Quotes of the week:
"The beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people" -Unknown
"The real voyage does not consist in having new landscapes but in finding new eyes"-Marcel Proust
"And then God said, 'let there be sexy people!' so he made Colombians"-Unknown, Pinterest.
Colombia: A Few Things You Probably Don't Know From Seeing Narcos
Drugs, war, violence, and Pablo Escobar. These are the things that a lot of my American friends really see in the media about my country, Colombia. In fact, a lot of times these are the ONLY things they actually see in the media. With the recent release of the Netflix original, Narcos, it seems to me that drugs are the only thing people mention when you say that you are from Colombia. In fact, I've had a teacher ask me once how bad my situation was when I lived in Colombia, in front of my whole class! To a proud Colombian who lived all over the country for 11 years, this is not only insulting, but also really uneducated. It would be like if I asked every person from the United States if they were involved in school shootings and if they are overweight.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't blame anyone for this. After all, violence, hate, crimes, drugs, and warfare seem to be the only thing that the media seems to portray in VERY exaggerated and biased manners, in order to get the most views. However, today I want to briefly show you THE REAL Colombia, as seen through my eyes, and the eyes of most people who have lived, and still live in my country. Hopefully, I can at least show you the other side of the story. Feel free to just skip around and look at hat drags your attention.
Biodiversity and Landscapes
- Being at the tip of South America, Colombia has access to both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Colombia's beaches are some of the most renowned beaches all over the world. (insert pictures)
- Colombia is the beginning of the Andes mountain range. Its changes in elevation allow for a wide variety of climates from warm beaches all the way to tundra and even ice caps! In fact, Colombia's capital, Bogotá, is more than 8,000 ft. above sea level.
- Due to the various climates, Colombia is the country with the most biodiversity in the world per square kilometer. It has over 7% of the world's biodiversity!( insert link) (insert Photos of flowers, fruits, etc.)
- The river that "ran away from paradise"... Caño Cristales
Culture and my favorite cities:
Cali- "The branch of heaven"
Cali is often called the "branch of heaven" due to its beauty and lively streets. This is where most of the world's best known salsa comes from.
- Cali hosts the biggest Salsa festival in the world. The best salsa dancers from all over the world come here every year.
- Cali has one of Latin America's largest zoos, the Cali Zoo, which has one of the biggest butterfly gardens in the world inside.
- The Chipichape mall is the hot spot for shopping in the city.
Medellin- "The city of innovation and eternal spring"
Called the city of eternal spring for its beauty.
- Medellin is often called the "fashion capital" of Latin America. It hosts the largest fashion festival in Latin America, Colombiamoda
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| Fashion show in Medellin during the fashion week. Image source |
- The Metrocables are an awesome form of transportation in Medellin. It is the first system of gondola lifts in the world dedicated to public transport.
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The metrocable public transport is kind of like a bus or taxi cab, except its really high up in the air.
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- Medellin's flower festival is the biggest flower parade in the world
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Each of these heavy flower ornaments are carried by a single person
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- Medellin's Christmas lights are widely known all over the world. It is in National Geographic's list of top 10 places in the world to see Christmas lights. They change every year
Cartagena- "The heroic city"
One of the most important port cities and tourist spot. This is where 80's movie Romancing the Stone was filmed. Not only is it known for its beautiful architecture and beaches, but also for its historic forts and its natural mangroves.
- Cartagena's forts, built in colonial periods to protect the city from pirates, provide a beautiful, scenic view of the city.
- Cartagena also has other colonial buildings and architectures in the "old city," a part of the city that has been kept the same ever since colonial times.
- The lively streets, shops, and Caribbean music make Cartagena the perfect tourist spot.
- Cartagena also holds the oldest film festival in Latin America
Bogotá- "Closer to the stars"
Bogotá is the Country's capital. It is sometimes called the city "closest to the stars" because of its high elevation above sea level (over 8,000 ft)
- The gold museum has the world's largest exhibit of gold artifacts, with over 30,000 artifacts all made by our ancient indigenous people. The Guatavita lake is where the El Dorado legend took place and where most of these artifacts were found. Some people say you can still find gold in the lake.
- The Zipaquira Salt Cathedral is a Catholic Cathedral built inside a salt mine entirely underground out of salt. It was built in the honor of the indigenous people who had used the salt mine as a sanctuary.
- The Museo Botero, or Botero Museum, is a museum dedicated to the famous Colombian artist Fernando Botero, who paints and sculpts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume (yes, that means he really likes to paint fat people, nonetheless his paintings are beautiful :P)
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This is a hand sculpture, known as "the fat hand", by Botero. It is on the entrance of the museum. I used to have a picture of me acting like the hand was going to grab me but I can't find anything these days...
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- Bogotá has many amazing libraries and poetry centers and every year hosts la Feria Internacional del Libro, or International Book Fair, which brings in many different authors, artists, graphic designers, and even performers and acrobats from all over the world. It is considered one of then most important book fairs in Latin America and the world.
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Here are two of my favorite libraries, which are renowned all over the world. To the left is the futuristic looking public library Virgilio Barco . To the right is the Luis Angel Arango library.
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- The Columbus Theater, or Teatro Colón is Colombia's national theater, built in neoclassical style by the Italian artist Pietro Cantini. All types of performances happen here from ballet to concerts, plays, etc.
- La Candelaria is the old city part of Bogotá
- Bolivar Square is the historic center of Bogotá. The Palace of justice seen on the left has actually been rebuilt twice. Once after El Bototazo, and the second time after the Palace of Justice. The current building is less than 30 years old. There are also historic museums, one of the oldest cathedrals in the city, and other government buildings.
- Also, don't miss going shopping! Bogota's malls contain some of our best leather stores, famous all over the world. Also our man made crafts and pottery are definitely something worth seeing.
Festivals:
- Colombia has the world's largest theater festival in the world, Festival Iberoamericano
- We also have the biggest salsa festival in the world.
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A group performing at the salsa festival... I wonder if that chick up in the air is scared...
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- We have the biggest flower parade in the world too!
- The second biggest carnival in the world, The Barranquilla Carnival, was proclaimed by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
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- Colombia is the 2nd most culturally diverse country in the world. It has more than 80 different ethnic groups. This makes Colombia have a lot of interesting people with incredible stories of what makes them who they are.
- After WWI and WWII, lots of European immigrants settled in Colombia due to Colombia's open ports in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
- People in Colombia are very (if not overly) polite. They are also said to speak one of the clearest forms of Spanish in the world.
Famous people
- You have probably heard of Shakira, modern family actress Sofia Vergara, and recently, Miss Universe 2014, Paulina Vega.
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Price winner in literature and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera is one of Colombia's best authors.
- Fernando Botero, the famous painter and creator of the "Boterismo" painting style is also from Colombia.
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Boterismo style places beauty in more voluminous things and people.
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- Dr. Manuel Elkin Patarrollo, the creator of the Malaria vaccine is also Colombian. Dr. Alejandro Jadad, founder of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation in Toronto, Canada is also Colombian
- There are also other people but these are my favorites ;)
Food
Pastries, empanadas, bandeja paisa, you name it! Colombian food has something for everyone due to the various ethnic groups and regions of Colombia.
Others:
- Colombia's architecture is now very well known among Latin America and the world as the government has stepped in to create a more unified country. THIS IS A MUST SEE!
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The Colpatria building (left) in BOgotá changes colors at night. The center pricture is a botanical garden in Medellin. The picture on the right is the Biblioteca España, also in Medellin.
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- Colombia is also a worldwide hotspot for plastic surgery. Not only do we have high quality surgery centers, surgeons, and equipment, but we also offer it all at very good prices.
- Colombia is the top exporting country of emeralds. Over 60% of the world's emeralds come from Colombia
- Colombia is also the top coffee and flower exporting country. It even has a national amusement park dedicated to coffee!
- Colombia is one of the top countries in speed roller skating. In fact, this year they dominated the world championships in Belgium, with 32 gold medals, 18 silvers, and 2 bronze. The 2015 Figure Roller Skating championships were held in Cali, Colombia (this is kind of ironic considering someone asked me if we had skating rinks in Colombia once).
- Colombia is also one of the leading countries in cyclocross
- The Colombian Paso Fino horse (fine step) is one of the finest horses and has become more popular around the world in the last century.
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The paso fino horse is known for its elegant walk. Thus the name, "fine step horse".
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- Colombia's soap operas are also widely known. In fact, Ugly Betty is actually based on the Colombian soap opera Betty la fea.
Conclusion
By the end of 2012, Colombia was ranked the happiest country in the world by the Global Barometer of Hope and Happiness. This is not to say that everything is perfect, and that there isn't some work to do to recover from what happened a few decades ago. However, I do want to remind everyone that while Pablo Escobar is part of our history, this is not all Colombia is. Colombia is also a million other things that are much happier, cooler and wonderful. Colombia is not perfect. It has had its problems and downfalls, but let's not forget that Colombia is also full of amazing cultures, nice and fun people, beautiful places, and great things to see. Most importantly, let's not let the media define our views of other cultures and countries because if we do, we are bound to make a lot of mistakes about other people. Instead, we should educate ourselves and try to see the world in the most cultured, educated manner possible, instead of quickly placing labels on everything that seems to be different.
Nice photo essay. Lots of really cool stuff. I really kinda just want to go to there now.
ReplyDeleteTo make this more professional, work to make all of your fontfaces and formatting "make sense". Some places have different sizes, sometimes you are using bullets, sometimes your images are centered, sometimes right justified, etc. Better to really make everything consistent and smooth, so that formatting doesn't distract from your content.