BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA

Disclaimer: This post strictly and only reflects my feelings about Barranquilla. The emphasis is on feelings as opposed to even opinions or views. And these feelings came about only after a short three day visit skillfully guided by my stepdaughter who lives, works and teaches there for the past 15 months.

Colombia:

My wife and I spent eight days in Colombia – the first four and a half in Bogotá and the last three and a half in Barranquilla. Bogotá is an amazing city with 8 plus millions people and closely as many taxi cabs and buses. It is up in the mountains 2,600 m (8,660 ft) high surrounded by mountains.

When you arrive, after a short 4 and half our flight from Atlanta, you know you are on a different continent, indeed in a different world. It is a modern metropolis and, at the same time, it is a throwback village from the past with horse drown buggies, donkeys and stray dogs and cats at the most unexpected places.

The occasional llamas are only there to confuse you. We stayed at the most unique hostel in Candelaria, the old city.

Courtyard of our hostel

We took in the city on foot and by buses. We ate the traditional Colombian food (which is to be honest, is quite bland) and drank tons of Coca tea to fight the altitude.





 

We took day trips to the amazing mountains and visited an old colonial town with a salt mine and a fake new town with a nearby laguna.

Zapaquirá near the salt mine

Inside the church







Guatavistá fake town



The laguna





      



When the Colombian government decided to build a dam and flood a whole town they financed the rebuilding of a completely new settlement with buildings all painted white. And now every year the city buys paint for the residence and in turn they paint the town white anew. Had I been three months older I could have entered the park for free. As it is, I had to pay the exuberant 3 or 5 dollars, and fight the altitude.

We visited the Botero museum – where my ignorance shined again. I had no idea who Botero was, but I know now!

Mona Lisa



Botero museum

Barranquilla:

But really, this blog was supposed to be about Barranquilla. And since these are my feelings, which transcend my whole view of this wonderfully beautiful and interesting country, let’s start.

Admit it, you never heard of Barranquilla, or if you have then all you know is that Shakira is from there (that is if you have children who are up to date in these trivias). On the surface all you need to know is that Barranquilla is in Colombia.

The spelling:

You think you know how to spell Barranquilla, but this is an illusion. It is really spelled with five, no, wait, at least with six r’s, for if you hear a native pronouncing it, you might think that an angry bear is growling. Barrrrrrrrranquilla. Yeah, you got the feeling?

The weather:

Barranquilla is at the Caribbean. It is close to the equator. It is hot and humid. Look it up on your phone weather icon. No need to forecast. It is always the same. But that is only half of the story. Have you heard of the windy city? Chicago, you think. Think again. It is Barranquilla. But while in Chicago the wind is a curse, it is a blessing in Barranquilla. It makes the heat bearable not even needing air conditioning. It helps you to stay awake during the day and sleep at night.

Walking:

Like all good tourists you want to walk in the city, to take in the people, the atmosphere, the streets and the squares. You want to be like the locals. It is an adventure. The sidewalks as we know them don’t exist. Well, they do, they are just different. In front of each house or storefront they look and feel different. They are of different height, made out of different material, present different challenges. It is an athletic field. Your walk soon becomes an Olympic steeplechase event. Although the water may be missing 99% of the time, but when it comes, I heard, it is formidable. The sidewalks therefore are built quite high, often the difference between the street and the sidewalk is more than 2 feet, for there is no draining system to deal with the rain which when it comes it pours. So to protect the pedestrians the sidewalks are built high. But there are also other obstacles the clueless tourist must negotiate. Occasional sleeping homeless people, stray undernourished dogs, steps, holes in the pavement to mention a few. Yet none of these are life threatening. But crossing the street is.

Nice street, easy sidewalk

Yielding to pedestrians is something no resident of Barranquilla have heard of. In fact, they seem to speed up, rather than slow down at the sight of an unsuspecting pedestrian. So be ready to run, literally for your life! I do not mean to say they are mean or impolite. No, not at all, it is just how it is. Suck it up.

Public transportation:

Going out on a limb, I am considering taking a cab ride part of public transportation. Partly because it is cheap, especially by American standards, partly because at least half of the cars on the streets are yellow cabs. Most are so small that I needed a shoehorn to get in and even pushing the front seat all the way back I bruised my knees raw. So cabs, they are in abundance and easy to be had. Most are safe. Well, the driving attitude is something special. For some unknown reason most cabs we took - and we took a few - had empty gas tanks. At night they routinely ran red lights with cops in tow, just another rule to be ignored. One driver kept the non existing speed limit and drove no faster than 30 km/h - perhaps expecting to run out of gas any minute. One more thing, you better negotiate the price before you get in, meters are the invention of the future.

Try to focus on the window treatments

Then the buses. They are the salt or rather the pepper of life. Music and window treatment is part of the offering.

Bus stops, if they ever existed, are relics of the past, disappearing in oblivion in today's exciting city life. You can flag a bus down anywhere to get on, or you can make it stop at your convenience wherever you want to. Figuring out where they go is another matter; you better speak Spanish and understand the local dialect. Then you have a 50-50 chance of getting on the right bus. You pay but don't get a ticket. Yet, you are keenly aware of the fact that they actually know what they are doing. Then there are the vendors. They ride for free and try to sell anything you can thing of. You accept their goods - they had them out to everyone. Then they go around and if you don't want them you simple give them back. Some buses are so small that I could not stand up straight. And the knee problem persisted here too, no way I could sit down.

Vendor climbing over the bar without paying



In Barranquilla there is a pier, quite possible the worlds longest and definitely the most interesting one. We took a train all the way to the end.

The pier runs between the river and the sea. It is not wide, maybe a couple meters on both sides of the track that runs in the middle. Cars and motorcycles drive on the tracks as well, but this goes without saying.

A touch crowded

That the tracks and the trains are old and in need of repair is an understatement. Safety may not be a concept that enters in the mind of the companies that run this adventure. But that should not deter anyone from taking the ride that sometimes is crowded. They employ regular plastic chairs as additional seating between the benches. Colombians like closeness, personal space is another unknown concept invented by gringos. Colombians are the strongest people on Earth, they can pick up the train when needed and turn them around for there is only one track going back and forth.

And when it derails, because it does as surely as the sun goes down, they pick the train up, fix the tracks and then put the train back on it. Night repair is not a problem as of late since the driver has a mobile phone to provide adequate light in the pitch dark night.

 No headlights on the train, for it is not supposed to run at night, but one cannot help the delays when the train jumps the tracks.

At the end of the pier there are huts and yes, people live there.

And crabs as well.

Family ride

Food:

I mentioned before the sad affair of small but identical menus of most restaurants in Bogota. The sea meant a definite improvement in Barranquilla where fried fish and grilled too was delicious.

Hot spices though are unknown to the cuisine I experienced. I may challenge you all to find jalapenos in regular Colombian stores! But the atmosphere more than compensates for the food. Don't forget to take earplugs with you for the music will shake you to the bones! And the people are wonderfully friendly and welcoming. Vendors frequent the restaurants as well often selling their goods from baskets carried on their heads.

Try this

And the country, at least in Barranquilla, dances all the time!

And we came up we a theory why the music is so - at least for me -

unbearably loud.



Shaving the ice

 






The restaurant owners hearing is getting worse and worse and in turn they turn the music up louder and louder. We frequented the restaurants on the beach, on the bank of the river, and in the city. The people, the pretty and the ugly (if there is such a thing), the young and the old (if there is such a thing) danced and drank. We shook hands with the legendary Gabriel García Márquez at his favorite restaurant. We ate the the Crapes and Waffles chain where food was surprisingly good served by mostly single mothers. It is a place you would never pick to go and once there you are happy and look around with wide eyes. And you eat from the street vendors who shave the ice with funny machines and put syrup on it to give you a refreshing drink. A country that has many wonders and I am sure we have only scraped the surface.