5th May 2022.
On my first day in Colombia, I found a supermarket selling sweet and salted popcorn. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.
The end.
No, really, the end.
(For those who don’t know, I am obsessed with popcorn – specifically ‘Butterkist Sweet and Salted Popcorn’. All the rest are a pale imitation of its yummy deliciousness).
Over the last six weeks of travelling, it was the one thing I craved…and because I talked about it ‘sometimes’, I learnt that there are countries (Netherlands, Germany… please name and shame any others), that do not have this flavour. Shock, horror!
Oh, and of course, I didn’t find it at the supermarkets I went to in Peru or Ecuador, and I was resigned to the fact that I likely wouldn’t have some until I made my way to the United States.
(Actually, that’s not true. I was not resigned to that fact. On a particularly desperate day, I considered asking one of my siblings to post a bag to me!)
So you can imagine my joy when I found this flavour being sold at a supermarket in Bogota. It endeared Bogota, and Colombia, to my heart, and I feel like I can forgive them anything.
Ah yes, apologies, this is a travel blog. Back to travelling…
From what I have read, and my unofficial poll of other travellers I’ve met, people seem to either really like or really dislike Bogota. I don’t feel like I spent long enough in the city to have formed a very strong opinion, especially as I saw only one part of the city, ‘La Candalaria’.
It’s a gritty looking neighbourhood, a mix of colourful single storey dwellings, colonial buildings including around the stately Plaza de Bolivar, office blocks and the famed mountain, Monseratte, looming in the background. There were throngs of people, and I do mean throngs. It felt somewhat overwhelming, after weeks of travelling around fairly small towns or cities. The sidewalks were peppered with stalls (or areas demarcated by tarpaulin) selling trinkets, hats and every souvenir under the sun. There were also practical items being sold- batteries, pots and pans (!), belts, shoes etc.
The thing I most noticed though, about Bogota, were the colours. Walls and doors, at street level and beyond, covered by beautifully drawn murals or graffiti art. I was surprised to learn that Bogota had come late to graffiti, considering how much of it there is in the city. Apparently it was only decriminalised a few years ago (after an uproar caused by the death of a teenage graffiti artist, Diego Becerra, who shot by police in 2011…and then an incident in 2013 when Justin Beiber was given police escort while he drew graffiti! 300 artists turned up in the following 24hrs and created over 700 images, and ultimately graffiti was legalised). Although artists are expected to gain permission from homeowners prior to drawing on their property and they are both expected to sign a document, which needs to be submitted to their equivalent of the council. Bogota is currently ranked second on the list of cities with the most graffiti in South America. The murals and graffiti gave a certain edginess to the city but also made it really beautiful. I enjoyed wandering the streets, discovering graffiti of many different colours, styles and themes, with social and political messages. It reminded me of Lisbon, which is where I first developed an appreciation for graffiti art.
I was in Bogota for three days. On the second day, I joined two tours, run by ‘Beyond Columbia’ which were absolutely fantastic. The first was a walking tour of La Candelaria and the second, a food tour. I met great people on both tours, forming quick friendships particularly with Jan (a German guy who was in Bogota for a 3-month internship) and Michelle (a Dutch girl who was at the end of an epic 3-year trip), which made it even more enjoyable. We swapped travel stories, including of the weird and wonderful ‘delicacies’ we had tried on our jaunts. Jan was the definite winner, having partaken of fried insects and bugs in Mexico. Michelle promised us she didn’t eat ‘dog’ while in Vietnam. And I felt positively tame, with my ‘cuy’ (guinea pig) story. I was inspired by Michelle’s family story, where the love of travel ran through generations – her grandparents travelling in the 50s/60s before tourism as we know it now, was even a thing. Her father followed in their footsteps in the 70s/80s, and met and fell in love with her mother in Guatemala. And now, she was doing the same… and kept extending her trip because she loved travelling so much. In fact, we weren’t at all convinced she would get on her flight back to the Netherlands that evening.
Michelle is just one of many other travellers I’ve met who have spoken about that desire, once on the road, to keep going. Or others speak of falling in love with places or countries, and days-long trips turn into weeks, months, and even years. There was Hector, our food tour guide in Bogota, who came to Colombia on holiday and somehow found himself still here 9 years later. Or Denise whose 6 week trip had parlayed into 8 months and counting, living in Cali, Colombia. Or Cathrina who was at the end of her 6-month visa allowance to stay in Colombia, was bemoaning going back to Austria, and jokingly expressing a desire to find and marry a Colombian so she could stay longer.
With the pandemic, and working from home, it has never been easier for people to base themselves in the most exotic of locations, working the same job but living a very different lifestyle. Other travellers pick odd jobs – paid roles to fund their ongoing travel or unpaid with free room and board – fruit picker, kitchen staff, farmhand etc. As much as I’d love to travel long term, I don’t really see working in those fields as a viable option for me. Perhaps I should consider them as plan C, if I decide not to return to my life in Birmingham…I’m still working on plan B.
The food tour was an excellent introduction to Colombian food from different regions. I found an arepa I enjoyed, from the Boyaca region, made of ground yellow corn and cheese. I tried barbecued Capybara, which was surprisingly tasty (although I baulked at looking at a life size taxidermy mount of one while I ate). I drank the most delicious coconut lemonade, basically dessert in a cup, and ate ‘obleas’ – sweet/savoury wafer sandwiches, which are a traditional dessert. I continued my trend of trying alcoholic drinks that I know I’m not going to like, ‘aguardiente’ on this occasion, while everyone laughed at the faces I made on tasting it. We also tried ‘hot chocolate with cheese’ – which is considered a delicacy. It certainly is an acquired taste. I could see the appeal, somewhat, as the hot chocolate melts the cheese in your mouth into a gooey cheesy mixture – but it just wasn’t for me.
What also really struck me about the Colombian people, those first couple of days, was how open they were to talking about the good, the bad and the downright ugly about their country. We had strangers interrupt our tours, to add their two cents to discussions about the past, their current drive to regenerate the country and economy, and their hopes for the future. They all seemed to hold a fierce pride for their country and peoples. It made you confident that things could only get better.
…Not a bad start to Colombia.
And things only got better for me, as I explored other cities, towns, countryside and stunning landscapes that this country boasts.
I’m not sure I’ll fall in love with Colombia the way a lot of travellers I’ve met have done, but I can certainly appreciate the charms of this beautiful country.
Interesting fact about Bogota…Did you know?
As we all know, there is no such place as El Dorado. However, the legend of El Dorado originates in Bogota. The Spanish conquistadors heard stories about the Muisca tribe in the Andes Mountains who would hold a ceremony to initiate a new chief, and appease a god in Lake Guatalita, that involved throwing gold and precious jewels into the lake. The Spaniards called the mythical chief ‘El Rey Dorado’ (‘the golden king’). In fact, 8000 of the 36000 pieces of gold currently in the Museo del Oro in Bogota come from Guatalita Lake. Can you imagine how much more gold there would have been in those days?