Kidnapped in Colombia

Drug cartels, bloody wars, assassinations, torture?

Modern Colombia is desperate to shed its dark image. Sun kissed beaches, vibrant carnivals, passionate soccer/football supporters, water sports, colonial architecture and fresh food. That’s what they want to be known for. But what would I find?

Coming here though was never part of the plan. I was aiming on a return to Bolivia. Just needed the business visa, which was why I’d returned to London. But through various mishaps I hadn’t got it. Some of my friends in Bolivia said to risk a return (I was way over my tourist visa already).

But I asked in the airport if I could get to Bogota instead of La Paz. After a lot of arm waving, rapid speech, annoyed looks all of which you come accustom to in South America, one of the Latin check in staff stepped forward and said it was possible. Ticket to Colombia. After a small fee.

Coming into land the city was no more than a speckling of lights. Darkness hide the rest. It was however warm and muggy. Enough for you to wonder why you were still wearing a jumper.

The city is laid out into zones. The hostel was located in the historical quarter, called La Candelaria. Arguable the safest and most interesting part.

This was where the senate met, the President has his house and other important buildings were located. As such military personal patrol the streets like red ants in search of food. While this gave the impression that the city was under siege, strangely it felt safer.

Interesting? Grand colonial buildings, exotic foods, museums full of gold, night life, mountains that erupt up around the city, Colombia’s rich past and potential future. Not taking anything away from the other zones. But you wouldn’t go far wrong with this one.

The town can be explored on foot. The main square, Bolivar square houses some impressive Neo-Classical buildings. It is steeped in history. Being built initially by the Spanish Colonials it had not avoided the impacts of the infamous Pablo Escobar.

Monserrate is the mountain that towers over the city and offers beautiful views from it. You can walk up it. It usually takes about an hour and a half. But the advice is to be down by 4pm, as the route can get dangerous around sunset. I though took the cable car. There is a church and a market to explore. And a restaurant to have a beer in afterwards.

Alcoholic Drinks
Beer – There is a reasonable variety of beers here. Reasonable. The commercial beers Argullia and Colombian Club are lighter larger beers. Perfect for the intense heat along the coastal regions. Heavier red and dark beers are produced by the Bogota Beer Company (BBC). Some regions, towns or villages produce their own artisan beer. Prices range from 2000-3500 pesos ($0.60-0.90, €0.55-0.80 or £0.40-0.60).
Agua Dinentes- If you like aniseed drinks, this is a must try! If you don’t avoid it. Colourless liquid normally served as a shot.

Buses-
Many will say that it gets very cold on the buses. But personally I’ve been on very cold buses. Throughout Asia for example. Colombia though presented me with a bit of a mix. Some cool buses. And some which simply lacked a/c and you were happy with the fast (manic) driving for the air that rushed through the cabin. Different from other countries some of the buses had charging points for your cell, mp3, camera, etc.

Even for Long journeys (over 5 hours) the buses don’t tend to stop. Instead people are invited on in villages that the bus rumbles through to sell their wears. Sandwiches, crisps, juice, dried shrimps. Depending on how well they do they sometimes get off in the following village. Then board a bus heading in the opposite direction.

Public Holidays
Apparently Colombia has more public holidays than anywhere else in the world. Reason to stay?

National Flag
A hero of the independence Simón Bolívar had a vision to unite present day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia as one. Calling it Gran Colombia. But it didn’t last. Although the legacy is that the flags of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador are very similar.

The flag is: Yellow for the gold, Red for the blood and Blue as Colombia faces two oceans: Atlantic and Pacific.

Food
The food is a mix of rice, beans/lentils, fried plantain, sweet bread, arepas, bollos (maize ground together and boiled wrapped in a banana leaf) and a fried/bbq meat, chicken or chorizo.
Fish is popular in coastal regions. Or trout more inland.

Aguapanela is basically sugar cane water. Often drunk hot. Same colour as mildly brewed tea, but very sweet

Lulo- is a fruit, which in appearance resembles an orange. Although it’s texture is more like a bitter kiwi fruit. Always add sugar when eating one of these.

Interestingly we went to a fast food chicken outlet. Instead of giving us a plastic folk to eat our food they gave us a plastic glove….

Triposo
A useful application for downloading information about countries. It does take a little time to download the documents but then the information is available off line.

Not related

I enjoyed a story off a British guy I met. He told me about a friend he had who went off to Australia. On arriving the guy was asked if he had a criminal record. He said he wasn’t aware he needed one to get into Australia any more. The immigration office obviously lacked a sense of humour and the guy was interviewed for the next 3 hours.

Jewel in the Colonial Spanish Crown- Cartagena, Colombia

Set on the northern coast of Colombia facing out towards the Caribbean sea sits Cartagena.  The old town is a mix of vibrate colonial houses ringed by a powerful defensive wall. Outside this, modern buildings tower over the city. Changing the image of how you would imagine Havana to modern US cities in the turn of a head.  While temperatures rise into the mid 30s, a gentle sea breeze cools the population.

Initially however the city was comparatively defenceless. Which left it open to attack from pirates. One of the most famous being the British Fancies Drake who sacked the city on three occasions. So fortifications where begun.

Slaves were brought in from Africa. It surprised me that the Conquistadors did not enslave the local Indians. Mirrors.

The newly arrived Spanish brought with them many objects. But none seemed to fascinate the locals as much as mirrors. So much so that they agreed to swap their gold for the mirrors. And you wonder why Columbia was voted one of the most vein countries….

A prominent site within the city is the castle. It brutally erupts above the shores of one the great rivers which flow through Cartagena. The canons guarding the castle are not original although there are a few rusting ones lying around. It goes that when a battle was won the general in charge of the castle would rescue some from sunken ships. He would then lay them out for his men to see as motivation tools. ‘Remember the battles we’ve won.’

In front of the castle is a monument with the inscription (in English)- ‘Spanish pride pulled down by Admiral Vernon’. Which makes no sense.

Firstly its historically inaccurate. In an attempt to crush the lucrative Spanish trade from the Caribbean the British made plans to invade Cartagena. Unfortunately on route from Europe the commanding officer died. Then as the British prepared the attack from Jamaica rough storms preventing the ships leaving harbour and many men suffered and died from disease. Finally the forces left for Cartagena. But the admiral in charge of the navy did not get on with the general commanding the land forces. Not ideal for such a complex operation. A great battle at sea ensued before the marines could be put on land. Firstly the engineer was killed and then they discovered that the ladders were too short to scale up the building. As such the British forces were routed. And the government of the UK fell shortly afterwards.

Secondly the statue above the plaque is of the Spanish general who defeated the British admiral at the battle.

But speaking to the locals they say that the Price of Wales (UK) visited the city a few years ago so they erected it for him. Re-writing history?

The old town is rumoured to have the most expensive houses in Columbia. Shakira and Julio Iglesias are said to own properties here. It is permitted to alter the internals of the house but strict regulation govern the front façade.

The beaches around the coast of Cartagena are not inviting. But many boats in the harbour will whisk you away to beautiful island paradises. Or simply wait until you head east. Beaches aplenty. As for me- inland.

One Spanish tourist staying in the same hostel said that he had travelled all over South America and felt this was the most beautiful town. Having seen a number of towns/cities on the continent I am inclined to agree.

Paris of South America? Buenos Aires, Argentina

[Note: There are A LOT of photos which I appreciate, some have stories behind them, while others are just to give context]

Buenos Aires (BA but some call it BS AS)

Capital of Argentina and home to 3 million inhabitants. Nestling on the eastern coast, it is not per se by the coast but apparetly next to the biggest delta in the world. At the moment (February), this is the hot part of the year and temperatures climb into the 20-25 degrees C, rain though can be ferrous but cools the air although not to the extent that it feels cold by Northern US or European standards.

To get here we took the bus, as usual organised last minute and during carnival season ie most of the shops were closed. Rodolfo advised that we could buy tickets for 600 pesos ($67/£45), unfortunately this travel agency wasn’t open until next Wednesday (it was currently Friday). So we went to the main bus terminal and got a ticket for 1100 pesos ($123/£82) (semi cama). The buses are positively luxurious after Bolivia and the roads have tarmac. I’m sure we were told the journey was 18hrs… 24 hours later we arrived in BA. A point I would mention is that my bags were gone through. I know this as there are two parts which are a nightmare to zip up but I make sure they are closed before I go anywhere. When I got my bag off the bus the zips were undone and you could see that some one had tried to put them back together without success. Fortunately I have nothing of value in these pockets.

Taxi- Taxis have proved to be expensive comedy at points. Arriving at 1am into BA with our heavy rucksacks we asked a taxi driver if he could take us to our hostel, he just pointed up the street and said ‘Four blocks that way’. In the day, with the warm sun, lovely breeze and minus back packs it would have been lovely…. but it seems a common thing that they encourage you to walk rather than take their taxi, strange business logic.

However things can swing the other way. My mate Erick asked us to meet him at a particular club so we told the taxi driver and he took us to a club of the name Erick had given us. It was closed, annoyed as we thought the taxi man had dropped us in the wrong place, we paid and got out. 200m down the street we found a sandwich shop and had something to eat with a beer. We then hailed another taxi outside the front of the shop and told him the name of the club we wanted. The driver then proceeded to drive us round the city and drop us in the same club that was shut (200m from where he had just picked us up from) and charged us 70pesos (approx $8/£6) for the experience. As you can imagine we were very unhappy with the con. Our suggestion use the bus system.

Bus- To catch a bus you will need to purchase a card (similar to the Oyster card in London) at a local convenience store (for 20 pesos [$2.20/1.50]) which will need to be recharged before taking the bus/under ground or subway. You only need to tap it once when you enter the bus or underground. For the most part this makes all journeys about the same price (2.50 pesos) no matter how far in the centre you go. As you head out of town the driver will ask you where you want to go and set up the machine accordingly before you tap the card.

There are a number of apps for the phone which you can download telling you which bus to take. The problem, which I have mentioned to the developers, is that these often need an internet connection.

Traffic- Compared with chaos that is Bolivia by road, the traffic here is reasonable obedient. But just take care when crossing roads, as even when the white man comes on to say that it is fine to go people will still turn into the street (and not use their indicators).

Big Ben- According to my tour guide Erick (although he’s better at telling you about beers and River Plate FC than the history to BA), many years ago (when they where still friends) the British Government gifted Buenos Aires with a grand clock tower, which is jokingly called ‘Big Ben’ (though looks nothing like it). Strangely this towers over the park opposite which has a memorial dedicated to the Argentinians who fell at the battle of the Falklands (or locally called Las Malvines). The irony did not escape Erick.

The Falklands- Which leads me nicely on to my next topic. From speaking to a couple of the guys here there is some embarrassment over the Falklands war for two reasons. Prior to the war the Brits and Argentines were good friends, the sport and railway system here all came from the British and they even have phone and post boxes modelled on those in UK (design and colour). Secondly the reason for the war was all political, the general running the country wanted to boost his standing and thought that by taking the islands the locals would have more faith in him. Unfortunately this was a war which the world took an interest in and as such loosing was a national embrassment. Margaret Thatcher’s (the British Prime Minister at the time) popularity soared in the UK while the general here faced civil war. However, the episode has left a deep scare in the country and some really dislike the Brits, for example you can see me posed next to a painting which roughly translates as ‘The Falklands are Argentinian’ (even though a recent vote on the island showed that approx 99% of the inhabitants wanted to stay with the British crown).

Protests- Politics is a funny thing. The current president is the wife of the late ex president, but is considered very unpopular. There is an investigation of suspicious links between Argentina and Iran. The day before the lawyer tasked with investigating the case was due to present his findings he was found dead in his apartment. Ruled as being a suicide, but most do not believe this and a large march took place in the city a couple of weeks back. It was peaceful but showed the underlying anger in the city. Soon Argentina goes to the polls and it is unlikely that the current President’s party will get back in. But this will not be a problem as to get out of the current mess the next party are likely to have to introduce a number of strict controls, which people are unlikely to enjoy. By the time of the next election the people will be fed up with these and vote the current President’s party back in.

Architecture- If you were simply dropped here you would be forgiven for thinking you were walking around: Paris, Rome or Copenhagen. There is a European feel about the city. Apparently with all the wars raging in Europe over the past few centuries, the President of Argentina at the time thought that Europe would simply be turned into a pile of dust. As such commissioned architects from France and Italy to prepare buildings here in a similar style. This makes BA a pleasant city to wonder around, however, it somehow doesn’t have that South American ‘rawness’ that you get a custom to, so me and Rene are still undecided how much we like it.

Costs: BA is reasonable but not cheap. Tips: first change your money on the Blue Market (see my other post), secondly there are a number of apps you can download with maps of BA streets, its subway and bus timetables, three- food: popular here is barbequed meat but an interesting place is Ugi’s pizza which only serves two varieties of pizza (both vegetarian and really depends if you want onions or not) for approx 40 pesos ($5/£3). Beer in shops costs about 40 pesos ($5/£3) but remember the bottle is worth 5 pesos so keep hold of it and the next time you go back you can get 5 pesos off the price. Although latterly we found a supermarket close to centre run by a Chinese family selling beer for 17 pesos ($2/£1.20)

The Dutch: A photo above, with the orange wall, is dedicated to the Dutch, as one of the princes married an Argentinean lady and as such had to abdicate. The small garden also holds a statue of Ann Frank.

The Pink House- Buenos Aires version of the White House in the US (see photo).

Eva Peron- One of the most famous heroines of Argentina is Eva Peron. Made famous in a film, with Madonna, with the famous line ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’. She was important in using her fame to help lift millions out of poverty. As such is pictured on the 100 Peso note. Erick, maybe somewhat cynically, says that history remembers what it wants with another way to look at it being a local hooker who got lucky and married the President of the time….

Road Names- Everything is XX blocks away and most streets are named after countries or dates- e.g. Peru, Venezuela, United States. But interestingly I have not yet found a ‘Gran Bretaña’….