Columbia and Cuba - Worlds Apart

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Columbia is a country that facinates right up to the present day. Considered an no-go zone up until this decade, the current climate is vastly different. But for the visible presence of large numbers of army personnel along the main roads in the country, you wouldn't think the coutry was fighting a guerilla army called the FARC, much less that this FARC controlled large regions of the country. According to whom you listen, the FARC is either a torrorist group, or a Marxist-Lennonist revolutionary force. They were the military wing of the Communist party in the 1960's, but by the 1980's they had become involved in the drug trade, causing official seperation from the communist party. Nowadays it seems their goal is merely to preserve the status quo - to keep control of enough land and transport and shipping routes so that they can continue their production and exportation of cocaine for the US and European markets. Currently the government is winning the fight it seems. They killed two of the top men in Equador a few months ago, the leader has recently died, and the most high profile hostage that the FARC held - former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was freed in an undercover operation, while we were in teh country. Despite this, the local opinion is that it will be years if not decades before the entire country is under government control. With the Columbian cocaine export market worth an estaimed $6 billion, its not hard to believe that the guerillas will fight long and hard to keep this income flowing.

As a reminder that the FARC were very much still around (and hunted), the first thing to greet us on the border crossing was a picture of the most wanted, along with the rewards offered for each. The two recently killed FARC members have been crossed out in black marker in the poster - progress is being made! Although when you see the terrain in which the guerillas can hide, between the border with Equador and the southern city of Cali, its going to be a tough job to find them all.

Cali is a nice little city, that has a very slow-moving pace to it. Salsatecas (a disco playing non-stop salsa) are the flavour of the city, and they are in abundance! One of the nights we were there, the local team had won the cup, so the streets and salsatecas were frensied with activity. The Columbians really like to party. I instantly felt at home!

After our short stay in Cali, we headed further north to Medellin, where we stayed in the entertaining, if disorganised Pit-Stop hostel. Here I bumped into Shay and John that I had bumped into in La Paz before, and whos friends I had spent time with in Quito. We spent almost a week there, mostly lounging by the pool, and doing a whole pile of nothing except enjoying ourselves. The night-life there is exceptional - a particularly fond memory being a night in the club Carnaval with Paddy and Steo. Great music and lots of fun - it was one to remember!

North we went to Cartagena - a beautiful walled colonial city. It used to be a very important port city for the Spanish as they transported (stole) South American gold and silver back to Europe. It was also a very lucrative target for pirates who knew this, and hence after many pirate seiges and robberies (who's robbing who again?) the walls were built. The city today is a joy to walk around - without a doubt one of the prettiest in South America. And just a short stroll down the road its got a beach too, where Jonathon took it upon himself to help out the local fishermen. He kinda stood out a little bit as not being from around those parts, and by the time the net had been dragged in, the fishermen had an audience of about 30 people. I don't think it really helped them to accept the fact that there were only about 20 small fish in the net!

Before heading back down to the capital Bogota, we took a few days in Taganga, a little fishing/tourist town on the beach in order to do the PADI scuba diving course. It was the first time I've ever gone diving, but it certainly won't be the last. The corals were beautiful around the islands off the coast, and I saw an amazing variety of marine life. After that we spent a few days in Bogota which marked the finish of my time in South America. Bogota turned out to be less pretty than Cartagena, and less nightlife than Medellin, but at the same time was definitely worth a visit. I took a trip to see an exhibition about Padlo Escobar - the leader of the Medellin drug cartel until his 1993 assasination at the hands of the CIA. Some pretty interesting stuff in there, like the two mobile phones that he owned at the dawn of mobile phones. Only three existed in the world at the time (they were therefore extremely expensive), and such was his wealth from cocaine trafficing that he owned two of them. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a Harley Davidson motorbike encrusted with gold and silver worth $2 million that he gave as a gift to his cousin, nicknamed 'The Earwig'. The extravagance is astounding. To think he even held a seat in Congress in Columbia at one time is even moreso.

A few good nights on the town in Bogota, and a few farewell beers with Paddy, my travel companion since Quito, and I was ready, if sad, to leave Columbia and the continent for the enigma that is Cuba.

Arriving in Cuba feels like stepping back in time. Everyone drives clapped out old Caddilacs around the place, the buildings are old and crumbling, the pace of the city is a stroll at best. And Havana is beautiful, the stunning Capitol building the crowning glory. The Cuban economy currently relies to a large extent on tourist dollars. As a result their are two currencies present in the country, the National Peso that the Cuban's themselves use to buy most things, and the Tourist Peso used for all things tourists might buy. Since 1 Tourist Peso is the equivalent of 24 National Pesos this makes things very expensive for tourists. It also adds other problems to the economy. To make any sort of decent money, people have to become involved in tourism. The most obvious route is to rent out one of your rooms to tourists. A room costs 25 CUC (Tourist Pesos) on average per night. Compare this with a doctor's salary of 12 CUC a month and you can see why many doctors, along with teachers and lawers, are giving up their day jobs and concentrating solely on renting rooms and other associated tourist services. Alcohol in bars in town centres is also charged in the tourist CUC currency, which means that any young men looking for a night out on the town generally do so by hanging out of tourists for the evening. They are extremely hard to get rid of, and after a few days it becomes very wearing. You can't really blame them, but it is irritating.

One of the grievances that the revolutionaries had was with prostiution in the counrty. During Batistas's rein (Castro's predecessor), Cuba, and Havana in particular, was becoming a Las Vegas style fun-in-the-sun location for American tourists, and prostitution was rampant. Walking around Havana, it's clear that prostiution is back with a bang. The Revolution claims that it has been a complete success; in this area at least, it clearly hasn't been.

In Cuba the Marxist-Lenninist revolutionary force achieved victory (unlike Columbia), and they and their comrades have controlled the country ever since, first through Fidel Castro, and now his brother Raul. We took a few days down in Santiago de Cuba to celebrate the anniversary of the first attempt at revolution (July 26th 1953), a revolution which was brutally supressed. We got to see Raul Castro speak to the people, who responded with lots of miniature flag waving and lots of "Viva Fidel, Viva Raul, Viva La Revolution" chants. It was special to see at first hand. The festival itself was no slouch either - the streets were thronged with people dancing and being merry. And they had a section with ornately decorated floats with music and dancers. It's seems a bit strange to me though that the slogans and chants of today are identical to those of 50 odd years ago. Surely a country can't consider itself to be still in a revolutionary phase more than 50 years on from the actual revolution!?

We spent a little bit of time in Trinidad too - a UNESCO world heritage site, and it certainly is a lovely town. The highlight had to be the square around Casa de la Musica, where live music was played to crowds every night, and all the locals showed everyone their prowess at Salsa dancing. And some of them are REAL experts - its some of the most impressive dancing I've ever seen. Michael Flatley - eat your heart out!

Following the exertions of Santiago and Carnaval (and food poisoning and transport issues), we finally made it back to Havana, ready for the next leg of the adventure: Mexico.

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Photos

Spot the FARC member
Its probably going to take a while!!

Cartagena
Complete with pirate-stopping wall

The 'Earwig's' Harley
A gift from the generous Pablo Escubar

Propaganda is alive and well in Cuba
The Caption above the heads of Reagan and Bush is "Rincon de los Cretins", or "Dance of the Cretins".

Raul Speaking on the 26th July
You can see his head and the pupet in through the third gap in the top of the wall.