My 10 days in Colombia – Observations

Last week, I got back from a 10 day trip to Medellín and I’d like to share a few observations about my experience. A few weeks ago, I was reminded of a ticket I had purchased last year to Medellín but didn’t end up taking so instead I paid to keep it as credit for a future flight. Well, the time came and I went, without putting much thought into it at all.

Due to such immediacy, upon arrival I didn’t quite have a clear view of why I was there or of what I was doing, but I went with the flow. During the 10 days, I stayed with a friend in the Centro and proceeded to show myself around town in the days to come. Details such as ‘it’s not vacation for anyone else’ were quickly brought to my attention and in the end, colored my experience of Medellín as a whole. Luckily, I did meet a friend of my friend who had a more liberal schedule and so we hung out quite a bit as the days went on and at this point, I’m pretty sure I could even give walking tours of the City of Eternal Spring…minus Santa Elena, which I didn’t have time for unfortunately.

On to the observations, shall we?

Language

You’re going to hear “pues” all the time, before sentences, after them, and in the middle of them. Sentences you didn’t think could have pues in them, do. There’s a distinct rhythym also of people from Medellín and it’s catchy, after a while you want to speak like they do. It’s kind of low-key and stressed if I had to describe it in some fashion. Another phrase you may very well hear is “que charro” which means that something is funny. Also, parce (for parcero) is used quite a bit. Yet another one is the famous Colombian phrase “que hubo?” for what’s up or what happened, although it seems like one word when pronounced.

Women

The women in Medellín (called paisas) are said to be the most beautiful in Colombia. Perhaps I need to travel a bit more within the country to confirm or deny that but I will tell you this, they are very beautiful. Part of it comes naturally while the other part is cultural. Colombian women, for the most part, will not leave the house without looking put-together (dressed nicely, stylish, perfumed, etc). Some might say that this would mean they are into the phsyical to an extreme degree but after some thinking, I found another way to see it. Perhaps this is just normal to them and not something like “I need to place phsyical appearance above everything else”. Looking good in Colombia is just part of life, like brushing your teeth.

Men

I’m not sure what to say about the men but I can say that there is definitely a style that almost everyone has. This includes a fitted t-shirt with stripes or a funky design on it or both, a mullet hairstyle (often with the sides buzzed) and jeans. The hairstyle though is the most noticable though and I would guess that about 85% of Colombia’s male youth have it.

Transport

Cars don’t follow any rules except to follow no rules. Confusing? Let’s put it this way, if you go to Colombia and try to follow all the rules of the road, you will end up getting others and yourself in an accident. Go with the flow. Buses pretty much follow suit and if you’re lucky enough to take the Circular (I think it’s number 192) into Laureles, you’ll almost be thrown from the bus…so hold on! Also, the bus drivers leave the doors open while they drive, generally before and after stops. What I meant by buses follow suit is I witnessed about three different accidents with the buses I was riding on, where one bus would clip the other, often times taking their side view mirrors clear off. After a very quick chat between drivers, off we went.  No matter if it’s a bus or a car or a motorcycle, getting the green light to cross the street doesn’t mean you should nonchalantly cross to the other side. Always be aware of where the cars are around you as a pedestrian. In practice, pedestrians don’t exactly have rights…something I actually prefer in most cases solely because it keeps the city moving as no one is waiting for anyone else.

Food & Drink

Do not miss out on the easy stuff! This includes pandebono, arepas (especially arepas de chocolo con mozzarella), and the buñuelos. They are all fantastic! In the morning, don’t forget that there is always a place on the street for mango slices (although you need to know they usually put salt and lime juice on it). As for drinks, don’t miss the jugo de lulo or the jugo de mora.

Homeless

Different from the homeless in the US, who generally sit on the corner of intersections with a sign asking for change, the homeless in Medellín (and I’m guessing most of Colombia) just lie there on the sidewalk doing absolutely nothing (I noticed the same thing in Brazil). There’s a difference between homeless and poor, is what I’m getting at. The poor people on the other hand are hard-workers and will find any one of a million ways to make a little here and there.

Etc

Something I noticed in many areas of Colombian life is when it comes to purchases, single-serving is very popular. Want to make a phone call? No need to have a cell phone plan, just ask an omnipresent minutes vendor on the street to make a call. Ok, that’s just one example, but I’m blanking on the other ones at the moment. Also, things like riding the metro are simplified economically. One can take the metro from one end of the city to the next and even hop onto the metrocable line up the hillside for the US price of about 65 cents. This is very different from the metros here in the States where you pay the lower price for the lower number of stops but with each extra stop, you pay more. What else? Medellín has quite a lot of plazas and parks and things to do in general for families during leisure time. Speaking of such, museums are pretty much all free, which is great.

If I think of other observations, I’ll be sure to add them to the list. All in all though, I enjoyed my trip and I left with a new appreciation for Medellín and Colombian hospitality.

Introducing Maria Mulata

Maria Mulata is a band from Colombia that plays a musical style called Bullerengue which is a traditional style from the Atlantic coast. The music comes from San Basillo de Palenque on the coast which was the first free black community in the Americas. The lead singer of Maria Mulata is Diana Hernandez and she studied in the most famous musical conservatory in Bogota. Here are two videos showcasing the style and dance.

Maria Mulata – Me Duele El Alma

Maria Mulata – Marianita

Cartagena travel links

The other day, I did a post on Medellin with a few links to online guides for the aptly-named ’City of Eternal Spring’. To compliment that post, here is one on Cartagena starting with a nicely-done video guide to the ciudad vieja section of the ‘Walled City’ done by Matt of The Expeditioner (I really recommend his video section on additional cities and regions of Colombia, not to mention the articles “Colombia Calling” part 1 and part 2)

Cartagena Info

One of the best sources of info in English for Cartagena is Cartagena Info. Although the GUI could use a little bit of an update, the content is thorough and wide-ranging.

DC3’s on Pirry

El Mundo Según Pirry did a short piece (in Spanish, of course) on DC3’s that bring much needed items and aid to the outskirts of Colombia. In most cases, the airplane is the only way in and out of such small villages and in some cases, they bring the village to the people (through construction supplies, etc).

How the U.S. stole Panama

As few people know, Panama as an independent country came about due to the disingenuous actions of the U.S. government in the early years of the 20th century. Prior, it was part of Colombia and acted as its own department within the country. It’s important to know how the underhanded actions of the U.S. led to what has been called ‘the rape of Panama’.

The Basics

The Hay-Herran Treaty was a treaty signed on January 22, 1903 between Secretary of State John M. Hay of the United States and Dr. Tomás Herrán of Colombia. Had it been ratified, it would have allowed the United States a lease that was to remain in force in perpetuity on a 6-mile wide strip across Panama (which was then part of Colombia) for $10 million and an annual payment of $250,000. It was ratified by the United States Senate on March 14, but it was not ratified by the Senate of Colombia, and did not go into effect.

It has been considered by later observers that this happened mainly because Herran had negotiated the treaty with little government or legislative oversight. It has also been mentioned that many of the politicians and congressmen found the amount offered to fall short, considering that the United States was willing to pay $40 million for the New Panama Canal Company.

The United States government was not willing to renegotiate the treaty with Colombia or alter the amounts involved and soon gave its support, both political and military, to a planned uprising in Panama, which led to its independence and to the eventual construction of the Panama Canal.

The Details

Upon the ratification by Colombia, Secretary Hay specifically said that no time should be taken for further discussion of the treaty, that it must be signed and accepted immediately or the deal was off. Someone in Washington must have been familiar with the Colombian senate and the way in which things were easily drawn out. Knowledge of this fact would mean that the treaty, if ratified immediately by Colombia, effectively tried to treat Colombia as a chump, for lack of a better word. As Colombia failed to come to a quick agreement on the matter,  plan B was therefore to take the canal by force while also taking advantage of the popular ‘Panamanian’ uprising going on at the time.

The department of Panama actually had attempted to sucede from Colombia on various occasions and it was the Thousand Days War between 1899 and 1902 which gave rise to the final attempt for independence. Upon the ‘failure’ of the Colombians to ratify the Hay-Herran Treaty,  in 1903, President Roosevelt sent in the U.S. warship Nashville. U.S. soldiers landed, and declared Panama an independent nation. In November 1903, during a mere 17 day period, Panama proclaimed its independence and concluded the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States. The treaty granted rights to the United States “as if it were sovereign” in a zone roughly 10 miles wide and 50 miles long. In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it “in perpetuity.” In 1914, the United States completed the existing 52 mile canal.

The man referred to in the new treaty, Bunau-Varilla, was a French engineer and soldier, newly employed by the very company (Panama Canal Company) to be contracted to build the Panama Canal. Now it starts to become clear how the U.S. ended up getting exactly what it wanted out of the deal. In simple terms, they wanted the canal and therefore intentionally undervalued it in order to pay Colombia less than its worth. Next, they used a popular uprising to give merit to and support for their taking of the canal while dealing not with the Colombian governement, but with a Frenchman who “coincidentally” happened to work for the company they wished to hire.

It gets worse

A few years after Roosevelt passed away, the U.S. being oh-so generous, decided to offer an apology to Colombia via a “gift” of $25 million in 1921. Colombia, wishing for continued relations with the U.S. (being an important recipient of Colombian exports), accepted the apology. The gift carried with it a stipulation though, which stated that Colombia must allow Standard Oil into the country. Fortunately for Standard Oil, the 360 mile-long pipeline they built, turned them into the largest (read: richest) oil producer in the world at the time. In the end, Colombia lost Panama and much of their oil reserves for the one-time fee of $25 million dollars. I wonder how much the U.S. made from it all…

Hitting 100…twice. Muchas gracias!

Silly me! I forgot to mention two little milestones for this site which only recently came to be. First, a few weeks ago, I hit post 100! Although my Brazilian site has 530 posts, I hope Colombia can soon be right there alongside its counterpart. Don’t think I’m not trying as I recently did 40 posts in a two week period!

Secondly, the daily views have hit 100 also! What that means is monthly views are rounding 3,000 versus all the initial months of 2009 where it would only total just under 200.

Thank you all very much for taking an interest in this wonderful country! Enough about me and what I’m doing, let’s get on with more and more posts!

Colombian Airlines – The battle to be number 2

“Colombian carriers Aires and Aero Republica are battling to secure traffic rights which will rank them as number two on key international routes after Avianca. Aero Republica president Roberto Junguito says his carrier is asking Colombian authorities for rights to serve the USA, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. It is also seeking additional rights for Venezuela, the only international market it now serves along with Panama.

“We just want to be sure we have options to grow,” says Junguito, adding Aero Republica wanted to get its requests in early as it is prepares to start the second phase of the business plan it initiated in 2006 after being acquired by Copa of Panama. Under the plan Aero Republica has already improved its domestic product and launched new routes to Panama, where its passengers can connect onto Copa flights throughout the Americas.

Rival Aires, currently a domestic operator with the exception of a few turboprop flights to Panama, Aruba and Curaçao, is also ready to start operating several of the same international routes. Aires has already secured traffic rights to launch services to Fort Lauderdale and New York in the USA from Bogotá and plans to begin both of these routes in November. Aires president Francisco Mendez says the carrier also has several other new route applications pending with Colombian authorities, including for Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica and Mexico. Aires also has applied for more US routes including linking Fort Lauderdale with Barranquilla, Cali, Cartagena and Pereira.” – Source (more here)

Bomba Estereo – Electro Tropical

Bomba Estéreo is a band founded 2005 in Bogotá, Colombia that describe their music as “Electro Vacilón”, “Electro tropical” and even “Psychedelic Cumbia”. They combine Afro-Caribbean rhythms with electro and styles like reggae, dub and hip hop. As of 2006, they have two CDs, one simply called Vol. 1 put out in 2006 and the other from last year, called Estalla (sometimes called Vol. 2).

One of the only songs that impressed me from viewing their Youtube videos was Huepaje, which I’ll post below. The interesting part is that when I got ahold of their CDs, I couldn’t stop listening to every single song. Sometimes it’s nice to take away the visuals and the computer’s acoustics, put the songs on a portable music player and place some earphones in your ears to get a better feel for the sound.

More than half of tourists prefer Bogotá

Over at Colombia Reports, there’s a short read on recent statistics reporting that 53% of tourists to Colombia prefer Bogotá as a destination. I’m not sure I agree, well, let me put that another way. I can see why Bogotá (and I’m sure Cartagena) is a top destination being it is the capital and has a lot to offer the tourist but I think the behavior that supports such statistics is influenced by a lack of knowledge about other regions and cities within Colombia in addition to a push by tour agencies to promote a place with ‘the most to offer’ a potential tourist.

As I’ve been known to say, I have a love/hate relationship with tourism, especially towards Colombian tourism. I love Colombia and that should be quite obvious but a large part of the charm of traveling to any Colombian city is finding that tourists are far and few. On the flip side, I want Colombia to be prosperous and I want their tired, old image to be changed which means at some point, I need to relent and push for hands-on experience in order to get the true feel for what the country is and isn’t. Considering that point though (and playing a bit of Devil’s Advocate), if so many people can have an opinion of a country they’ve never visited then it must be equally true that the image they hold can be changed without them stepping foot in the country.

Perhaps my qualm, as with all tourism, is I appreciate true tourism (what some might call ‘cultural tourism’ and/or ‘eco-tourism’) over the all-too-common exploitative tourism.

Medellín travel links

What follows are two links on ways to find out what’s new in Medellín and to wrap things up, a nice photo slide of the old Medellín.

New

Arepa. No, I’m not talking about the one you eat, but rather about a guide to nightlife and culture in Medellín called The Arepa. It’s a free magazine and downloadable via the main site, with physical editions around Medallo (slang for Medellín). The Arepa covers a wide range of topics and for those in the mood for shopping, the localized ads will let you know where to buy what. The magazine comes to you thanks to a fellow Californian so go check it out!

Also, I wanted to mention the site Medellín Traveler which covers pretty much anything and everything in Medellín. I’m not sure who runs it but they have a Youtube channel (take the video below as proof), a Flickr page and an account on PBH (Poor but Happy, see links page).

Old

In other news (ok, it’s not really news), I found a 9 minute clip with photographs of the antigua Antioquia, you know, the good ol’ days, in case you are like me and enjoy black & whites (thinking of a different Black and White?).