called Tequendama after a local historical figure. But in the meantime I had managed to fill my weekend catching the tourist sights and in particular the gold museum with it`s stunning collection of pre-colombian gold aritfacts. I learnt about the `lost wax` process and even bought a sample encased in Perspex which you will see in my photos below. Stories of the lost city of El Dorado persist to this day.
The local joke was the national airline Avianca`s only jumbo jet and the story went that they needed to keep it in the air to earn it`s keep as it cost them so much to buy (therefore avoid it like the plague because it never got serviced!!!). The other thing I could see constantly in the air were the Andean condors which were circling everywhere. Absolutely massive - one of the biggest flying birds anywhere on the planet. Other birds to be seen were toucans and humming birds and on the coast pelicans. I mention the coast because our daughter has visited the classic Spanish colonial city of Cartagena whilst on a cruise and tourism is now flourishing there and I have taken the liberty of `borrowing` some of her captures. Between my first visit and her visit to Colombia it had been largely a no-go nation because of major problems with drug production and shipping by gangs meaning large areas were not under government control. But thankfully things are calmer now as reflected by the fact that Venezuelans are now actively choosing to cross the border to escape their own nation`s economic disaster.
Music in Colombia doesn`t really measure up to some of the other latin nations. As far as I could tell they only had one noteable number - the tune that I know as La Raspa. And their food is somewhat interesting. They seem to think that the only way to boil and egg was for 8 minutes. And I had ajiaca which turned out to be a sort of chicken goulash and was washed down with aguadiente (let`s just say that a rough translation from the local Spanish equals tooth water (aka mouthwash). Yup! Everywhere were dark brown eyes and dark hair with the occasional head heavily dyed in some shade of red. After a couple of days in mountains of Bogota I had to fly to Medellin where our factory was located. There I was taken directly to a hotel and odered to NOT leave the grounds under pain of kidnap!!! I have now reached the regional capital and also the operational centre of the drug lords and did as I was told so can`t tell you a great deal about the town except I was very glad to get onto the flight for home.
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