Usually, when you say you’re visiting Colombia, most of the responses are concerns about safety or jokes about cocaine. This blog will hopefully give more insight into the country. I’ll also touch on different aspects of Colombia, Bogotá in particular, like the food, weather, and architecture.
For this blog, I’m going to talk about three of my friends that visited me in Bogotá and their Colombian experience.
The first is Veronica, my Chicago-livin Aries lady. We met in London while we were both studying abroad in 2015. Veronica adores dogs, teaches yoga, works as a photographer, and owns many beautiful plants. Her home is perfect for snuggling up with some hot chocolate – it’s honestly the coziest I’ve ever been. Veronica spent a full week in Bogota and, after being with each other 24/7 and even getting food poisoning together, we still weren’t sick of one another. That’s pretty special and maybe gives a glimpse as to why I love that woman.
Ron travels without expectations and she didn’t research too much of Bogotá before she arrived.
“That’s the way I like to travel.That way I can fully enjoy the moment of being in a new place without having any preconceived notions of what it will be. I go as far as not even looking up where the said city/country is on a map. Which is oftentimes very misleading (thought that Bogotá was by the ocean?!).”
To be honest, I didn’t do any research either before coming here, and Ron and I were both surprised. Veronica expected the buildings and architecture to be a bit more rustic. The basic buildings are pretty noticeable. Cube after cube after cube. Apartment complexes are extremely common and not beautiful to look at. Like I said, cube after cube after cube. As Veronica says,
“...I felt as though the buildings were definitely dated, but not in the historic way that I expected. Certainly different areas had that rustic architecture, similar to what parts of the smaller towns like Mongí had...”
The city is still beautiful, though. All you need to do is get a glimpse of those mountains. It’s not hard to do since Bogotá is surrounded by them. Ron said she had been to cities surrounded by mountains before, but they were nothing like Bogotá. She also said flying into the city was a memorable moment. It’s true. The view hits you and it’s like, “Wow, places like this actually exist?”
Especially on top of Monserrate – a mountain that overlooks Bogotá where you can get lunch with a view. A gorgeous, gorgeous view. Also, whenever I start missing home or the people there, the Colombian food brings me right back into the present. Right back to being happy. Veronica said it was one of her favorite things about Colombia.
“The food exceeded any ideas of what I thought Colombian food would be. Whether is was a delicious home cooked meal or getting an arepa con queso from a tiny little stand on the corner, all food was enjoyable. Craving some right this moment!”
If you find yourself in Colombia, here are my favorite street foods that you have to try:
1) Arepa Con Queso (what Ron mentioned above)
2) Buñuelo (Medellín has an amazing place famous for them)
3) Cheese Empanadas (the meat ones are probably good too, but ya girl’s a vegetarian)
4) Arepa de Chocolo con Quesito and Milo
Arepa de chocolo con quesito: A sweet arepa with cheese on top. Milo is a chocolatey-drink. When I left Colombia the first time in December, I got it at the airport because I wanted it to be my last taste of Colombia.
My favorite meal is Bandeja Paisa, and you better get it on top of Monserrate. I have yet to eat one that is as good as the four I’ve had up there. Yes, four. Different times, of course.
Egg, rice, beans, arepa, salad, plantain and they usually pop avocado on it too. Beautiful.
This brings me to the weather. Excuse my language, but the weather in Bogotá is fuckin’ crazy. One moment it will be lovely and warm. I’m talking the perfect spring day, where you just want to sleep on the grass for hours. Then, less than ten minutes later, it will be raining. Hard. It has inconvenienced my day so many times. Also, those spring days (or hours), are seldom. It’s pretty chilly here and I, as well as the rest of the population, usually wear jeans with a sweater or thickish cardigan every day, if that gives you some idea. I think maybe because Ron thought Bogotá was by the beach she expected the weather to be a lot warmer.
“The weather was the most surprising thing about my visit! Who would have known I could experience all temperatures in a single day?! I wasn’t prepared for it – didn’t pack the right things, so I was rockin the same outfit pretty much the entire trip.” It’s true. In many of my photos/videos, Ron is wearing a light reddish / orange cardigan. That’s actually mine that I had to lend to her to keep warm (haha).
Not surprisingly, when Veronica told people she was visiting Colombia, people asked her about how safe it was. The same thing with Vince and Tyler, the next two visitors/friends I’m going to talk about.
“I never once felt unsafe.”
It’s not unsafe here. It’s not unsafe here. It’s not unsafe here. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical when arriving – I’m not going to pretend I’m better than that. After being here for so long, I’ve started to get annoyed with Colombia’s stereotype and how untrue it is. I know why people think what they do about the country: history. I get it. Colombia has a very harsh and terrifying drug and kidnapping past. It shouldn’t be ignored, but it’s 2018. It’s not the past anymore.
However, I do feel the need to say Colombia is still one of the top countries that produces cocaine. As for intake, the U.S. trumps Colombia’s statistics for consumption. From my personal experience, I’ve never seen or heard people talking about using cocaine in Colombia, but I saw people using it at parties in the States. My best friend Ana, who was born and raised in Colombia, hadn’t even seen marijuana until she was studying in the U.S. She didn’t see cocaine until living in LA.
I’m also not saying that there isn’t drug tourism here. I’m just saying that I’ve never experienced it and it’s definitely not the only tourism. Far from it.
Anyway. I digress. Onto Tyler and Vince.
I met Tyler in college. Our friendship mainly consisted of lunchroom talks and that still holds true. When we graduated, we often met up for lunch, and this will definitely continue once I return. Shout out to Mission Taco in STL. I met Vince a couple years after meeting Tyler when they started dating. I was actually doing a short documentary of their relationship for my video class. Vince is in his 50’s and Tyler is in his 20’s. See ya later social norms.
When you see him out of his work clothes, Tyler looks like a punk dude with a massive septum piercing and ripped jeans. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met and is extremely easy to get along with. There’s not one time that we’ve hung out and haven’t laughed. I love talking to him.
Vince has a soft voice and a kind face and heart. One of my first memories of Vince was standing in line at a Mexican restaurant. Tyler and I were commenting on how long the line was and Vince responded with, “I’m sure they’re doing their best. This place just opened and they might just be getting used to it.” That’s Vince. He’s a kind person that’s looking for the good in anyone. Tyler and Vince have been dating for about three years now.
When Tyler and Vince arrived in Bogotá, Tyler’s main concern was not knowing Spanish while Vince’s was navigating the city. Both of these weren’t much of an issue. Most of the time, Ana or I were around to help with the Spanish side of things, and the streets are pretty easy to understand. It’s somewhat like New York where most of the street names and avenues are numbers. The streets numbers increase as you go North and avenues increase as you go west. Even when Ana and I weren’t around, though, everything went smoothly.
“Getting around without speaking Spanish was much easier than I expected. I got to eat so much and pictures cannot do the scenery justice... There were more things in English than I expected and people were so eager to help.”
I’ve talked about Monserrate a lot, but I promise it’s justified. I was a big fan of how Tyler described it.
“I absolutely loved Monserrate. The views were breathtaking – literally, it was super high up, haha. But also I can’t even explain how beautiful and awe-inspiring the view was, not even through pictures.”
As for Vince, he really enjoyed the Usaquén Flea Market that is every Sunday. I highly suggest you go to this if you ever visit Bogotá. The market is filled with high quality, handmade goods. It’s where I’m going to get all my Christmas gifts this year. This was Vince’s take:
“The atmosphere was super festive. So many different kinds of products and so many smiling people. It was cool to feel like a part of the day-to-day life.”
Another event Vince really enjoyed doing was riding the bus at rush hour. Weird, right? We were heading back to their hotel and I said we should take the bus because they have their own lane, which would make the journey faster since the usual traffic was extremely slow. I felt bad about it afterwards, honestly. During rush hour, everyone is so squished together it’s impossible to move. The only thing you concentrate on is not making eye contact with a stranger. Vince liked this experience, though. He said it really gave him an idea of how many people are in Bogotá. He also remembered looking at Tyler through the crowd of people and thinking how lucky he was to be experiencing this everyday thing in a completely different country with someone he loved. Cute. Extremely cute.
Again, when Tyler told people he was visiting Colombia, he got the standard response.
“A lot of, ‘Oh, why’d you choose there?’ or ‘Is that safe?’ or even jokes about kidnapping and drugs. I liked to point out to people that it’s no longer 1980 and we live in St. Louis, which regularly has the most violent crimes per capita in the States. I also just think you need to be aware of your surroundings in any big city you’re not used to.”
Preach, Tyler. Preach.
I adored that people visited me in Colombia. It was Tyler’s first time out of the U.S. It was Veronica and Vince’s first time in South America. That’s an amazing thing. Travel. Experience something new. Visit your friends. It’ll be worth it – I promise.
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