Impressions of Colombia through the eyes of a foreigner
While sailing the Titicaca lake, Dani and I met Dennis... from Ireland. He had been traveling for a long time in South America, and in the near future was heading for Colombia. When he got here he wrote an e-mail to his friends... I am going to copy parts of it here (it is too long to paste it all) because I really liked what he wrote:
"finally made it to Colombia, and this place is definitly worth the effort, this place is sensational, so vibrant, so much spirit, so sexy and sensual.. so Colombia. I had high expectations..they have been surpassed... Right now in the capital Bogota, it seems a nice city though I have only really seen La Calanderia, the nice area near the city centre where I am staying,its quite old, not really what I expected Bogota to be like...I havent been forced to fight off muggers and terrorists or decapitated (yet), noone is shooting in the street, noone kidnapping anyone in front of me ...
Anyway, have been in colombia about a week, more actually I think, and really, this is comfortably the best country I have visited on this trip, I would recommend it to anyone who wants something a bit different and away from the gringo trail in South america.... I actually think this is the most amazing place I have ever been to (yep, even better than NZealand...oh, and good to see the English and Welsh lions hammered...again....pick some damm Irish and scots, and not of the west Brit variety either!!!!)! I think i could stay here forever... This country has everything, the Andes to the west are so beautiful (more spectucalar than in Ecuador, though different to those in Peru or Chileeee, more green! ...
Oh ok, new paragragh needed.... colombian girls... seriously, colombian girls are incredible, never in my life have I seen anything like them.... Shakira is nada compared to some of them... they are piercingly beautiful, moreso than Brasil even, moreso than Florionapplis where there were so many pretty girls that my brain and eyes hurt....... and not just that, but they have something else that is so hard to describe, they are so relaxed here, so unflustered, so tranquillo..so sexy and sensual in everything they do! Every country has beautiful girls (excepto Peru!)..perhaps not the same proportion as here...but here they have that latino va va voom more than anywhere else...I dunno, I think its a character thing...but every few minuits walking down the street you see a girl that just knocks you out, and not just because she is physically beautiful...its something more! Colombian guys must be so lucky...but some of them are such sleazy assh#les..seriously, you will see a very pretty girl walking down the street, and its a usually not very pretty guy, usually older..and usually just plain greasy sleazy looking, will start wolf whistling and hissing and shouting things at her, trying to get her atention...you'd like to think that if this happened at home the girl would kick him in the balls...but I guess they are used to it here...
But actually, everything I heard about safety before I came has been a load of bullshite, our govt tells us not to come here unless absolutly essential and never to travel overland...they give the same advice they give about Iraq and Sudan....all we hear is FARC (hey, dont come to Ireland becaue of the IRA are in northern Ireland shooting each other over drugs..its the same risk ...and Norn Ireland is another damm country!!) and street crime and drugs and about the 8 kidnappings a day and the 25,000 murders a year etc...but Colombia is huge, the size of France Portugal and Spain combined with about 40 million people, your chances of coming into contact with FARC or other groups are between slim and none (your more likley to find Irish IRA here..."
Well its getting too long, maybe later I'll post some more...
"finally made it to Colombia, and this place is definitly worth the effort, this place is sensational, so vibrant, so much spirit, so sexy and sensual.. so Colombia. I had high expectations..they have been surpassed... Right now in the capital Bogota, it seems a nice city though I have only really seen La Calanderia, the nice area near the city centre where I am staying,its quite old, not really what I expected Bogota to be like...I havent been forced to fight off muggers and terrorists or decapitated (yet), noone is shooting in the street, noone kidnapping anyone in front of me ...
Anyway, have been in colombia about a week, more actually I think, and really, this is comfortably the best country I have visited on this trip, I would recommend it to anyone who wants something a bit different and away from the gringo trail in South america.... I actually think this is the most amazing place I have ever been to (yep, even better than NZealand...oh, and good to see the English and Welsh lions hammered...again....pick some damm Irish and scots, and not of the west Brit variety either!!!!)! I think i could stay here forever... This country has everything, the Andes to the west are so beautiful (more spectucalar than in Ecuador, though different to those in Peru or Chileeee, more green! ...
Oh ok, new paragragh needed.... colombian girls... seriously, colombian girls are incredible, never in my life have I seen anything like them.... Shakira is nada compared to some of them... they are piercingly beautiful, moreso than Brasil even, moreso than Florionapplis where there were so many pretty girls that my brain and eyes hurt....... and not just that, but they have something else that is so hard to describe, they are so relaxed here, so unflustered, so tranquillo..so sexy and sensual in everything they do! Every country has beautiful girls (excepto Peru!)..perhaps not the same proportion as here...but here they have that latino va va voom more than anywhere else...I dunno, I think its a character thing...but every few minuits walking down the street you see a girl that just knocks you out, and not just because she is physically beautiful...its something more! Colombian guys must be so lucky...but some of them are such sleazy assh#les..seriously, you will see a very pretty girl walking down the street, and its a usually not very pretty guy, usually older..and usually just plain greasy sleazy looking, will start wolf whistling and hissing and shouting things at her, trying to get her atention...you'd like to think that if this happened at home the girl would kick him in the balls...but I guess they are used to it here...
But actually, everything I heard about safety before I came has been a load of bullshite, our govt tells us not to come here unless absolutly essential and never to travel overland...they give the same advice they give about Iraq and Sudan....all we hear is FARC (hey, dont come to Ireland becaue of the IRA are in northern Ireland shooting each other over drugs..its the same risk ...and Norn Ireland is another damm country!!) and street crime and drugs and about the 8 kidnappings a day and the 25,000 murders a year etc...but Colombia is huge, the size of France Portugal and Spain combined with about 40 million people, your chances of coming into contact with FARC or other groups are between slim and none (your more likley to find Irish IRA here..."
Well its getting too long, maybe later I'll post some more...