It is never a good thing to be told by a traveling friend that he is in a particular country and "you'd love it here". It gets me every time. So I hopped a plane to Columbia which has everything from beaches and rainforest to high mountains. I opted for two weeks down the middle of the country. No beaches.
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| Bogota from the Candelaria section. |
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| Villa de leyva, a Colonial village. |
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| So green! Between Popayan and San Augustin. |
On my flight I sat next to a young man name of Camilo who is a journalist. He had been in the South Carolina city of Columbia with a group that had somehow won a trip to see Justin Beiber who my new friend does not speak too highly of. He did like the outlet stores and stocked up on Armani brand clothing while in the U.S. Camilo is from Cali and is well aware that he is lucky to have been raised in circumstances that allowed him a college education. His is really not an unusual family because even he has a sister who he says is a drama queen. Camilo is exceptional in that he can talk to anybody, and he does. Three plus hours passed quickly in his company. Clearly he had to have a magnet.
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| A sneak shot of Camilo waiting for luggage at the Bogota airport. |
One strong piece of advise Camilo had for me other than to be smart on the streets of Bogota was not to go to the market in Sylvia by myself. Not to worry because I tagged on with a hostelmate, a fellow by the name of Niko who is as easy with people as Camilo. Every Tuesday the indigenous Guambiano people come into the small mountain town of Sylvia to buy and sell their wares. Many of them still dress in their traditional blue capes, bowler hats and skirts, even the men. They are camera shy, I am told, but Niko made friends first and had no problem getting them to smile for the camera as well as for his teasing conversation. He made fast friends with Maria del Carmen and her mother who sell fruit at the market. We both sat on the steps by their table for quite a while and she sent us on further adventures to an agricultural school and the small village of Casique. Maria has one of my magents in Sylvia.
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| Maria del Carmen has the magnet. |
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| Guambiano people in traditional dress. |
While in Columbia I gave a magnet to a girl from Belgium who was staying at my hostel, Casa de Nelly, in San Augustin. Niko also has one he ways he will drop off somewhere in Equador.
