Gringa in Colombia

Colombia is a complex country. I will try to write about this lovely and challenging country knowing that my experience cannot capture all the juxtapositions this country has. Colombia has very different and yet geographically close regions. It has the Caribbean, the Pacific Ocean, the Andes, the Plains, the Amazon, and the peaks and valleys in between. With more regionalisms and accents than The UK, it is a miracle we can understand each other. Add to it the nasty business of the 40 year old civil war, the drug war, and you have a country that manages to year after year to not loose its’ hope. In the worst of times this is a country with a general fear that blankets all of your movements. What taxi you get in, what bank you got to, who overheard your political commentary, all of it leads to a paranoia that is endemic. In the best of times, you find the best mockery of the “situation”, a sense of irony without sarcasm, and a desire to enjoy the best of what you have.

Colombia is a country that has as part of its’ elementary school curriculum the doctrine that we are, the perfect combination of the Spanish, African, and Native-Americans. Yet consistently ignores Afro-Colombian and the Indigenous tribes realities. A country that has made whiskey, el whiskisito, the national drink. Yep this is the contradictory and lovely place that I will try to write about.