A Rose By Any Other Name...Makes It Difficult To Learn A Language!

Colombia

The first time I traveled to Colombia in 2007 I was traveling alone for about 5 weeks and then I was joined by my two friends Diane and Kim for about 3 weeks. I absolutely loved Colombia then. My Spanish wasn't near what it was this time but I was able to manage fine with "survival Spanish." This time I had learned so much more Spanish before I reached Colombia but once there I couldn't hardly understand anyone and they couldn't understand me!! In five other countries I had no problem conversing with the Spanish that I had picked up, but all of a sudden in Colombia I felt like I had to start all over again. It was so frustrating! The accent was so different. I think I never noticed it on my other trip to Colombia because it was all Greek then! 
In each of the other countries I traveled through there were definitely differences in words used for various things and slang was different too. For instance, in Argentina when I first arrived I asked a guy working at the airport to speak more slowly by saying "Hablar mas lento por favor" and he corrected me telling me the word for slowly was "despacio" not "lento" but all the times I had visited Mexico I had used "lento." Just when I thought I had the language down I would cross a border and have to learn all over again!
Here are some examples of other differences:

pharmacy	drogueria	farmacia	botica
lane	pista	carrile
trucks	camiones	volquetas
tire repair	gomeria	llanteria	montellantes
goodbye	ciao	adios
fan	ventillador	abanico
corn meal "cake"	arepa	tortilla
passing on street	adios	hola
fruit shake	licuado	batido
speed bump	tumulo	topas	reductor
internet wifi	wifi	inalambrico
roadway eatery	parador	comedor	soda
shop	tienda	pulperia
bus	flota	cocha	bus
hot dog	salchicha	hot dog
accommodation	alojamiento	hostal	hospedaje

In Ipiales, the first city inside the Colombian border, I went for lunch and found this cute diner. It reminded me of a place in which I used to work in Menlo Park,CA. I was the only female in there and I sat next to Johnny shown here in the red and blue coat. After a short time he spoke to me and asked where I was from etc. I found out that he was from Chile and is also a cyclist on a multi country ride in South America. Neither of us had cycling clothes on so it wasn't like I noticed a cyclist and sat next to him. I  wonder about the chances of sitting next to someone randomly in a big city and it turns out he is a cyclist as well.  We hung out for the afternoon and had dinner together too. He rode out of town the next day and was also heading north. It was good for me to have a "scout" heading north in front of me because a strike had just started with the cafeteros (coffee growers) and they had set up roadblocks throughout Colombia. As was the case in Chile during the fuel strike, cyclists were supposedly being allowed to go through the blockades. Since Johnny was riding ahead of me he could keep in touch and let me know if there was any trouble ahead. 

The owner who was the food server also, was quite a character. He mingled with all the patrons joking a lot and being a part of every conversation. It seemed like a very local hangout. One of the guys who was a customer there told me about a cathedral in a neighboring town that is famous. He encouraged me to visit it and he even went back to his work place and returned with a calendar of the place to give to me as a souvenir! The cathedral is called Santuario de Las Lajas and I have included photos of it further down this blog.

I totally splurged on my hotel room in Ipiales. I couldn't find any inexpensive places but the woman who ran this hotel gave me a huge discount down to the Colombian peso equivalent of $19 USD. I liked it so much that I stayed 4 nights. Besides, I had to wait for Johnny to tell me if the roads were open ahead!

Breakfast was included with the room . I am not an early riser so I would stumble down to breakfast about half an hour before it closed. A couple of mornings, the waiter called me to ask if I wanted my breakfast delivered to my room. I am sure it was because I was the last one to be served and they wanted to be done. So twice I had breakfast delivered!

The main square in Ipiales.

Soft serve ice cream via bicycle!

Canyon on the way to the famous cathedral.

Santuario de Las Lajas churh as it is officially called.

The church is built into the side of this beautiful canyon. Unfortunately I saw a sign that showed intentions of building an aerial gondola system to carry visitors down the mountain to the church. Here it looks almost like a German castle.

My ride in Colombia was one series of hills after another with only a few areas in river valleys where I had some flat spots. All of Colombia was beautiful.

Jin, a cyclist from Singapore I met about 2km from the top of a huge climb he was going up and I was about to go down. He had been climbing the whole day!
We talked for quite awhile and he informed me of his experiences with the road blocks that the cafeteros had set up for their strikes.  He confirmed that for the most part they were fine about letting cyclists through the blockades but that one time they insisted on searching his stuff. They made him take all of the stuff out of his panniers and show it to them stating that they were making sure he was not carrying drugs. Jin told them that they were not the police and had not right to search his stuff but it didn't matter to them and he couldn't go through the road block until they were satisfied. I didn't like the sound of them searching through everything while crowds of cafeteros looked on to see all that I own. It is a point at which I would be very vulnerable for theft. Jin assured me that they did not take anything from him it was just that the experience was unnerving.

When I encountered the first cafeteros road block I had a very weird feeling riding up on hundreds of men carrying sticks. There were a few women selling food on the side of the road near the roadblock but as I got closer to the front line there were only men and they looked very intimidating. I put on my best smile and rode towards the front saying "hola" to everyone I passed. At the front line there was a rope stretched across the road with men 4-5 deep behind it. I had to stop and see if they were going to let me through. Contrary to this photo, when I first reached the front line, no one was smiling at me.I maintained my best smile and asked if I could pass. One of them approached me and started asking where I was going, where I had been and if I was alone. The crowd of men started to gather around me to listen to my answers.  I was used to this type of questioning from everyone I met along the way because they were always curious about my trip but being alone among all of these serious men made me wish I had a better answer when they asked if I was alone. The guy who was questioning me stated that I was "valiente" (valiant, brave) so I gave him my usual answer when people said that to me which was to respond by saying "o loca" (or crazy) and they all smiled (FINALLY) and the ice was broken. We conversed a bit more. They wanted to know what I paid per kilo for Colombian coffee in Alaska. I told them that I wasn't sure if the coffee I drank in Alaska was from Colombia because I usually didn't buy it in a grocery store but in a cafe because I hated cooking! They got a laugh out of that too.  We talked a little about their plight and how things were going with their strike. They said they had a meeting scheduled between the cafeteros and the officials that morning in Bogota. I wished them luck. Then they asked if they could get photos and they all took turns taking photos with me. When photos were done, they parted the blockade and waved me through. I told them I felt like a queen when they parted the way and we all got one last laugh! 

I rode about a kilometer and arrived in the town closest to the blockade where there were police stationed at the ready for any trouble. I first came across the riot shields and then the tank shown below.

When I reached the tank I asked if I could take a photo of it. The guys expected me to take a photo with my bike in front of it I guess because they waved me over to the tank to pose with them and Tankita while another policeman took the photo. I have to say I was a little nervous as to how this would be interpreted by the cafeteros; my posing with the enemy.  But their camps were a few kilometers away and the policemen told me that things had been fine between the cafeteros, townspeople, and themselves. After this photo the guys asked me about my trip etc. I asked them about their equipment and they explained that this was a "tanqueta" (mini tank) so of course I had to tell them that my bike was named Tankita (my version of "mini tank" translated to Spanish). They offered to show me the inside of the tanqueta!

Two guys were resting inside the tank when I entered. I apologized for waking them up but they brushed that off and told me to come on in. We all talked for awhile about where they were all from, the strike, and of course they wanted to know about Alaska and my trip. By the time I asked them for a photo they were offering me the equipment to put on. Yes, that is a grenade in my left hand and a tear gas "shooter" in my right (I think). They unloaded it before giving it to me. 

What a bunch of cuties!

I loved the ride down into this canyon! I was so disappointed I didn't have my better (stolen) camera with me. The little point and shoot does not do justice to this scenery.

A noticeably greater number of people of Caribbean descent were living along this river valley.

There were lots of propaganda signs like this in Colombia to promote the presence of the army. This sign "Ejercito de Colombia. Su causa y la nuestra es Colombia" translates to "Army of Colombia. Their cause and ours is Colombia!" or "Your cause and ours is Colombia!" I'm not sure which. 

Soldiers were present in many places along the roads.

This woman named "America" gave me multiple refills of a very cold drink made with lime and sugar cane and she refused payment. She could tell I was sweating my butt off.

This river lookout was located behind a restaurant the restaurant where America worked. I stopped to check out the view and decided to ask her if I could camp behind the restaurant.

This cave just below where I camped was an advertised feature of this area. I hiked down to it and went inside. It wasn't very deep but it was kind of cool nonetheless.

Another typical room. I paid in Colombian pesos the equivalent of $6.60 US dollars.

The only plug in the room is the one I created by screwing in my plug thingy which turns a light bulb screw into a plug. I had to hang my iPod from it though because the power cord was not long enough to rest anywhere else. The plug thingy seemed handy to have in poor countries where rooms often don't come with an electrical outlet but I ended up only using it a couple of times.

Well, if one faucet stops working, just add another.

Drying coffee beans on the ground.

Coffee country almost always equates to hill country.

Coffee growing.

Fruit drink stop. My kickstand is a stick I have had since the Bolivian jungle.

Another open air bus which seems to be misplaced from Ecuador.

The sugar cane trucks were often 4-5 trailers long.

Colombian restaurants featured beans and fried plantain with every meal. This full plate goes for the equivalent of $4.50 US dollars.  They were pretty proud of their beer in Colombia which usually went for over $1.00, a lot for a beer equivalent to Budweiser in taste and sold in a poor country.

No hunting armadillos.

This plane was spraying something (pesticides?) on the sugar cane fields.

Alternative fuel being put into a truck. 

This local guy was in front of me on the road and all of a sudden turned around. I noticed he had a flat tire and asked if he needed anything. I helped him fix his flat and he continued in the direction he had been going again this time riding with me for about an hour. He was just out for a casual ride so he turned around after that. I have actually helped lots of locals with their bicycle problems since I am a traveling toolbox of bicycle repair stuff! I have even helped two motorcycles get back on the road because I had tools they didn't have.

This was a very popular church in this area. The next evening there was a big outdoor service held here.

In this shop Christ was on sale; two for 12,000 pesos! What a deal!

Now which Christ was on sale?

The roads were in good shape in most of Colombia and the shoulders were wide. I saw a lot of Colombian cyclists using the road instead of the ample shoulder and cars seemed okay with it; they didn't honk frantically and signal for the cyclists to get on the shoulder. There were a lot of motorcycles though and they seemed to use my shoulder all too often. I was used to being able to inhabit any part of such a wide shoulder but I would often get surprised by sneaky motorcycles riding right up next to me and zooming past!

Rodrigo rode with me for awhile on the highway. When it was time to turn off to his town he invited me to have lunch with him and his wife Deissy and their newborn.

Yuri is a crazy Russian cyclist who I met on the road going the opposite direction. We both stopped in the middle of the divided highway to chat for a long while. He shared a glass of wine from a local winery with me too before we both went our own ways. He is actually wearing a piece of material wrapped around his waist and he rides with that and flip flops.

More coffee plantations.

Outside of the city of Pasto there was a huge climb which I could see from the road below. In this photo you can see two of the different levels of elevated highway, one in the foreground and one much higher up.

Looking back down at one of the curves I just came up.

Another tiny room for the equivalent of $5.50 per night and it came with a view (photo below).

One of the flat parts of my route was along the Cauca River.

It was not uncommon for there to be something wrong with many parts of a hotel/hostal/hospedaje like in this case the door lock. Many times I put Tankita in front of the door to my room leaning on it to keep it closed and/or to make noise if any one tried to enter.

Nancy runs a fruit stand next to the road and she saw me pedaling slowly in the middle of a big climb. She encouraged me to stop for a break and gave me an orange. I asked her about these "fruits" she sold and she gave me some to try.  I believe they are the seeds from a Christmas Palm. People dry them out (photo below) then crack them open to eat the nut inside. 

Truck after truck stopped on the side of the road because of an accident further ahead. I was able to ride past them and get by the accident which made for a nice quiet ride since all the traffic was stopped.

I chose to ride on this day but the fog and rain cleared up on the other side of the pass which was pretty close.

This is the map of my route up to the town of Caldas, Colombia corresponding with the last photo for this posting. As usual the orange lines indicate where I rode and the black lines indicate where I used other means of transport.

This blog brings you up to date on my travels until March 21st, 2013. I am in Oaxaca, Mexico as of this posting on August 8th, 2013.

Photos and blog posts to come:

More Colombia and Statistics from South America

Panama

Costa Rica-a.k.a. Gringolandia.

Nicaragua

Honduras

El Salvador

Guatemala and Statistics from Central America

Mexico