Country to Country, Culture to Culture (Salento, Colombia)

Colombia... wow! I have been here 8 days now and I can thoroughly say that I am impressed with the beauty of this country.  My first two days in the capital city of Bogota were filled with excitement and sightseeing. Bogota has a great night life, streets bussling with people on the go, beggars, partiers, vendors, and everyday folks doing their everyday things.  I stayed in the Candelaria area which is an older part of the city, filled with grafiti, colonial streets, colorful doorways and houses, with an antique yet modern feel to it.  I loved it.  The first two nights I went clubbing and tried my hand at some latin dancing, locally brewed beers, a quick trip to a ladie´s club with a bunch of local guys that thought they were showing us a good time, and an impromptu visit to a house party that we got invited to while walking on the moonlit streets. 

I am now in a small village town called Salento, surrounded by the lush, misty mountains that inhabit the majority of Colombia. Gorgeous.  Yesterday I went on a coffee tour where the owner, Don Elias, described how famous Colombian coffee is grown and produced. Today I went on an 11 hour hike in Cocora, there was rain (of course), but hiking up the muddy trails, through wooden bridges over rivers, and over slippery rocks was well worth it. My clothes are wet, my shoes are a little muddy, and my only pair of jeans are dirty.  But the views... oh my.  There are these extremely tall palm trees sparsely planted throughout the rolling mountains, which can been seen beyond the foggy clouds. Our hike ended at the top of one mountain where we were able to partake in some hot chocolate, a typical drink for many Colombians. 

It is interesting going from one country to the next, one city to the next, and one culutre to the next.  The food changes, the clothing changes, the currency changes, the expressions and accents change as well, amongst a multitude of other things. Spanish is not just spanish. It makes it difficult for me, the traveler, to get a grasp of things. I am always lost, always learning, always wide eyed with curiousness. 

Because of my role at work in Calgary, people have called me such names similar to, ´The cultural diversity guru´.  I always say that it is impossible to know everything about every culture, and I will never try to claim that name, however... (I can´t think of the word... my english is becoming so poor... surrounded by so many languages at once!).... FLATTERING (I found it in my head) that may be.  The more places I go, the more travelers and locals I hand out with from so many different countries, the more I realize that there is so much to learn, but at the same time, there are so many similiarities amongst cultures.  I once again come back to the concept of ´journey´.  We are all on a journey of learning, of becoming, of existing, of living, of loving, of searching.

There´s a saying out there that goes something like, ´the more you learn, the less you know´.  That´s how I feel as I pass from town to town, and pass meals and wine with global citizens. 

Since I arrived in Colombia, I have had the pleasure of hanging out with Louise from Scotland, Sam from the States, Ruben from Holland, Caroline from Sweden, and Jimmy from France. Jimmy and I have been traveling together now since Bogota. He´s a hardcore, free-spirited backpacker, with a tent in his backpack, facial hair that hasn´t been shaved in over 6 weeks, smelly clothes, and only one pair of socks.  He´s been away from home for 13 months and will be soon going home to surprise his family on Dec. 24th.  You know you´re a backpacker when you take out a piece of clothing from your backpack and the first thing you do is smell it, to see how clean or dirty it is, nonetheless it goes on your body.  Haha, that´s my mental image of Jimmy.  Anyway, tomorrow will be our last day together, he goes south and I go north, so one more goodbye will be had. 

I posted this quotation from the movie ´Hope Floats´ on my facebook status a while back, ´Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it´s what you make of the middle that counts the most´.