Colombia has one great advantage over every country I've been and seen - the people. You can feel their narrow-minded taste of music, you cannot be bewildered by architecture, street art hasn't really been born yet, food definetely lacks the variety of its latinamerican sisters and yet no other people but colombian are more than polite, amiable, attentive and sincere. 3 months and 20 days proved there is no mask and no delusion.
The greatest Colombian landmark is its people.
The greatest Colombian landmark is its people.
 Ipiales, Las Lajas, just with the border with Ecuador |  Reencounter our friend Jacobo in Pereira |
Even a beer would welcome you in Pereira, where we were accommodated for a week by our friend Jacobo.
Then we decided for Medellín. Still have a bit of a pity that never had the chance to go to Bogotá, assuming the capital has a different reality from the one I am going to describe but for the sake of our work Medellín was said to be a better and easier option. True, we had one of the highest paid gigs (Colombia has high standard similar to Costa Rica, high living expenses and yet well-paid salaries), even though not always appreciated. Colombia has to "eat a lot of bread" as a Bulgarian proverb says to get out of its post-Pablo Escobar reality which is still a bit far away from ... globalization, I guess.
Even the window-dolls promotes XXL sized breast... There is still this hyper-pumped woman beauty standard (the latin country with the most plastic surgeries per head) sometimes badly-made but what makes stronger impression is the lack of awareness of the consequences of plastic surgery (having in mind a 20 year old girl would ruin her natural beauty to triple disproportionally her breast in order to fit the high-class social model). Medellín is said to be the capital of reggeton, even though this rather banal type of music was not even born in Colombia but this is where it is consumed the most. Sinatra, Beatles, James Brown wouldn't be recognized when played, never been in the playlist of the average "Medellínese", shoved out by musica para aplanchar (popular tunes listened by a housewife while ironing from where results the name). Despite all this generalization (which by default is untrue for everyone and everything, but how can we get rid of our general impressions), Colombia is in its nicest times. It is open to tourism more than ever, getting out of its mafia karma, safer place to stay and live, with rather pro-active young generation. We witnessed something unique - the formation of the first generation of jazz musicians in Medellín (aged betwen 25-35), who study hard and try even harder to make it work out in Medellín pub's stage and educate the crowd's hearing.
We were kind of a part of this education as well, sometimes hard for me to see the ignorance of the audiance or even bear someone's shout to play Talía (pop trash that even some colombians are not especially proud of). Nevertheless, Colombia was a good stop of our travels and good school for me on the stage. There are several characters guilty for the marvelous part of our experience, whom I would like to give credits for.
Dana - light-hearted, cheerful and laid back offered us one of the most beautiful homes and cosy ambience during my entire travel. Such a good person and such a cool guy, who we look forward meeting again anywhere, anytime.
Felipe Jimenez - he's just a manager in one beautiful bar-restaurant called Aguacate. And simple as that he became our impressario and without wanting anything in return he gave us as much gigs as he could at his place and contacted us with all the other places we were contracted until the end of our stay. A real character, full of energy, enthusiasm, stories and God knows why a passion for extreme sports, which I followed and after a bloodless accident lost one-quarter of my precious hair doing rapel.
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Gustavo - a sweetheart and one of our biggest fans, who didn't lose a single show of ours nor sense of humor in the joyful nights after that.
Alejo - the sound manager of Aguacate, who treated us like special guests all those months and helped us to record a demo being so useful so far. He is now making a dream come true, travelling around Latin America on a motorbike with his girlfirend, to which I say respect! and wish them a tail-wind.
Finally, several unsignificant details describe better the Colombian picture, like my first apples with charcoal due to my first Coursera course, my being refused for visa extension because it was already expired (and we Bulgarians have a visa regime with Colombia so it was more complicated then I thought it would be and in the meantime of the complication it expired and nothing more could have been done inside the country) and our spend of all our savings for a super-giga-hyper-mega expensive flight to Cancún, Mexico (which was the cheapest option).
Finally, finally, just for fun and not to forget them myself, there's a short list of some particular Colombian vocabulary, which I guess it will be curious only for those who are Spanish speakers:
- paisa (means something good from Medellín, it can be cool person or delicious food, or whatever good they want to express, which is with local origin; used for citizens of Medellín much more than Medallo).
- marica (derives from maricon, which basically stands for gay, yet they use it like "man" - "how are you, man?", "oh, man, i am tired.", resp. "¿como estás, marica?, "ai, marica, estoy cansado.").
- si o que? or bien o que? - the usual retoric question, which implies approval from the listener's side or when they ask you how are you and retorically answer their own question. Como estás? Bien o que?
- que chimba! - a bit of a slang, having in mind chimba is a vulgar word for vagina but also means everything which is cool. For comparison in Perú it is expressed by chevere and in Mexico by chido, chingon or padre, none of which has the double meaning as in Colombia.
It is worth going back some day and explore the beauty of Santa Marta, Cartagena and Bogotá, which remain only on alluring photos but a next stop in the land of the most friendly people in Latin America is always worthed, si o que?
Finally, finally, just for fun and not to forget them myself, there's a short list of some particular Colombian vocabulary, which I guess it will be curious only for those who are Spanish speakers:
- paisa (means something good from Medellín, it can be cool person or delicious food, or whatever good they want to express, which is with local origin; used for citizens of Medellín much more than Medallo).
- marica (derives from maricon, which basically stands for gay, yet they use it like "man" - "how are you, man?", "oh, man, i am tired.", resp. "¿como estás, marica?, "ai, marica, estoy cansado.").
- si o que? or bien o que? - the usual retoric question, which implies approval from the listener's side or when they ask you how are you and retorically answer their own question. Como estás? Bien o que?
- que chimba! - a bit of a slang, having in mind chimba is a vulgar word for vagina but also means everything which is cool. For comparison in Perú it is expressed by chevere and in Mexico by chido, chingon or padre, none of which has the double meaning as in Colombia.
It is worth going back some day and explore the beauty of Santa Marta, Cartagena and Bogotá, which remain only on alluring photos but a next stop in the land of the most friendly people in Latin America is always worthed, si o que?
