Colombia for Christmas

Last Christmas we left Ecuador to visit the UK and it took three days to get there. Snow, closed airports and booked up flights. It really is the worst time of year to travel. So this year we stayed on the American continent, using our three-week long break from work to visit Colombia.

First stop was Bogotá, the capital city. Some say it is a dangerous place to visit, but I’ve been living in Quito for over a year, and it didn’t feel any worse than Quito. That is in terms of general crime risk. If anything it felt a little safer in the Candelaria district where we stayed, due to the high of volume of security personnel. Because of course there is a long simmering civil war going on in Colombia, in fact the FARC are now in their 47th year of guerrilla combat with the government.

As a tourist in Bogotá, the risk of being caught up in this is very small, but there are many reminders that you are in a country at war. Firstly there is a lot of political graffiti. A lot. Secondly, there is a huge amount of security, around the presidential palace in La Candelaria bags are searched at check points and cars are checked for bombs with mirrors on sticks. And there are a lot of dogs, sweet-as-candy looking golden retrievers sniffing out drugs and explosives, hard-as-fuck looking rottweillers for ‘security’. They are the real winners of this drawn-out war, canine employment is at record levels.

Soldiers with rifles and Christmas lights in the colonial centre of  Bogotá , Plaza Bolívar, La Candelaria 

Shoe shines and graffiti in  Bogotá: "In the land of the blind, those with one eye don't reign, but those that see  with their hearts"

We left Bogotá a couple of days before Christmas and flew to Medellín. It was actually free to fly as Bogotá was technically just a stop over on route to Medellín, this was also the cheapest route. However, it is worth noting that had we wanted to fly only to Bogota, that cheapest route would have involved a stop over in Medellin. It makes no sense.

So we stayed in Medellín for Christmas. It has a reputation for being a good Christmas location, its festive lights, for example, are said to be the best in South America. High praise. Although, in my opinion they would be a bit shit if compared to those in Blackpool. Bogotá was relatively cool, with a climate similar to Quito, i.e. you need a jumper in the evenings. Medellin by comparison is pretty tropical. To me it looks tropical too, with lots of Palm trees. Though Helen says it looks like Sheffield.

The Christmas lights of Medellín. Said to be the best in South America.

This city has two famous sons, the artist Botero (painter and sculptor of fat-arsed ladies) and Pablo Escobar (the now deceased kingpin of the now dismantled Medellín cocaine cartel). The two come together in some of the works in the main museum in Medellín, as shown below. So that was it, Christmas 2011 in a Medellin hotel. Tomorrow we leave for Cali, ten hours south by bus. Colombia is a big country, and bus travel is the only affordable option. On the upside, the scenery is said to be fantastic. Hope I get a window seat.

 Painting by Fernando Botero portraying Pablo Escobar's death, photo taken in the Museo de Antioquia