I. Introduction
They say there are 5 parts of Colombia that deserve to be seen: la costa, la sierra, la selva, il Pacifico and of course the capital Bogotá.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) in my 40 days in the country I couldn't do it all but I managed to see three of those parts and I had a taste of sierra during my last
weeks in the country, when all the city life was gone and I able to rest for a few days in Putamayo, in a town called Mocoa where I shared some time with
Ayahuasca lovers, that were there mostly to enjoy new sensorial experience, heal, find themselves and go back on their own right lifepath.
But first comes Bogotá. I only had a brief visit of the capital city, because the jetlag and the post flight-fatigue left an inner voice that told me to go elsewhere and so I did,
but there are a few things in the city that definitely deserve to be checked out. One is the barrio of La Candelaria with its street-life, its cosmopolitan food culture, street art and nice cafés.
The place is relatively safe and well located (close to the city center) and for the days I was there I felt somehow comfortable and happy to start my journey from there.
Nearby I could recommend the Botero collection, the biggest colombian collection of art of the most iconic colombian painter, who definitely came up during different parts of my trip (especially in Medellín,
his birthplace). Also the mountain of Montserrate, the highest mountain in the city over 3000m, with his great city view, could be seen on a nice day trip.
The name comes from a catalan word that means "serrated mountain" and it recalls of another place with the same name that I visited during my year in Barcelona, also called Montserrat.
Heading north towards the costa, I had the chance to stop in one of the so called pueblos mágicos, those town who are considered somehow magical for keeping its essence,
its tradition and its original architecture and historical center. The town is in state of Santander and it is called Barichara and from there I started my hike to the small and almost
inhabited town of Guané. This path was renewed and reconstructed thanks to the effort of a german wanderer called Geo von Lengerke, who came to Colombia in the middle of the XIX century in order to start a new
life, bringing his engineering skills, his piano and apparently some european wines.
Once I reached the carribean coast of Colombia I have to say I had mixed feelings. On one side I was amazed by the endless loop of afro-carribean rhythms, the colorful outfits of the locals who try to make a living in an environment
who has been more and more colonized by mass turism (of course, it's the Caribe, you will say) and from the beautiful beaches and national parks (Tayrona is the highlight) but on the other hand I was not particulary
impressed by the cities Santa Marta and Cartagena, although the last one has a beautiful colonial historical center and a very hype-former-working-class district famous for its easy going lifestyle, that used to be very unsafe back in the days but in the recent years became more
popular and safe also because of gentrification called Getsemaní, that surely deserves a visit.
After the time I spent on the coast, I moved south again. The highlights of this part of the trip were two main cities Medellín and Cali, the beautiful Valle de Cocora and the coffee farms of the Eje cafetero.
Medellín was the business center of the Colombian cartel back in the '80 and some of the district like Comuna 13 were definitely no-go areas due to the high presence of various kind of criminal gangs and drug dealers.
Nowadays things have changed and the place can be visited. The huge number of plasterless houses makes Comuna 13 look like a favela but despite the high number of turists, the place has its own charm and surprisingly some people may notice that Pablo Escobar,
despite becoming a pop icon years after his death, is seen nowadays more as a criminal than as a hero by most of colombians.
Cali is the city of salsa and that's the city where I had the chance to learn about some of the most influential and iconic musicians who contributed to make the genre world-wide famous.
Despite of the fact that he was born in Puerto Rico, I was fascinated in particular by the figure of Hector Lavoe, "el cantante de los cantantes" by his voice and by his controversial and tragical life.
Leaving Colombia after such a short amount of time was an hard choice but I know I will be back one day soon. On the way out of the country, which I travelled entirely using public transportation as I normally do when I visit a country,
I had the chance to go on one of the south american most dangerous road called el trampolín del diablo, literally "the devil's trampoline" that connects Mocoa to Pasto, leaving the jungle and heading up on the mountain.
The road is a one lane road that runs on the mountain like a silent snake. It goes along the cliff without any kind of protection and it is open to literally every kind of vehicles, cars, buses, trucks and everything else. There are often accidents reported
on this road and unfortunately lots of fatalities occured in the past. I wasn't aware I was going to go on this road until the day before I took it and to be honest I was not particulary enthusiasted about the idea but now that I can share the story, I am happy to have one more tick on my checklist.
The next country where I was going on this journey, it was going to be Ecuador. The way I was almost rejected when I tried to enter the country was unreal but I am going to talk about it in the next section.
II. The Muiscas
The Muisca people inhabited the part of Colombia north east of Bogotá from 1270BC till the spanish invasion. They were between 1 and 3 milions and represented almost one/third of the whole pre-colombian population
in the territory of Colombia, being part of the Chibchan group of languages and they were advanced as Maya, Aztec and Inca.
The Muiscas worshipped the trinity of Chiminigagua: Chia (the moon), Sue (the sun) and Cuchavira (the rainbow).
During the ceremony the Muisca cacique (tribal chef of the community) covered himself with gold dust, walking into the sacred lake Guatavita and rinsing off,
leaving all the golden dust to Chia, the goddess of water.
The importance Muiscas gave to spirituality and to afterlife is really relevant compared to nowadays lifestyle and the amount of gold they were likely
to sacrifice in order to please their Gods also had an impact of their life conduct. The difference with the materialistic western world can be seen as soon as
the spanish landed. After the Conquista and the discovery of the amount of gold available around the area of the Orinoco lake, the newcomers started to look for a legendary place called El Dorado,
one of the seven cities of gold, and the fact that the place was never found, created a myth around the whole story.
III. Simon Bolívar & Alexander von Humboldt
Simón Bolivar (1783-1830) is the south american national hero, the only and only who was able to kick out the invasors from the country
and give freedom and independence to a number of south american countries. He created a state called Gran Colombia including
the actual states of Colombia, Perú, Ecuador and Panamá. Probably one the biggest dreams of Bolívar that never come true, was to create a federation
including the majority of south american countries, a sort of EU of south America that definitely sounds charming under many points of view.
Many squares in south America are named after him and all over the continent it is pretty easy to spot him on his horse in one of the countless statues
that are present all over the territory.
Bolivar was born in Caracas and had a pretty hard personal life. He lost both parents as a child and during his lifetime, he also suffered the death of his spouse.
He was educated mostly in Europe, where he had the chance to know about the enlightment and he was particulary influenced by other authoritative statesmen
as Napoleon (he actually attended the ceremony when Napoleon was made emperor of the French).
Alexandre von Humboldt (1769-1859) was many things at once, but I like to see him more as a naturalist and german explorer.
During his lifetime, he gave to Europe through his journals, some of the first impressions of the Americas from an european perspective.
Von Humboldt was also one of the first europeans to reach the altitude of 5878m while he tried to reach the top of mount Chimborazo
despite failing because of altitude sickness.
After a brief introduction of these two figures, the final question is: did Bolivar and von Humboldt ever met? Did these two main characters of the XIX american century ever have the change to cross path?
Apparently the answer is yes. According to a number of biographers, they met two times, one in Paris in 1804 and one in Rome in 1805 and
apparently von Humboldt shared the Bolivar ideals of south America as a land free and independent from the spanish oppression.
IV. Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero is the colombian most influencing painter of the XX century. His sarcarsm and the way he demistified
shapes and deconstructed some of the most famous classic paintings became world-wide known and contributed in making his art present
around the globe in cities like Paris or New York.
I had the chance to visit his collection in museo Bogotá during one of the first days I was in the city and I was surprised
to see there between his works, some european authors like french impressionists Renoirs and Matisse if I remember well, being part of his private collection.
Botero is also famous for playing around with recurrent details on his works. Very noticeable (or unnoticeable) was for me for example the vulcano behing his Monalisa
that made the lady look a little bit more "south American" than the original one or his family portrait with a snake coming down from a tree to demonstrate how the conformism
around the idea of family can be easily put in danger when things are not going well and esternal factors can undermine the whole family bond.
Botero is also present in the second main city of Colombia where he was born, Medellín.
The main square of the city, called in fact plaza Botero is filled with 23 of his statues and the museo de Antioquia in the same square
also includes operas that he donated.
V. Edgar Negret
Edgar Negret might be not so well known around the world but in Colombia his name is a pretty common one to hear.
As a sculptor he focused mostly on constructivism, introducing abstract art to
the country and providing his view on the industrial society. His style is geometrical and colorful and his non-functional
artistic style is pretty clear in most of his works.
V. Stardust
"We are all the same, because we are all made of stardust". That was the final outcome of a two hours astronomy lecture that I had the chance to have
while I visited the Tatacoa desert. As there aren't many lights in the desert at night, if you have the chance to
visit an astronomical observatory the chances you can stare at a majestic starry blue sky are pretty high (especially in the southern emisphere).
So looking at the start through a telescope was simply a quite amazing experience. I saw Alpha Tauri, Aldebaran, the Southern cross, a beautiful half moon and many other things at once.
Stardust is the base of everything, human life included, since it contributes to the formation of planets and plays a massive role in star formation and zodiac lights.
Stardust evolves cyclically, absorbing and recycling other elements present in the cosmos which is made by only hydrogen for its vast majority
(the remaining part are the elements of the periodic table), therefore we can affirm that "we're all made of stars".