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Published: November 14th 2009
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We had such a good time in the north of Colombia that we managed to get ourselves a bit behind schedule. So we decided to pick up the speed, but that is easier said than done as Colombia is such a relaxed and awe-inspiring country.
Having heard countless stories of robbers targetting gringos, we entered
Bogotà, Colombia's capital of 8 million people, with a tight grip on our bags, and constant looks over the shoulder. For the record, our vigilence in all matters security saw us through unscathed, unlike one of our room mates who was relieved of 40 bucks and his favourite jacket just out the front of our hostel one evening.
Bogotà is a city of musuems. We checked out the police and justice museum where we got a free guided tour of an exhibition of the capture of the notorious 1980s cocaine baron Pablo Escobar, including the bloodied jumper in which he was slain by the police. There were also loads of guns for the school kiddies (and us grown ups) to play with, the best of which was one in the shape of an electric guitar!
The Museo de Oro (musuem of gold) is
said to the one of the most important collections of gold in the world! We helped their collection by paying the 1 dollar entry fee, which was well worth it. It took at least two hours to see all of the pieces of gold, most of which were shaped into jewellery such as nose rings, breast plates and pendants. This also offered a great insight into the customs and practices of the indigienous peoples of Colombia.
Our other gallery stop was of the artistic kind. The gallery of Colombia's most famous painter, Fernando Botero, is a collection of his own works (mostly made in the 1990s) and a great collection of works which he himself bought and donated to the gallery. He must be worth a bit because there were some very big name painters in there! We both loved his style, which is characterised by paintings of all things fat! that's countless paintings of fat people, fat animals, fat cities and fat bowls of fruit! (http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&q=botero) Quite fitting too, as we spent alot of our time in Bogota eating out and about - you have to make the most of the variety in foods offered by the big
cities when in South America.
To the east of Bogotà is an are known as Zona Cafetera, the home of one of Colombia's biggest export products, coffee! Here we stopped in the beautiful small town of
Salento, where you're just as likely to see cowboys travelling down the road on horseback as you are to see them drive past in a toyota. We visited a coffee plantation to get an idea of the growing and processing stages, and then had several trips to the cafes for the all important tasting phase. They're so proud of their produce here that all coffee is served not in small cups or even mugs, but bowls!
In Salento we also had a great night out. We stopped at a bar for a quick beer around 6pm one evening and were asked to take a photo for a group of somewhat intoxicated Colombianos. This was all the social interaction that was needed for them to invite us into their party, for them to ply us with the local firewater Aguadiente and call us up to the dancefloor for a salsa or two. This very friendly bunch gave us an awesome welcome to their
country and a not-so-awesome hangover the next day.
Cali is a big city particularly well known for three things - the amazingly good looks of its female inhabitants, its all night long salsa clubs and its cocaine cartel. To tell the truth though, I was still blinded by the memory of my beautiful Salento dancing partner to notice the women, we went to a few ok - but not great- clubs, and didn't quite manage to hang out with any cartel members. Instead the Cali highlight for us was the zoo!
At the zoo we finally got to see all sorts of animals that we were unlucky enough to miss in the wilderness of the amazon and the pantanal. These included ant-eaters, tapirs, a small south american bear that looks a bit like a panda, ultra pink flamingos, leopards and most importantly...an Indian tiger. We were both still scarred from not seeing a tiger in India so were quite excited to see one at last, albeit captive.
The next stop was
Popayan, which has the feel of a city much smaller than the size of its population would suggest. Whilst we only spent one night here, we
one expensive mask!
Museo de Oro, Bogota were in awe ats its archtectural beauty. Popayan has managed not only to save its colonial buildings, but also repair them countless times after earthquakes have tried their best to make these impressive buildings fall. All we did here was marvel at the buildings, get a bit of sleep and jump on a bus to
San Agustin.
Whilst in Cali we met a couple of brothers from rural Ireland with very thick accents. They had told us about the bustrip from Popayan to San Agustin, but we were unsure if they were saying it was 'beautiful' or 'brutal' (Glastonbury's 'way down south' story all over again). Rather than try to clarify the issue we thought it would be fun to find out for ourselves. The last two seats available in our microbus were up the back, with no leg room whatsoever and springs and levers sticking into our backs - 1 nil to brutal. But soon enough we were travelling up into a quite stunning mountainous area (1 all), bouncing around and stabbing ourselves on the uncomfortable seats (2-1 brutal), then past a lovely trout fishing village with lots of Colombianos out trying to catch a prize (2-2) with
commentary all the way from a lovely elderly man we made friends with (3-2 beautiful). After about 6 hours we had only managed about 120kms, and we got off in San Agustin, where we saw that we actually did have bruises from the crappy seats and all the bouncy around. So the verdict was a bus trip of equal measures beautiful and brutal.. The Irish, they have a way with words!
In the hills around San Agustin lay some of Colombia's most important archeological sites. Pre colonial indigenous tombs, accompanied by really impressive stone carvings of gods and mythical monsters which act to guard the tombs. These tombs and carvings have been dated from the 1st to 8th centuries AD, though many have only been uncovered in more recent times. One site we visited had lay unknown under a town market place until a truck delivering produce began to sink into the ground and hey presto some more tombs were discovered! We also had a really informative guide, Josè, who showed us to some really impressive waterfalls, but more interestingly explained some of the happenings of the region which up until a few years ago was cocaine and guerilla
the full gold kit
Museo de Oro, Bogota country. In one town there was a visibly low number of men, which Josè explained was due mostly to the armed conflict of those years. The military presence here was quite high and on our bus trip into
Pasto we passed plenty army checkpoints, complete with tanks, and armed gunposts. Even still, this was a whole lot less scary than the bus trip along a single lane mountain track, where every few kilometres the conductor would have to stop, light a candle to a statue of Mary, and say a prayer that we would make it to the next statue! Once again, beautiful and brutal!
An overnight rest and a morning walk (for me at least) was all that we saw of Pasto before heading to the Ecuadorian border. It was with a definite sadness that we were leaving Colombia - probably the most hospitable and friendly nation we've come across since India. But all good things come to an end, and anyway, we've got a date with some boobies on the Galapagos Islands!
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