Greetings! My husband and I just returned from a 5 day trip to The Republic of Colombia (country #67)! We anchored ourselves on the Caribbean coast, in the beautiful city of Cartagena (car-tah-hay-nah) de Indias (hereafter referred to as “Cartagena”), and also did a day trip (via a 1 hour flight from Cartagena) to the capital city of Bogotá. Below is a summary of what we learned in each locale:
CARTAGENA DE INDIAS
Cartagena was discovered in 1591 by Pedro de Heredia. He thought the body of water around Cartagena was a gulf, and later discovered that it was surrounded by two bays. Cartagena has two rainy seasons, and is 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) with 90% humidity year round. However, with it being on the Caribbean Sea, the breeze makes the heat and humidity a bit more tolerable.
Cartagena used to be split into three towns: Centro Historico (“High class”), Getsemani (get-sim-uh-nee; “Low class”), and San Diego (“Middle class”). Those areas of town still exist, but there is more diversity within them now.
Interesting fact: Motorcycles are not allowed on the road on the second and fourth Fridays of the month. This is to help with safety, mobility, and traffic congestion.
Colombia has several ethnic groups, including a growing immigrant population, including people fleeing from Venezuela, with which Colombia shares a border to the East. Afro Colombians make up 30-40% of the population, and are more plentiful on the coast. The women in the colorful dresses are called Palenque (pah-len-kay) women, as they come from an area called Palenque, which is 1.5 hours from Cartagena.
Cartagena is considered to be the most important city of the country due to its location on the sea, as well as the fact that it is surrounded by high walls. The walls are made of coral stone, ranging in height from 6 to 8 meters, and they were built to protect the city from pirates, who wanted the wealth that was amassed from businesses and slaves to take back to Spain. The walls also protected the city from attack by the English Navy in 1741. On November 11, 1811, Cartagena gained its independence from Spain.
Oil is the biggest industry due to the harbor, port, and refineries, and because it is closer than its neighbors to the Panama Canal. Other big industries in Cartagena include fishing and tourism.
Castillo de San Felipe (the Castle of San Felipe) is the biggest fort built in South America, designed by the Dutch and built by the Spanish in 1656. It protected the city from attacks, as Cartagena was the most important port for slave trade. It has 63 cannons, and was named for the King who was reigning during construction of the castle. It had to be rebuilt several times, though we were not told the reasons for this.
We were told by our tour guide that Cartagena is the “headquarters of corruption.” The last mayor was elected in 2015, and they have elections coming up in October of 2019. They have had 7 mayors in the past four years – the first one died from Cancer, and the subsequent mayors have had various issues, including corruption. People in the lower class complain because they do not have the same benefits as others, and they elect candidates who make promises and then do not keep them. We were also told that the current president of Colombia is not liked for the same reasons (i.e., that he did not do what he said he was going to do). In Colombia, presidents only get one term in office…
La Popa Hill is the highest point in Cartagena. The building on top started as a monastery, and is now a Catholic Church. 60% of Colombians are Catholic.
Military service in Colombia is obligatory and takes 1.5 years to complete.
(He helped slaves get well and was sainted)
The Centro Historico is also known as the Walled City, and is the historical center of Cartagena. It was a quaint area, the buildings of which (especially those with balconies) were reminiscent of those in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
We did a food tour, which allowed us to use public transportation (bus) to go deeper into the city of Cartagena. The market was very crowded/congested, and the outdoor aspects of it were quite dirty. The mayor designates three days of the month as “clean up day” for the market. The Market is emptied and firefighters hose down the market. However, a week later, it is back to where it was.
The food tour included information about fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood that are available within Cartagena. There is a very rich biodiversity in Colombia, as per our tour guide. He also said that everything in Colombia is sweet or fried – LOL!
BOGOTÁ
Bogotá is the 5th highest capital city in Latin America, sitting atop the Andes Mountains at 8600ft (2600m) above sea level. As a result of the altitude, Bogotá averages about 57 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit (14-18 degrees Celsius) all year round. We embraced the mid-60s temps, but we were told that Colombians in other parts of the country call Bogotá “the fridge” or “the freezer,” depending on with whom you are talking. Our tour guide told us that Colombian athletes will go to Barranquilla (near the Caribbean Sea) to train, and other teams who come to play in Colombia play in Barranquilla as well to avoid the issues with altitude. The exception is cyclists, who train in elevation (and I assume that had a positive impact on this year’s [2019] Tour de France winner, who is from Colombia!).
The population of Bogotá, as of 25 years ago, was 9 million. However, our tour guide said it is more like 14-16 million, including about 2-3 million Venezuelan immigrants/refugees. He told us that this is the first time that Colombia has had an “immigration problem.” Back in the 1970s-1990s, it was the Colombians who fled to Venezuela, which had the strongest economy at the time. Currently, it is mostly stable in Colombia because they signed a peace treaty a couple of years ago with the largest Guerilla faction. In fact, President Santos (who was president at that time) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of his work on this treaty. We were told that, unfortunately, there continue to be a lot of drugs produced in small towns in Colombia. 20% of the population of Colombia lives in Bogotá, followed by Medellin (7 hour drive from Bogotá) with 3 million people.
Education in Colombia is set up similarly to education in the USA. They have public and private education, and we were told that public education is cheap, but not very good quality. There are 17 different universities in the city, and they do not have dorms, so students have to commute because it is expensive to live in the area where the universities are (especially in the North; it is cheaper to live south of the city and near the airport). However, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is considered to be the best public University in Colombia, and is often competitive with the private universities. We were told that people who take out loans for university often need “two lifetimes” to pay back the loan. The school year (for primary school) starts at the end of January and runs throughout the calendar year, with 3-4 breaks within the year. Students who go to public schools wear uniforms.
Colombia started the process for independence from Spain on August 19, 1810, and it was finalized on July 20, 1819. July 20, 2019, was the 200th anniversary of Bogotá’s independence.
Simon Bolivar was from the area that is now known as Venezuela, but was known then as a province of Spain (with the land that is now known as Colombia). The area included land that is currently known as Bolivia, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. This area was liberated by Bolivar, and each area subsequently became an independent country.
The historical area in Bogotá is called La Candelaria, which reflects its history within its architecture (more colonial, streets are more narrow).
Fun Fact: Cars with even numbers on their license plates are not allowed to be on the road on even days between 6-9:30am and 3:30-7pm. In addition, public service vehicles have a designated day to be off the road (between 5am and 9:30pm). All of this was supposed to help with traffic congestion; however, within three years after this was implemented, the number of cars doubled because people bought another car to be able to drive whenever they wanted.
There is no subway system in Bogotá, only buses that run in their own lane, which reduces the traffic for them. The rail system ended in the 1970s because the engineers made the tracks a bit smaller than they were in other countries. Therefore, when they ran out of “spare parts,” they had to get rid of the system because no other countries could provide parts for the rails.
Guadalupe Hill 
Statue on Guadalupe Hill 
Cross at bottom of Monserrate 
Church at top of Monserrate
Monserrate rises 500m above the city (3150m; 10,300ft above sea level) on a part of the Andes Mountains called the Eastern Hills. Monserrate is named after a similar mountain in Barcelona, Spain. The church at the top of Monserrate is called the Church of the Fallen One (that’s the translation) to reflect Christ falling down when He was walking to be crucified. Across from Monserrate is a giant statue of Christ on Guadalupe Hill.
Finally, we were struck by the beauty of the walls around the city. To combat graffiti, the mayor of the city invited artists to do art on the walls. All of the artwork was simply amazing! Unfortunately, there were a few pieces that were marred by graffiti.
In all, we greatly enjoyed our time in Colombia. For those who may be considering a trip to South America, Colombia (Cartagena in particular) is easily accessible, as it is a pretty short flight (2.5 hours) from Fort Lauderdale (Florida), and there are apparently direct flights (10 hours) from Amsterdam (according to one of the tourists on our food tour). Colombia is also very affordable ($1USD = 3200 Colombian Pesos). So, if you’re thinking about visiting, you won’t be disappointed! We hope to return one day, and will plan to visit Medellin and Cali, about which we have heard great things.
In the meantime, take care and be well…