Colombian Observations

Bogota sure has been fun this time around. I went to a rock concert yesterday with about 6 different bands and maybe about 30000 people. We went with someone we met near Tyrona Park who lives here and Jenny´s Aunt who is just a year older than her. It´s a good thing I didn´t wear a belt because the police made people take them off and throw them in a pile. The bonus was when you leave, you can jump into a pile of people looking for a belt that fits. It looked like a big pack of wolves feasting on a carcas.

This country is a lot different than most people think. One thing that I have noticed is that there is a great deal of national pride. There are lots of flag waving citizens and a lot of shirts and hats with national colours. I´ve had a couple of Colombians tell me that Colombia is paradise.

The word Gringo is used more liberaly here. Not that peopel call me gringo, but in Nicaragua only Americans are called gringos. Jenny told me that to her mom, a gringo is someone who doesn´t speak spanish. To her, a gringo could come from China, Africa or Pakistan.

One thing that has surprised me as well is how often I see a Canadian movie or TV program here. "The Terry Fox Story" gets played over and over. There are also a lot of YTV programs and a couple of kids cartoons. There are way more programs for children here as there are a lot more children.

One cultural difference that one must be aware of here is that if you ask somene something, they will give you an answer even if they don´t know. This is true in central america too.

A lot of people from Canada would think that the service here is bad. I used to think that but now that I know how to use it I have found it to be better in some ways. If you want something, give the waiter a shout - he isn´t going to check on you. If you want somehting that isn´t in on the menu or a pack of smokes they will go to a store or other resturant and get it for you most of the time. If you want service out of the resturant such as on the beach, that can always be done.
The sevice in stores can be a little pushy. I went shoe shopping a couple of days ago. First, there were people on the street getting in my face, telling me which store to go in. One guy had a mic and amp and was right in my face, talking into the mic and his voice was coming form somewhere else. When I would pick out a show I like and tell them my size, most of the time they would come back with 3 pairs of shoes in my size but none were like the one I wanted. Some of them would almost cry when I left the store without buting anything.

Having made these generalizations, you must realise that this is a huge and diverse country. Because in the past, it was dangerous to travel, the diversity is greater than that of other countries. The diversity of Colombia is one key thing that makes it such a great country to travel. It´s not just the people - Colombia has more different kinds of plants and animals for it´s size than any other country in the world.