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My trip in July 2005 David Belfield – Colombia and Argentina in South America Leaving Albany for the first time by plane and then to leave the state on 4 more planes, also to leave Australia and to visit other parts of the world was all new for me. Then to arrive in Buenos Aires to be told there is a plane strike in Bogotá, then to have security play games with the passengers, we got told 2 hours delay, then they shuffled us onto a plane, settling in then to be told to disembark finding men with silenced machine guns out side, another 3 hour delay while they searched everyone, not finding anything but to steal items from suite cases such as money. 5 Hours after arriving we were on our way, in Bogotá 2640 metres above sea level where the fruit trees were all under cover, I had missed my next plane so I was put up in the Sherriton for 5 hours as it was 2am, then some photos around the Sherriton, shuttled to the airport and then on my way to Pereira (pron Peraida), spending 18 days in Colombia with family and friends, treated like a prince with so much attention because I came from Australia, the food was amazing, different to ours, main diet could be corn, bananas, fruit drinks etc. Corn was processed in many ways, pressed flat or shredded, used as pastry, baked, fried etc, the breads were in many formats, one was a rolled ball of dough deep fried. Green Bananas were fried and were commonly used in meals. Cropping were mainly Coffee, Sugar, Green Bananas, Bananas, Soy Beans and Corn from what I saw. People sold items at every busy traffic stop or intersection, people pushed trolleys or rode bikes selling items in the mornings, the street services had a ring to them each time a service came, like the rubbish truck with music playing. Cartago where I spent most of my time contained over 120,000 people, housing consisted of no front or back yards, right next to each other on average 2 story, with good security, no trouble in Colombia like the impression we all seem to have, it is a peaceful place, the people are kind and helpful. Like any country there are always problems around the corner, it is just a matter of us being aware of areas and places where we should not go. Everyone was so curious about Australia, it was a little like repeating a record, common questions were what part of Australia am I from, how long was it to travel here (52 hours including delays and stops around 24000kms), what is Australia like, people see Australia only on the Discovery channel, there is no tourist information or if there is I could not find it, plus everything is in Spanish, even the history of Cartago is only in Spanish, one of the oldest buildings (around 400 years) in Cartago was a place where people learnt music and still do today, I have photos of this place, there was a book here around 1000 years old and another building where people learnt craft skills like wood carving, many others.
I travelled to Cali for a few days, where again I
was welcomed and treated like a prince, sometimes this was very
overwhelming, a quiet boy like me suddenly the centre of attention,
people commented on my nose shape as it was narrower than most
Colombians, I visited the local Zoo and saw many Colombian animals.
There is a river (not the Amazon) in Colombia
spanning more than 700kms through the centre providing the main
source of water for cropping etc, property along side this river is
more expensive, water comes in from all the mountains on both sides
of this area of Colombia. Two woman drowned in this river while I
was in Colombia. Main transport was bicycle, taxi or bus, the windy roads through the mountains can send you a little travel sick in the bus, the cost to go down town 3 to 4 kms in a taxi is around $1.50 Australian. I bought Colombian made jeans for $30,000 peso around $17.00 Australian. Going back to fruit drinks, I may have experience all if not most, many mixed with milk, so many names of fruit I can not remember, one was Papaya (Paw Paw), common ones like Passionfruit, Orange Juice were on the diet too. I was beginning to settle in and it was time to leave for Australia, in Buenos Aires I had to wait 19 hours until the next plane, so I decided to go on a tour for 8 hours, I got my own personal English speaking driver and off we went taking photos of popular places and learning a little about Buenos Aires, having the widest river in the world at 80kms, on the fastest boat it takes 3 hours to cross, 13 million people in Buenos Aires making it the 5th largest city in the world, many old cathedrals type building, up every street, I took some photos of the government buildings and centre of the city, there are many statues throughout the city, the freeway I counted 22 lanes for where traffic pays a fee to pass all going in one direction, the city streets can be jammed with traffic going in one direction, some times faster to get out and walk, there are 40,000 taxi’s here all running on Gas, just about every make of car is produced here, such as Mercedes, Volvo, Fiat, Renault, Ford etc but no Holden’s. Along the river that goes through the city there are warehouses recycled into restaurants etc rather than being demolished. After my tour, I was dropped back at the airport where I waited, waited and waited, it seemed to be forever, hoping I would not sleep past the time I had to leave kept me awake all the time. The value of the dollar was similar to Colombia but different notes and coins required. The flight from Buenos Aires to Auckland was slow, even though we were travelling at around 900kms per hour, the temperature out side was 67c below zero, and the highest altitude was 42,000 feet above sea level. In Auckland one hour wait meant some buying at the airport, I got a scenic book and 2 DVDs on New Zealand tourism, no DVDs on Australia in Sydney or Perth airports, we have a lot of work to do promoting this country of ours. |