Salsa in Calli

This was shared with me recently and i thought I just had to share it as well as it gives the first time traveler to Colombia a great summary of the country.

The article provides you great pictures and info, but remember to scroll down to see 10 things you didn’t know about Colombia.

Enjoy!

10 things you didn’t know about Colombia

The original article comes from a site called Banana Skin Flip Flops.

1. Coffee here is divine. Step forward Juan Valdez.

2. Everyone’s an eco-Hitler. There is a ‘No Car Day’ once a year. Your flatmates will be obsessed with turning out lights.

3. People are paid to wear orange jackets and help adults cross the road.

4. There are palm trees in Calle 57. We’re at an altitude of 2,600m, somewhere in the middle of the Andes and there are palm trees in Calle 57.

5. Sometimes people sell chocolate on the buses. Sometimes they rap.

6. Random power cuts help maintain that Blitz spirit.

7. Two-hour salsa classes cost £1.75 and that includes a beer.

8. Hearing “You look beautiful” three times a day is probably good for you.

9. Britain never invaded.

10. Manicures cost £1.75. They last for two weeks.

Read the rest of here

Well now they have gone one further, winning the worlds innovative city, beating New york and Tel Aviv.

Before you go on to read the full article from the BBC make sure you share the love  and click facebook share  and twitter button below.

To read the full story go to the BBC website here.

Colombia is great to live in , not only is it a beautiful country  full of fantastic people, culture and amazing places to visit, it is now the happiest country in the world. Don’t take my word for it,

Read the following article.
Click here for Spanish

Click here for English (Bing translated)

Foto: Archivo / EL TIEMPO

What did you expect from Colombia before you arrived the first time?

Unfortunately, in the United States we only get exposed to a narrow minded view of Colombia by the media. We only hear the bad things about war, drugs and violence. I have to admit that before my first trip to Colombia I was a little apprehensive to come here. But I thought that regardless of what the conditions were really like, my girlfriend and her family had lived their whole lives here and they seemed very happy.

How long did you stay for that time?

My first visit was for four weeks in December of 2004 and January 2005.

Where did you visit while you were there?

My wife’s family wanted me to really see as much as I could that first trip. They were incredibly gracious hosts and loved showing me Colombia. We visited Bogota, Tibasosa, Villa De Leyva, Zipaquira, Raquira, Boyaca and Villavicencio. Plus many small towns in between.

What was your favorite part of Colombia?

The part that really stood out in my mind that first trip was how important family and celebration was to the Colombians. Our first trip was over the Christmas and New Years Holidays and it made the scenery and festivities that much more incredible. All of the towns were beautifully decorated and families were out in the town squares listening to music, eating food and snacks from street vendors and having a great time. Growing up in Florida our towns idea of Christmas decorations was screwing plastic snowmen and wreaths to power poles along the main streets. In Colombia we saw whole towns outlined in lights, including the buildings, trees, churches, houses, everything. Its hard to explain but it was just the whole feeling of the people and places being totally and completely  different than the violent and war-torn Colombia portrayed in the media.

What is your most fondest memory of Colombia?

My fondest memory was proposing to my wife on Christmas Eve in her Grandmothers apartment in central Bogota in front of her entire family.

Will you visit again?

Not only did I visit three more times over the years, in January of 2012 I moved my wife and son to Colombia so that she could be closer to her family and so that my 4 year old son could learn about his Colombian family and culture.

In a few sentences can you explain why someone should make the effort to visit Colombia.

People live every day the best they can with what they have. This is the same anywhere you go in the world. I know that things are far from perfect in Colombia but you cannot find any place in the world that is perfect. Regardless of where you go, even the United States, you will find issues and problems. They may not be in international news headlines but they are serious issues affecting people’s lives. Many of my students have asked me if I like Colombia and if I think it’s better than the United States. My answer is, I love Colombia because it’s different and it’s not the United States. Since moving here I have found that there are a lot more good people here than there are bad people. Colombia and its people are so much better than their reputations in the international media. I now tell my friends and family to leave their expectations behind and come see how things really are. People here truly want your time in Colombia to be a great experience.  They do not want their country to be seen around the world as a war-torn, drug-ridden, dangerous place.  They have a lot of pride for their country, and want to share that. Just like it says in Colombia’s new ad campaign, The only risk is wanting to stay!

My flag was hanging on the wall in the bar, where we were watching the game

So last week was a week of Football (soccer).

Colombia is 9th in the world, Falcao their striker is hailed as one of the best in the world and Colombia beat Paraguay in a world cup qualifier and I went to see a local football team play which was interesting.

As you can imagine most South America countries are crazy for football and Colombia is defiantly up there with the most passionate.

Before the game 90% of the people I saw in the street were wearing a Colombia shirts of some sort and the noise of the beeping from the cars is bad enough on a normal day but on an international football day it really is crazy. the atmosphere is great.

One thing I have noticed from meeting Colombians and being here is that these people are very proud, quite rightly too, yes the country has it’s problems but it has an abundance of amazing people, places and a fantastic culture .

Watching the world cup qualifier was a bit painful to start with as the game in general was a bit boring but things went crazy once the goals started following. The passion started with shouts and jumping around as you would expect from any nation playing an international game. What was amazing is the celebrations after, people in the streets jumping around, cars with flags and beeping their horns. They still have not qualified for the world cup hahaha, but being a nation that have had their up’s and down’s when it comes to international football maybe I would also be celebrating every win like it was the world cup final as you just don’t know when you will win your next game.

If you don’t know I’m currently living in a city called Bucaramanga.

View Larger Map

You can find out more information about Bucaramanga here.

They have a team called Atletico Bucaramanga who play in the second tier of Colombian football. I have to say they are sure as hell not the best team in the world but it was fun to watch them play.
A ticket cost 15,000 peso’s which is about 8 Dollars and you get what you pay for. South American football is re-round for being a “poorer” game, it is defo nothing like the world of UK football.
There were no fancy seats, no massive stadiums or even an electronic scoreboard, but remember this is the 2nd tier of Colombian football, the first tier have much better stadiums.

The game was a pretty good game with an amazing free kick that even Ronaldo or Messi would have been proud to have scored, however I have to say that the game (for me) was a little over shadowed by the hard core fans that were positions to one side of the stadium. I have not seen or should I say heard anything like it before and I have been to a fair amount of games in the UK and Spain.
This is a small club who play in the lower leagues but the support was incredible… they did not stop singing ONCE! during the whole game. (See the video below).
They had already started singing when I arrived 10 mins before the game and were still going when I left 10 minutes after the game.
There are not so many people but the noise they made was something a player watching from the pitch should be very proud of.

This was a good week if you are a football / sports fan in fact if you want to know about part of the culture of Colombia, you will end up watching some football.

I’m still on the hunt for a team to play for, everyone seems to know someone who plays football but I have not found anyone who needs players.

I have been in Spain for a while but I’m back in Colombia for the next 4 months.
My return to Colombia started really well with Avianca the airline we flew upgrading us to business class  always welcomed.

Lost city colombia

I’ll keep you up to date on my experience over the next 4 months and I defiantly will let you know how my trip to Ciudad perdida (Lost city) , This is the Machu picchu of Colombia.
I have not actually organised it yet but I have time.

One thing I will mention is being back here for 2 days is that customer service really does exist.    Spain is a very different place to Colombia and their view of customer service is very different to that of my home land and that of Colombia.

Well I’ll sign off for this quick post and I’ll keep you posted.

Here is the description from the creator

Colombia – 2012
On my second holiday to this stunning country I decided to do the fatal thing and take my camera along with me. I thought about shooting a timelapse shot or two… I ended up filming on average 2 shots per day over the course of 4 weeks and it really became a working holiday!

I was a little nervous to begin with. I had been there before, but didn’t take my DSLR along with me. Now Colombia is vastly safer than it was 20-30 years ago – however its still a little risky if you don’t know where to go. Also, the very nature of timelapse means your stuck in one place for an hour or two and it could be a nice target for opportunists! Luckily I had my father in law and new camera assistant Moises – He even took a small baseball bat along with him on an evening in Bogota! In the end we weren’t troubled at all and I’m so glad I managed to capture so many great images.

Quite a bit of this film was shot in Bogota, and in the Quindio region, including Armenia. We also travelled to Melgar, Manizales and Pereira.

I was limited in what I could take kit wise due to travelling with a baby. So I took a very lightweight tripod, a Canon7D and my trusty 17-55mm f2.8 lens. Had a few problems with camera shake in post, but actually the small tripod held up OK!
This time round I shot a fair amount of HDR timelapse – and had days of processing with Photomatix. On balance I think it was really worth it. So many of the scenes had extreme exposure contrast and I really wanted to preserve detail in the sky and in the landscape itself. It was cut using FCP, and graded with Magic Bullet Looks. All of the tilt shift effects are done in post using Magic Bullet.

Please do go ahead and visit this country if you get the chance!

Ed Beck
MB Films

The grave of Pablo

Medellin

Once one of the most dangerous places on earth and once the home of the notorious drug baron Pablo Escobar, Medellin now looks a totally different place.

After his death the city has become a modern and prosperous city. Boasting a huge increase in security and a really healthy tourism market and some fantastic hotels
Medellin is using it’s bad past for some good things, with tours of the city explaining it’s dark history to foreigners and Colombian tourists. Everyone wants to learn the story of Pablo and his influence in this region and this tour gives you that opportunity

The tour starts at the graveyard where Pablo is buried with family members and his close Body guard who was with him until the end.

After this you can take in the views as to why the second biggest City in the country has become of economic importance to Colombia. Employing 10′s of thousands of workers to help the city become a world center for fashion and specializing in lingerie.

The tour of the city gives you a real understanding of what Colombia use to be like and what it is like today, covering items likes the school Pablo went to, the house he lived in and where the worlds most wanted man was finally shot.

A quote from the tour designer , Andres Pudlain
“But the good thing is how this city came through all this madness, and you come here today and you are not going to believe how modern and prosperous Medellin is.”

So if you have a chance to visit Colombia make sure Medellin is on the list.

Business en Colombia

Colombia… A great place for business

I was reading a report recently published by the  Latin Business Chronicle stating that Colombia was the third best place in Latin America to start a business, only behind Panama and Chile.

This is great news for a country that is only on the up. Lets see what the future holds for Colombia