The country of Colombia, emerging from the fog of its violent past, has been shedding its reputation as a dangerous place. For travel, it is still a little on the edge, with many of the country's sites as yet undiscovered by tourists. In this travelogue, author Alexandra Rosen shares her experiences journeying to Colombia-a place filled with superlatives and unquestionable charm. With her longtime travel partner, Donald Cooney, Rosen provides a lively account of their adventures exploring Bogota, the Coffee Zone, Cartagena, and Tayrona National Park. Colombia blends factual information and historical background with engaging anecdotes and descriptions of the country's people, cuisine, art, music, and natural and manmade surroundings. Including general tips culled from travel to eighty-nine countries, Rosen describes Colombia as a superb destination as well as a great place for a journey. This guide shares Rosen's and Cooney's excursion through Colombia's history and time, witnessing its past while experiencing its present. They arrived with a collection of facts and data and left with an appreciation of Colombia's diverse culture and a positive belief in its future.

COLOMBIA

A Rosen-Cooney Travel Story—No Passports Required: Bogota, the Coffee Zone, Cartagena, and Tayrona National ParkBy Alexandra Rosen

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Alexandra Rosen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-5301-5

Contents

Preface Meet Your New Tour Guides..........................1Acknowledgments.............................................5Introduction Getting Started...............................7Chapter 1 First Stop, Bogota...............................11Chapter 2 A Trip to the Coffee Country.....................37Chapter 3 Cartagena........................................81Chapter 4 Tayrona National Park............................111Epilogue....................................................133Bibliography................................................135

Chapter One

First Stop, Bogota

Facts

Colombia is located in northwestern South America with a coastlinefacing the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Ecuador and Peruborder Colombia on the southwest. Venezuela lies directly to the east,and Brazil is situated to the southeast. Geographically, it is the sizeof California plus Texas. Stretching out of Ecuador, the northernportion of the Andes Mountains divides into three parallel cordilleras,or mountain ranges, and extends across Colombia from the south tothe northeast. According to the US State Department, Colombia hasa population of approximately forty-six million people, making it thethird largest in Latin America with only Brazil and Mexico beingmore populous. The population is concentrated in the northern andwestern part of the country, while two-thirds of the country is lowlandjungle, containing less than 3 percent of the people. The United Statesis Colombia's major trading partner, importing oil and coal, greencoffee beans (remember Juan Valdez?), as well as cut flowers. Colombiais ethnically diverse. Roughly 58 percent of the people are mestizo, aperson of mixed European and Native-American ancestry; 20 percentare white; and 14 percent are mulatto, a person of mixed black and whiteancestry. The remaining population is Afro-Colombian and indigenouspeople. They are known to speak the finest Castilian outside of Spain,and approximately 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholic.

Bogota

Bogota was founded in 1538 by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, a Spanishlawyer sent to the New World to govern Santa Marta, Colombia's oldestcolonial city, located on the Caribbean coast. More obsessed with thequest for El Dorado, the fabled city of gold, than with government, heled an expedition of nine hundred men into the interior of the country.Beginning in 1536, they navigated down the Magdalena River, crossedthe Cordillera Occidental (Western Range), and hacked their waythrough dense jungle. Enduring great hardships, they reached the highplateau of the central highlands, homeland to the Muisca, one of themost highly developed pre-Colombian civilizations. With a depletedforce of only 166 men, he conquered the Muisca, claimed their land forthe king of Spain, and established a city he named Santa Fe de Bacata.This territory formed the heartland of what would later become modernColombia, and the city he established would eventually be known asBogota. Ironically, the Muisa contributed to their own demise. It wasthe tales about their religious rituals—newly anointed kings covered ingold dust, propitiating their gods with offerings of gold and emeralds—thatoriginated the El Dorado legend.

At an elevation of over 8,500 feet, Bogota is the third highestcapital city. Only La Paz, Bolivia, and Quito, Ecuador, are at a higheraltitude. With a population slightly exceeding eight million people, itis the third largest city in Latin America. As if squeezed out of a tube,Bogota is expanding in a north-south direction; its urban sprawl to theeast is contained by the foothills of the Cordillera Oriental (EasternRange) of the Andes Mountains and to the west by the Bogota River.

After spending seven days touring the Galapagos Islands, Donald andI arrived in Bogota on a direct flight from Quito, Ecuador. It was earlyafternoon when our Avianca Flight 80 began its initial approach intoBogota's El Dorado Airport. The descent out of the clouds revealed ahigh mountain plateau, La Sabana de Bogota, punctuated in placesby hills, with fertile side valleys and small streams. Below, the rollinggrassland, spreading out to the ever-shrinking horizon, resembled ashiny green carpet patterned with white stripes. This was the plasticsheeting covering the numerous greenhouses set up to grow flowers.After the Netherlands, Colombia was ranked the world's second largestexporter of cut flowers, valued in 2010 at 1.24 billion dollars with 75percent being shipped to the United States. We had expected to see thegreenhouses, but this was our first introduction to the lush, verdantcountryside, which would eventually require a battery of adjectives inorder to fully describe the quality of green.

The airport was located on the west side of town, and as weapproached, man-made grid patterns and multistory apartmentbuildings replaced the flowing countryside and scattered farmhousesgave way to industrial parks where large smokestacks belched whitesmoke. Narrow country roads joined major highways, and streamsflowed into the Bogota River. Every traveler knows the excitement ofvisiting a country for the first time; for us, this was all virgin territorywaiting to be explored.

The first Colombian we encountered was the immigration officer.While stamping our passports, he actually smiled and welcomed us tohis country. So far, so good. At the luggage carousel, we spotted a manholding an American passport and began a conversation. He was Charliefrom Chicago and worked for a mining company. He told us this washis fifth business trip to Colombia, and from his experience, the countrywas not yet well-known to many foreigners. When I asked him what wecould expect, he unequivocally promised: welcoming people, stunningscenery, and unforgettable food. In parting, he advised us not to missdinner at Andres Carne de Res. I was aware of this restaurant and hadalready listed it in the "Must Do" section of my travel notebook. Wewould eat in Andres's restaurant—and oh, what a night!—but the storyof that evening will come later. Charlie's description was compelling.But did he dream this country into existence, or was he predicting ourimmediate future? It was time to find out.

The driver from the hotel was there as arranged and greeted us witha smile as wide as the sign he carried bearing our names. He spoke to usin Spanish; I think it was a welcome. "Buenos dias! Buenos dias!" was allwe understood, but that was enough. We followed him to the parkinglot. We were pleased to learn he was driving an American car; however,it was a compact Chevy with a trunk capacity that was no match for ourluggage. Prepared for this, the driver placed one suitcase in the trunk,securing the lid with a bungee cord, and wedged the other suitcase inthe front, significantly blocking his view. With necessity trumpingsafety, Donald and I wedged ourselves into the backseat, and we wereoff for the thirty-minute ride to the hotel.

Returning from the Edge

Colombia is the oldest democracy in Latin America, and unlike manyother Latin American countries, these people have demonstrated arespect for their constitution as well as the democratic process. Thetwentieth century witnessed only one military coup lasting just fouryears. Nevertheless, politics in Colombia is a blood sport, and peoplehave died violent deaths for their political affiliations.

Beginning in 1948, the murder of a left-wing politician in Bogotaset off a virulent civil war, pitting the Conservatives against the Liberals.The urban fighting in Bogota spread to other cities and found itsway into the countryside. It was only with the establishment of theNational Front Government in 1957 that the madness was broughtto an end. By that time, an estimated 200,000 to 350,000 people haddied. This nine years of internecine fighting, termed La Violencia,spawned left-wing guerilla movements, the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia (FARC) being the most enduring, which in turngave rise to right-wing self-defense forces claiming to protect the peopleand the government.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine. Accordingto the US State Department's "Background Notes" on Colombia, itsdrug cartels have supplied 90 to 95 percent of America's cocaine habitin addition to providing vast quantities of marijuana and heroin. Theenormous profitability of narco-trafficking proved alluring, promptingboth left-wing and right-wing guerilla organizations to enter thebusiness. Contributing to the turmoil, each faction maintained a privatearmy and assiduously guarded its distribution system. In 2004, it wasestimated Colombia's drug industry employed two hundred thousandpeople with an approximate income of 2.2 billion dollars. Colombia'strinity of evil—drug cartels, left-wing guerilla movements, and theirright-wing counterparts—terrorized the civilian population, subjectingthem to ransom-kidnapping, violence, and various atrocities, whilecorrupting public officials as high up as the office of the president. Theydisrupted the country to the point that at one time Colombia rankedsecond to Sudan in the number of displaced persons.

By the middle of the 1990s, Bogota was considered one of the mostdangerous cities in the world. People lived in fear of being kidnapped,caught in a cross fire, or robbed by armed gangs. If they survived this,there was still the possibility of being run over while crossing the streetor being killed in a traffic accident, because in Bogota, the motoristswere also out of control. Then in 1995, Antanas Mockus, a philosopher-mathematician-educatorwithout any prior political experience, waselected mayor of Bogota, followed in 1998 by Enrique Penalosa, aneconomist and administrator. As per Lisa Jones's April 4, 2002, articlefor Grist Magazine, these two forward-looking, charismatic mayors,often employing unconventional methods, regained control of the city.Their focus was urban planning and serving the needs of all the peopleregardless of income. They tamed the traffic, encouraging people tostop at traffic lights and stop signs and to stop parking their cars onthe sidewalk. With an emphasis on public spaces, these mayors set upgreenways; they planted trees, built new parks, and refurbished the oldones. Sidewalks were rebuilt; the existing roads were repaired and newones constructed. Considering the automobile anathema to the generalwelfare, Penalosa created the Ciclo Ruta, over one hundred and eightymiles of connecting bicycle paths, and he also brought to fruition theTransmilenio, a rapid mass transit bus system. Inaugurated in 2001, theiconic red buses began traveling over designated bus lanes. According toBogota's Bus Rapid Transit Policy Center (BRT), as of February 2007,this state-of-the-art bus system was handling 1.3 million passengerson an average weekday. (For comparison, this figure is twice the dailynumber of passengers on the Washington, DC, subway system, as perthis policy center.) Operating with the efficiency of a subway networkbut at less cost, this bus system received global acclaim for reducingBogota's transportation carbon footprint, while setting an examplefor cities in other developing countries. In total, the public good wasemphasized over private interest and the happiness of the people elevatedover economic concerns. These two unorthodox mayors brought Bogotaback from the brink of chaos, turning a dangerous, dodgy capital into amodel city, peopled by caring citizens exhibiting civic pride.

In 2002, Alvaro Uribe was elected president of Colombia. WhileBogota was the new phoenix rising out of its ashes, Uribe took thefight to the drug cartels, driving them underground while weakeningboth the right-wing and left-wing guerilla movements. Many rightwingdeath squads were disbanded, and FARC was driven into thejungle area. While Uribe's success against the guerillas and the cocalords decreased the violence, the urban renewal, the anticorruptioncampaign, and the resultant renaissance of the spirit turned Bogota intoa paradigm for developing third-world cities. The city has reclaimed thehonor it once held of being the cultural capital of South America, alongwith being considered a hip destination.

Touring Bogota

Bogota is favored by a mild climate, often referred to as "eternal spring."The people do not think in terms of the four seasons, winter to fall, butmore in terms of two: the rainy season and the dry season.

We arrived in June, the end of Bogota's rainy season. Even thougheach day brought the expected gray and overcast skies, we were luckythat when it rained, it usually chose to do so late in the afternoon or atnight. Because of the high altitude, the daytime temperatures remainedin the low sixties and dipped into the high forties at night. When thesun shone, it felt like early spring, but under the clouds, it reminded usof late fall. Our bodies acclimated to the high altitude—drinking lotsof water helped—and when we were out of breath, we told ourselves itwas not because we were out of shape but because of where we were.

Even though the city was organized in a grid pattern, with carreras,north-south streets, and calles, east-west streets, it was too spread outto be considered a walking city. It was divided into four zones andseparated into twenty districts. Each district had its own mayor, creatinga sense of a neighborhood with its own distinguishing characteristics.Our hotel, The Charleston, was located in the northern part of the city,Zone 1 or the Zona Rosa. This was considered the more affluent part oftown. There, red-brick apartment buildings with large picture windowslined leafy streets that twisted and turned while climbing up the slopeof the mountain. In the flat land, new shopping malls were filled withinternational fashions, while local designers had launched their ownchic boutiques. Old neighborhoods, with their warren of narrow streets,were being gentrified. Trendy restaurants and clubs had opened in sleekmodern buildings and in older structures that had been renovated witha sophisticated flair. The Zona Rosa, with its sidewalk cafés, had a senseof "cool," and for the locals, it was an "in place" to be and to be seen.With the decrease in violence, it was relatively safe to walk there in theevening, but similar to any large city, we used common sense and didnot find ourselves the only ones on the street late at night. While thenorthern section was attracting the fashionable, upscale Bogotanos, theopposite was true of the city's south side. This was the working-class areaand home to people who had fled the violence and deprivations of thecountryside. According to the International Displacement MonitoringCentre and the Norwegian Refuge Council, as of May 2009, thenumber of persons displaced within Colombia over the past fifty yearswas 3.1 million, and at one time, this area was receiving up to eightythousand refugees per year, tasking the supply of goods and services.The high unemployment rate sent the more entrepreneurial into thestreets, creating an informal economy. Finding a path to prosperityor just a way to survive, many sold merchandise from blankets spreadout on the sidewalks and turned motorists stopped at traffic lightsinto patrons for their street performances. The socially conscious citygovernment was making improvements.

Continues...

Excerpted from COLOMBIAby Alexandra Rosen Copyright © 2012 by Alexandra Rosen. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.