Two Weeks of Enlightenment

Hello there fellow Colombia fans !!!

I just returned from two weeks in Colombia and it was a very enlightening experience. I spent 10 days in Bucaramanga and 4 days in Cartagena. I did all the usual preparation and got shots and read the US websites and registered my trip with the US Embassy. I spent one nights layover in Bogota and the rest of the time that I spent in Bogota was at the airport making connections to Cartagena and leaving Colombia to come home. I had a good experience with the exception of being sick when I got there (got sick in the US), and picking up the
stomach cramp / major farting parasite on one of the tours that we went on. Which was treated by the local pharmacist quite handily.

The security that I saw was intense !! The worst things that I experienced were driving in traffic and crossing the streets. At first all of the machine gun toting Policia were intimidating but after a while I thought "You know what, The more of them that there are, the safer I am. The pan handlers in Cartagena were a bit much at times though.

I found the Colombian people to be hard working, pleasant,honest and they would go out of their to help you. The ones that I met do not like the reputation that their country has and want people to like them and their country very much. These are proud people that made me feel at home. If fact I will be part of a large family of Colombians soon and they treated me as such while I was there.

Colombia is a country rich in art and history and resources and sadly they following the american tradition of instant gratification and let's not worry about tomorrow train of thought. I had some in depth conversations with a few of them and all of them wanted to come to the US. I told them that they should take what is good from us and learn from our mistakes and find their own direction. I met some girls graduating from a medical school and they wanted to come to america and I told them. Colombia needs you more than america does. If you want to visit, you should when you get the chance, but be ready to accept to find out that it may not be what you expect.

Americans have no idea how good they have it and take a lot of things for granted. I recomend that all americans visit a country like Colombia so the can re-learn how to appreciate things like they should.

Anyway, I recomend it to anybody and your best protection when you are there is common sense. Don't do stupid shit and you will be fine.
Also, if you're an american, be prepared to have your stomach cavity
x-rayed at the Bogota airport when you leave.

Have A Great Day !!!!

Motofish.

By motofish on Feb 28, 2005, 18:39 in Friendly Talkzone.

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stevens says on Mar 1, 2005, 11:16: Nice post, but Instant gratification wasn't invented in the U.S. 0 funny, 0 helpful.

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