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Published: January 4th 2007
1. English first
2. Español abajo Enjoy a whole bunch of photos from December: Xmas, Rochy's uncle's farm, a trip to Cartagena, and my birthday night out ;o)
Happy new year from Barranquilla! “Winter in Barranquilla” is an alien concept for someone like me. Nonetheless, locals here revel in the (relatively) cooler, breezier months of December and January. It’s still around 25-30 degrees almost all day long, but the wind makes it bearable. In fact, it’s wonderful. You can walk ten metres without breaking a sweat. Like in Florida at this time of year, some locals allude to the ‘cold’ and wrap up in a jacket or jumper at night. For me, this weather is perfect.
It’s Papa Noel! Or is it? It has been a strange experience to be away from Scotland and far from my family at this time of year. Due to the warmth and palm trees, it hasn’t felt particularly ‘festive’, at least not in comparison to the cool, commercial, hyped-to-death atmosphere in the UK. But it’s still been fun here.
Christmas here is celebrated on the night of the 24th. All of Rochy’s family got
together in her grandma’s house to eat traditional food, dance and listen to tropical music, and entertain the kids with a visit from Santa at some point after midnight. Every year one of Rochy’s cousins, Ubaldo Miguel, dons the full monty: cushion-belly, white beard, dark sunglasses (so the kids won’t recognise him) and the full-length Santa outfit. The guy is known as a real
payaso (clown) and his antics are pretty funny. To spice it up a bit, the older relatives join in by going along with it. Every year, an excuse is concocted to explain Ubaldo’s absence: “he went down the road to get more drinks”; “he went out to buy ice” etc.
Ubaldo always makes his entrance in bizarre, unorthodox fashion. Straying wildly from textbook Santa appearances, he once came into the house on a zimmerframe. Last year he cycled in on a bike, complete with bag of presents. This year he decided (or maybe all the whisky decided) he would come in drunk. Christmas, for several young Colombians, was represented by the staggering entrance of a drunk fat man, swaying from side to side. To avoid give-away signs from previous years, he changed shoes with his
brother, took off his watch and wedding ring and spoke in a booming voice. Nevertheless, the children cottoned on. When Ubaldo got back several minutes after Santa’s departure, he was red-faced and out of breath. “I had to cross half the city just to get ice!” he complained in front of the children. But one girl was unconvinced: “mum, that man has the same hands as Papa Noel!”
Even though I am thousands of miles away from home, speaking another language in a very different culture, some things are the same everywhere.
Prices and markets You can take the man out of the economics degree, across several continents and avoid any academic thinking for six months. But you can’t take the economics degree out of the man. I am innately interested in how goods and services vary in price and accessibility in different markets. Talking to many local people here has painted a broad picture of how money moves in Colombia.
If you read any business or money section of a UK broadsheet, you cannot fail to notice that house prices are rising at an incredible rate. Many young professionals and public sector workers,
particularly in London, are priced out of the property market, unless they get together with mates or partners to put down a reasonable deposit. It remains unclear how long this spiralling price increase will last. On the other hand, you don’t often hear British people complaining about the price of cars. Vehicles, in general, are cheap and affordable. Most families own a car, and many working people could realistically afford one if they saved for, say, six months. You could get a decent second-hand car for £1000-1500. Some of my friends at uni were living on a budget but still bought a car as it worked out cheaper than using public transport.
Here, the situation is almost the reverse. Let’s say that a young professional here, in a good job, earns 30-40 million pesos per year (£7,000-9,000). A brand new, two-bedroom apartment in the city’s most desirable “estrato seis” zone (most expensive post code area) costs as little as 100 million pesos (£22,000). In contrast, a new imported car (not even a top of the range one, just an imported one) could cost 50 million pesos. In short, the flat is twice the cost of the car. In terms
of value appreciation, the flat is a considerably better, and more affordable, long-term investment. But do you think that you could buy a brand new, two-bedroom flat in the most affluent area of a British city for merely twice the price of a new German- or Japanese-made car? Not a chance! Imported goods here are expensive and outwith the purchasing power of the majority of Colombians. But there is no shortage of demand for them, partly because Colombia (particularly Barranquilla) is a very image-conscious society, in which people like to show off their wealth. The costs involved in importing goods cannot be that high because Colombia is a member of the America’s Free Trade Agreement. In my opinion, retailers can charge high prices for imported goods here because there is considerable demand for such goods.
Anyway, enough of my interest in economics. Happy new year to you all, and I hope you enjoy life in 2007 even more than you did in 2006.
Cartagena de Indias Hace un par de semanas fuimos de paseo a Cartagena, donde pasamos dos días excelentes conociendo lo mejor del turismo colombiano. Logramos esquivar la mayoría de los vendedores
callejeros y los agentes de turismo que intentan convencerte de que lo que realmente quieres hacer es participar en un tour con ellos. Como ustedes habrán visto ya en las fotos adjuntas, recorrimos la Ciudad Amurallada, en la cual vimos los atroces instrumentos de tortura que emplearon los colonizadores de la Iglesia Católica para acabar con las (supuestas) brujas en Colombia. También pasamos por la casa donde filmaron una película de Marlon Brando y tomamos jugos en un café bohemio que tenía las paredes cubiertas en las firmas de miles de turistas. Otro día hicimos un tour en lancha a las Islas del Rosario - allá vimos unos animales en el Aquarium y también nos relajamos en Playa Blanca en la isla de Barú.
A pesar de lo bonito y acogedor de la Ciudad Amurallada, con sus maravillosas y encantadoras calles, cuando uno sale de allá se da cuenta enseguida que los planeadores urbanos cartageneros son una banda de inútiles. Las obras que se están realizando en el centro de la ciudad son mal organizadas y de hecho están interrumpiendo totalmente el flujo de tráfico. Es decir, hay tantas barreras y áreas rodeadas de cinta roja que ni siquiera
puedes cruzar las calles. Como decimos en el Reino Unido, los que manejan esas obras “no son capaces de organizar una borrachera en una cervecería”.
Diferencias económicas Cuando pasas tiempo en otro país, empiezas a notar pequeñas cosas que distinguen esta cultura de la tuya. Por ejemplo, aquí la gente es más cálida y a la vez, más directa que la gente británica. Otra cosa que me interesa mucho sobre Colombia es la calidad de vida: específicamente me refiero a la relación entre lo que la gente gana y lo que puede consumir. Yo estudié ciencias económicas en la universidad y me tocó analizar precios, vendedores y consumidores para entender profundamente cómo y porqué funcionan diferentes en mercados distintos. Como he escrito arriba en la parte en inglés, me parece que invertir en el mercado inmobiliario aquí es relativamente más asequible para personas de clase media que comprar un carro importado. De veras, esto me llama la atención mucho. Mientras compras cotidianas y productos nacionales no son tan caros aquí, todo lo que se importa a Colombia es carísimo. Cómo puede tener sentido que un par de tenis Adidas, fabricado en China, cuesta tres veces
aquí lo que cuesta en los EE.UU.? Es más, me resulta extraño que uno pueda comprar un apartamento de dos cuartos en obra negra al mismo precio que una camioneta Toyota!
Feliz año nuevo! Voy a compartir algo con respecto a todos los colombianos que he conocido aquí: se me hace una gente muy feliz. A grandes rasgos, la población colombiana parece ser más feliz que la británica: los colombianos sonríen mucho, son orgullosos de sus raíces y sus costumbres y les encanta bailar y cantar. Para mí, vivir aquí es una experiencia muy positiva. Leí hace poco que a pesar de los problemas que todavía existen aquí, la gente colombiana es una de las más felices del mundo. Feliz año nuevo desde Colombia!
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Pedro Medina
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Contagion
Ian is living in the world´s best kept secret!