Cartagena, Colombia

Posted on June 25, 2014 by jaynezak

Cartagena, Colombia

“I wondered about the explorers who’d sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they must have been when they risked falling over the edge; how amazed to discover, instead, places they had seen only in their dreams.” Jodi Picoult

The heat in Cartagena gives it a sleepy feeling which kind of makes it okay to sit on the wall, browse through shops and street vendors, buy fresh fruit from a woman carrying it on her head and not go to a museum.

The city was founded in 1533 and was the main South American port for the Spaniards. They stored treasures pillaged from the indigenous people in Cartagena to ship to their homeland. Silver, gold, cacao beans, chile peppers and tobacco from the new world were shipped to Spain. Cartagena was a marketplace for slave ships coming from Africa. It was probably the most looted port in the world. As a result of constant pirate attacks, the Spanish built a solid wall to surround the town to protect their valuables. It was built during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and is the only walled city in the Americas. It took more than two hundred years and fifteen million African slaves to build the wall.

The main fortification was the Fort of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas (named after Spain’s King Philip IV) which is located on a 130-foot-high hill towering over the city. Originally built in the mid-1600s, it was rebuilt and enlarged several times over the years to become the greatest fortress Spain ever built in the Americas.

Las Palenqueras are the famous fruit basket ladies you see around the walled city. They come from San Basilio De Palenque which is an hour away from Cartagena.

These women are the descendants of South American slaves and San Basilio De Palenque was the first city in South America of free slaves. Las Palenqueras keep their African culture and traditions.

The food market in Cartagena is hot and dark with a lot going on. The smell hits you. It is a mixture of sweet smelling fruit, fish smelling fish, raw meat and live birds.

The thing I always notice in these markets is that they use every part of the animal and the parts are all there to buy. There are always flies and fast-moving, knives, machetes and hammers.

Tables are filled with all the local fruits and vegetables. I eat delicious tamarind from the pod. I have never seen a raw one before. (tamarind)

Everyone is moving quickly carrying a lot on their heads or in their arms. It is a market for locals and you can buy anything from toiletries to clothes as well. I bought flip-flops.

La Boquilla is a poor fishing village twenty minutes outside of Cartegena. (poor but happy)

It is a peninsula at the end of a beach with the Caribbean Sea on one side and a lake with mangroves on the other.

The guide takes you on an old canoe through mangrove tunnels with flocks of birds and fishermen fishing for crabs ,shrimp and small fish.

After the canoe they pull out a fresh coconut and make a hole for a straw with a machete. When you finish the water they quickly open it up and slice up the meat. It was clearly not the first coconut they’ve opened with a machete. It feels very far away from Cartagena.

Then I walk for a long time with my feet in the Caribbean sea. I have lunch on the beach of fresh fish, plantains and coconut rice.

Day and night the sound of clip clopping horse and carts carry tourists around the city. I prefer to wander around and walk the walls at dusk.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez became a writer in Cartegena. His novel Love in The Time Of Cholera Is set here. It is one of my favorites. I see Fermina riding in the horse and carriages and Florentino wandering everywhere in despair.

You can see how much of Cartegena is in his books. Garcia Marquez or Gabo died a few days after I returned . But now I can picture him sitting in La Vitrola, Café Havana or in a square in Cartegena writing his stories. ( a person standing in front of Gabo’s house, some famous characters from another author play chess in the square)

Thank to Jose and Kevin Rodriguez for their kindness and knowledge of a city they love.

Colombia is now one of my favorite places. One of my best trips happened because I said yes to something I never thought I would be doing alone. Thanks Jeannine Cohen from Geox for planning this wonderful adventure.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Luz A Salento Music School In Colombia

Posted on June 16, 2014 by jaynezak

Luz A Salento Music School in Colombia

“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!” JK Rowling

In one room kids are playing the clarinet. The youngest children are singing downstairs. There is a violin class going on in an outside courtyard.

It could be any music school in the world but this one is in the town of Salento, Colombia. It is Luz A Salento a music school geared to training and teaching local students ages 6-14. They start with lessons in violin, violincello, clarinet, flute, drums and eventually become part of the children’s orchestra.

The founders of this program believe that “ if these young kids take an instrument in their hands, that instrument will never be changed for a weapon.”

The Arts teach discipline to children without their knowledge. They are learning it because something is enriching them and they want to go to the next level. They begin to put the time in to get better. It isn’t about being the best. It’s about being the best you can be which translate into school subjects as well. Does listening and playing music make you smarter? Studies say Yes.

Art and Music should be within the reach of every person. Countries with strong dividing lines between rich and poor make the cycle of poverty hard to break. There is not just material poverty in these villages but also a spiritual poverty. Teaching music teaches skills which translates into learning to value high achievement. Playing an instrument is empowering to children. They learn in group lessons which promotes confidence in what they create together. The children in this town are doing something that people don’t expect them to do. This music school is teaching them something that they never would have had the chance to learn.

But they need help. This isn’t a big foundation. It’s a small school in a town in the mountains of Colombia. They don’t have access to a lot of advertising and fundraising.

So any music lovers who want to help………..

If you don’t speak Spanish and want more info email Edeardo Olier (a retired dentist who has taken over running and funding the school) at edolier@hotmail.com.

You can wire tax-deductible donations to any of these accounts: 7248-7230658 BancoColombia –Armenia Norte 07707024-1 AvVillas Bogota 31206054-4 Av Villas Armenia Norte.

The school email is luzasalento@gmail.com.

Music is the great uniter. It’s a thing that people and countries who cant’ agree on anything else can have in common. Music speaks to everyone when words cannot.

Please send anything you can.

Viaje con cuidado, JAZ

Photos From Filandia And Salento – Towns In The Coffee Triangle, Colombia

Posted on June 7, 2014 by jaynezak

Photos From Filandia And Salento – Towns In The Coffee Triangle, Colombia

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign” Robert Louis Stevenson

Viaje con cuidado,

JAZ

The Cocora Valley, Colombia

Posted on May 28, 2014 by jaynezak

The Cocora Valley, Colombia

What did the tree learn from the earth to be able to talk with the sky? ~ Pablo Neruda

The Cocora Valley in the Coffee Triangle is very beautiful. The national tree of Colombia which is the wax palm grows here up in the clouds (6000-8000 feet above sea level.). They are very skinny, incredibly tall trees – the tallest palm trees in the world.

Wax palms grow up to 200 feet and can live for up to 120 years. The leaves are dark green and gray and the trunk is covered with wax. The wax was used to make soap and candles. The outer part of the stem of the palm has been used locally for building houses, and was used to build water supply systems for farmers. The fruit served as food for cattle and pigs

For centuries, the Christian worshippers used to cut palm fronds from their wax palm trees to celebrate Palm Sunday, The exploitation of the indigenous people reduced the number of wax palms, prompting the Colombian government to give protection for the remaining trees. In 1985, an edict sponsored by both the Catholic Church and the government, forbid the cutting of wax palm fronds. We hike for a while along a muddy path and rickety bridges which heads up into the Andes.

Lunch is served at the Bosques de Cocora, a countryside restaurant that serves regional cuisine, including the area’s famous trout.

Throughout the coffee triangle you will see Jeep Willys. After WWII, the United States had a surplus of these, which Colombia bought very cheaply. Their durability is great in the coffee region and you can see them in all the towns.

The “Ritual de Palma” is a way to help the continuation of the wax palms. Visitors from 48 countries so far have helped plant future wax palms here.

It would probably have been better without the rain and sprained wrist. I had help.

Someone planted these tall skinny trees a long time ago and I felt connected to those people hoping that in the far future , people will be planting trees to grow as tall as mine.

Many Thanks to Alex Rodriguez for showing me the coffee triangle of Colombia with kindness, knowledge and humor. This is a better and safer job then your past one and you are good at it.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Picking Coffee In Colombia

Posted on May 24, 2014 by jaynezak

Picking Coffee In Colombia

“As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?” Cassandra Clare

Coffee is my most important meal of the day. In my life, morning is not possible without coffee. I am in the coffee triangle of Colombia – the Utopia for coffee drinkers. The coffee triangle is the region of Colombia where most of the coffee crops grow.

The Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia was recently declared UNESCO World Heritage Landscape for its “centennial tradition of coffee growing”.

The exquisite landscape is characterized by rivers, steep hills with coffee plantations and coffee farms. The major cities are Armenia, Perreira and Manizales. I flew into Perreira.

My coffee lesson begins at the beautiful Hacienda Venecia. (http://www.haciendavenecia.com)

Lunch is served.

It is my new favorite Ajiaco soup and that is their specialty. It is a chicken soup made with three kind of potatoes and Colombian herbs. It is served with avocado and cream. (the chefs)

Coffee beans begin as red berries.

The coffee beans are the seeds.

We head down across a river bed to pick coffee beans.

They are always hand picked off the vine and don’t pick the green ones.

We start along a path but gradually we are walking through thick bushes smacking us all over.

I’m sure I must be getting malaria. The lives of the coffee pickers are hard and the work is tedious and difficult. ( I just walked out of that)

We learn how the beans are processed and about all the machinery, certification and care involved in transforming the berry into coffee beans.

, The fresh beans are examined. I was slow at finding the good ones.

These are good ones. Not broken and no scars.

Then we roasted my beans in a special toaster. (my coffee beans)

We smelled different coffee bean aromas from tester bottles.

The premium beans are dried and sent to Europe and North America. They are sold to a distributor who is responsible for roasting and export.

The low-grade beans stay in Colombia and are brewed into a sugary watery coffee called tinto sold all over Colombia. The Colombian coffee “revolutionaries” are trying to change that by introducing their quality bean coffee in Colombia. Juan Valdez cafes and chic coffee houses are popping up everywhere like Starbucks. But it is hard to get people to change what they have been drinking all their lives.

We have a last cup of coffee at the coffee farm. It is starting to rain. I think about all that work that went into producing this one cup of coffee . I think about picking those beans every time I have a cup of coffee now. Coffee will always reminds me of Colombia.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Colombia-The Land Of Make Believe Fruits

Posted on May 16, 2014 by jaynezak

Colombia –The Land Of Make Believe Fruits

“Nothing comes as an accomplishment instantly. Success does not come overnight. Patience is the key! Grow up and be the tree; but remember it takes dry and wet seasons to become a fruit bearer, achiever and impact maker!” Israelmore Ayivor

It seems like there are more fruits in Colombia than days of the year. I have never heard of most of these fruits. All of them are delicious. Here are a just a few.

Guanabana (my new favorite fruit) It is a large green fruit covered with soft thorns. The inside is a white fleshy substance with black/brown seeds. The flavor has been described as a combination of strawberry, sour pineapple and banana. The Guanabana tree is a natural cancer cell killer 10,000 times stronger than chemo. (the white juice is guanabana)

Lulo (I love this juice) It looks like a small orange tomato. It has a citrus taste. It is usually served as a juice because the fruit has too strong a flavor to eat.

Tree Tomato (Tomate De Arbol) It looks like a tomato but tastes like tomato and kiwi or passionfruit. The skin is bitter so it is usually made into juice or served with cinnamon.

Uchuva It is a tangy creamy berry. It is sweet when ripe but can also be very sour. I brought back some uchuva jam.

Carambola – Star Fruit It tastes like a grape with citrus and apple.

Guama This is the strangest. fruit I have every eaten. It is a pod, like carob or tamarind filled with a sweet cotton like flesh. The seeds are a lot like slippery watermelon seeds but bigger. When you squeeze them between your fingers they shoot out. The Colombian saying “como pepa de guama” (like a guama seed), is used when someone or something leaves very quickly

Maracuya -Colombia has a few different varieties of passionfruit. This is the most common variety. It You cut it in half and scoop out the sweet insides which are full of small seeds.

Granadilla is yellow with a stem.This is a round, orange passionfruit with crunchy blue seeds. It’s much sweeter and milder so it is better to eat it alone and not as juice.

Nispero This fruit is oval or pear-shaped. The nispero is ripest and sweetest when orange, though some prefer it crisper and tart in the light brown stage. It’s got an apple – chocolate – strawberry flavor

Pitayas (Dragon Fruit) You may know those bright pink dragon fruits so popular in Asia. These are a little different. They have the same spiky exterior except they are yellow instead of pink. Inside is also similar: white with tiny black seeds, but the taste is not as sweet

Also there are sweet creamy avocados the size of your head and bananas in all sizes and levels of sweetness.

If you aren’t eating something deep-fried in Colombia, you are having something delicious with strange fruit. Yet when all the fruit is strange, the strange becomes the familiar.

Gracias Alex Rodriguez for the impromptu fruit lesson.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them – Graffiti Art In Bogota Colombia

Posted on May 8, 2014 by jaynezak

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them – Graffiti Art In Bogota, Colombia

“Graffiti is not about clean lines, pretty colors and beautiful blends. Graffiti is my life’s turbulence exploded on a wall.” Mint Serf

Graffiti started in Bogotá in the seventies with different futbol fans proclaiming their loyalty. It was a time of drug cartels, poverty and a repressed military society.The graffiti was a way of protesting and not so much about art. In the nineties it became more artistic. As in other countries, it was started by art students near the Universities.

In Bogotá like everywhere else, graffiti and graffiti art was a crime. In 2011 Diego Felipe Becerra was spray-painting his signature Felix the Cat image on the walls of an underpass when he was killed by police.

Public outrage and protests led to the city’s change in attitude toward street art as well as the arrest of the officers. Certain walls became legal for graffiti.

The city began hiring street artists for public murals.

Many walls were designated for artistic expression and beautiful murals were painted – usually with political or social messages.

Looking over the photos there is definitely much more of this in Bogotá then in other countries I have been to.

The street art scene in Bogotá is not so much a street gallery as it is art in the streets. There are many less paid for walls and much more self-expression than in some other cities.

The paint is expensive so they use cheaper paint that is not long-lasting. . The art is constantly changing. There are wall wars with people painting over each other’s pieces.

DJ Lu was one of the earlier street artists and his stencils all had serious political messages. He uses common branding as a way of getting his message across quickly. (pineapple grenades, mosquitos ,guns )

Rodez paints with his sons (both college graduates) and sometimes gets help from other street artists. They often teach in Buenos Aires.

Animal Poder Crew is a street art collective started by Stinkfish and has grown to include graffiti artists and writers from all over the world.

Toxicomono started as a punk rock band and grew into a street art group.

The increase in street art also produces an increase in tagging or vandalism. It’s hard to tell street artists where they can and cannot paint. It doesn’t go with the nature of street art. It s harder to tell people who are angry or just have something to say that they can’t write their messages on walls either.

Then there was Justin Bieber. After a concert in Bogotá, he went with a police escort to write on city walls that were off-limits for graffiti. Overnight, hundreds of new artworks appeared on the underpass. When approached by police the artists said, “Why don’t you protect us like you did Justin Bieber?”

Thanks Luiz Lamprea for your knowledge and love of street art.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Day Trip from Bogota, Colombia

Posted on May 3, 2014 by jaynezak

Day Trip From Bogotá, Colombia

“I love nature, I just don’t want to get any of it on me.” Woody Allen

We turn on to a deserted road (and I use the word road very loosely). There has been nothing but nature around for a while. I am in Colombia with a tour guide and driver that I have met this morning. I decide to just put it out there. “Are you going to kill me?” Apparently not. We are really going hiking.

I am headed to Encenillo Biological Reserve (http://www.natura.org.co/general/reserva-biologica-del-encenillo.html) in Trinidad in the province of Guasca about an hour out of Bogotá. It was established in 2007 with the purpose of conserving forests and preserving some of the unique species of birds and plants of Colombia.

This is the last remnants of primary forest of the Eastern Andean Cordillera. It had trees and plants like certain species of orchids and cedars not found anywhere else.

This may be the last refuge of populations of species of birds and mammals such as gouache and armadillo in the area.

It was also an area for limestone and you can see many quarries on route. (regenerated quarry)

There are many different trails. Our excellent guide Martha from the Encenillo Reserve speaks no English and I had to really focus to understand. Luiz translated when necessary. My Spanish improved a lot by the end of the hike.

We started at the Encenillo forests past the regenerated limestone quarry and then took the orchid path. It was not easy for me.

I am not a hiker. I was ready to give up before we reached the top with its beautiful view of the surrounding valleys. I happened to have been on a flat part two hours later when I heard we still had twenty-five minutes to go. It is just not heroic to give up on the flat part so I kept going.

But it is not about the hike. It’s about seeing the incredible beauty in a place you have never been before. It’s about your attitude on the steep part where you cant get your footing or you are pushing branches away from your face. It’s about continuing on when you don’t think you can. It’s about putting one foot in front of the other and making it to the top. ( some people got their first)

It is also about getting to the bottom which is always harder for me.

Thanks to tour guide Luiz Lamprea for his kindness and patience; Martha Ligio Gutierrez Avellaneda for her passion and knowledge of the reserve; and Gonzalo Pulido for being such a good driver.

Viaje Con Cuidado

JAZ

La Cometa And Andres Carne De Res – Art, Food, Drink And Dancing in Bogota, Colombia

Posted on April 28, 2014 by jaynezak

La Cometa and Andre Carne De Res, Bogotá, Colombia – Art, Food, Drink and Dancing

When you are everywhere, you are nowhere / When you are somewhere, you are everywhere.” Rumi

Sometimes a space is greater than the sum of its parts. And other times the parts are just as great. This was my experience with two must see places in Bogotá Colombia.

I went to La Cometa in Bogotá (http://www.galerialacometa.com) almost as soon as I got off the plane.

Instead of being kidnapped or forced to do cocaine, I found myself in this amazing contemporary art gallery.

This was not the Bogotá that the years of bad press had portrayed. I was immediately at home in this country.

La Cometa is beautiful, peaceful and unexpected. (photo Lina Leal)

The space itself relaxes all your senses to focus on the art. It is well designed to wander, explore and draw your own conclusions.

The contemporary art always tells me about who a country is now.

La Cometa had Colombian and Latin American artists when I was there .

It is an important gallery in the Colombian art scene. The pieces are, happy, discordant, silly, fun, interesting, challenging or undefinable. (Lina Leal)

Art is always a personal spiritual journey for me.

I actually didn’t go to Andres Carne De Res because I didn’t go to Chia the suburb it is in. I went to Andres D.C. in Bogotá the “smaller and calmer outpost.”(http://www.andrescarnederes.com/es/andres_dc)

From the moment you walk in, it is an all night fiesta or rumba as they call it in Colombia. There are four floors from Hell to Heaven or perhaps you sit in Purgatorio waiting to find out.

The restaurant was founded by artist Andre Jaramillo and the attention to the art and art details is crazy. I’m sure you can go there a 100 times and always see things you have never seen before.

They also serve food. The menu is a novel/ art coffee table book.

Obviously there is a lot of carne (meat) as well as amazing traditional Colombian dishes and everything else you can think of. Sixty four pages is a lot of menu. (Colombian appetizers)

The aguardiente is flowing. If you order wine, it is served in hand painted wine bottles that you are encouraged to take home.

The music is everything from Colombian salsa, my favorite Cuban songs to American. Everyone is dancing or wants to.

There are Cirque de Soleil like characters walking around who’s job it is to embarrass you, get you up on the dance floor and make sure you laugh at yourself.

There is even shopping. Yes, I bought a few things.

Andres Carne D.C is the party energy of Bogotá at its best.

Both spaces are creating a mood where anything can happen. What they have in common is they both use their space to design the sensory experience whether crazy or peaceful and they are both amazing and should not be missed.

Viaje Con Cuidado

JAZ

Things That I Have Learned In Bogota, Colombia

Posted on April 18, 2014 by jaynezak

Things I Have Learned In Bogotá, Colombia

“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps.” Frank Herbert

Bogotá has the best water in South America.

In the year 2000 the Fernando Botero museum opened in Bogotá. The art collection was donated by Fernando Botero and is the most important donation in the country’s history. It includes 123 works by Botero and 85 works from his collection by artists from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century such as Picasso, Giacometti, Monet, Dali, Matisse, Chagall, Renoir etc.

He had one stipulation. The artwork had to be eye level , unobstructed and free to all people. The informality and openness of a collection equal to any high level museum is an unforgettable experience. It is amazing to stand directly in front of a priceless work of art without glass or security telling you to move back.

His overly large figures always make me laugh.

Bogotá has a lower murder rate than the Wash DC.

Bogotá has a lot of hippies. Parts of Upper Candalaria seem like Greenwich Village in the seventies.

The perfect view of Bogotá is from Monserrate.

Monserrate is a mountain in Bogotá. It is 3,152 meters high (10,341 ft) with a 17^th century church and a shrine to El Senor Caldo (Fallen Lord).

If you are on a pilgrimage you will walk up from Bogotá (It takes an hour and a half) On Sunday you can see many families doing this. If you are a tourist you have the option to walk or take a funicular up. I did that and took the teleferico (cable car) down.

There is a rivalry between Medellin and Bogotá.

The airport is Bogotá is clean and organized. I did not see any clocks at the Colombian Airlines terminal – which is maybe why the planes were never on time.

The Gold Museum has the biggest collection of gold handicrafts in the world. It is a good place to see Colombia’s pre Colombian heritage.

Bogotá has the most extensive network of bicycle routes ( ciclorutas) in Latin America and almost in the world.

One of the most amazing things in Bogotá is Ciclovia. On Sundays from 7AM to 2PM seventy miles of the city is closed to traffic

It is a great way to enjoy the city. In addition to bicycling twenty stages are set up for yoga, aerobics and dance instruction.

Around two million riders, skateboarders ,walkers and joggers use the streets on Sundays.

This has been copied by many cities in the world though none have as large an area closed off.

I’m a huge fan of Marquez literature. I love the poetic magical realism. To me he is a wonderful story-teller whether I get the point of all his fantasies or not. In his world lines between beauty and cruelty and dreams and reality are always blurred. Seems to be a lot like life. Marquez died on Thursday at 87. Dream forever Gabo.

He is known as Gabo in Colombia. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1982 and wrote two of my all time favorite books – 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. At the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Plaza there is an amazing bookstore, Juan Valdez coffee shop and tango classes on Sunday.

Sunday flea market in Usaquen is a fun thing to do. There are unique kitchen items like wooden cooking utensils, handmade place mats and tablecloths, trays and plates made from different materials, and the famous chamba pottery.

There are hand crafted preserves, candies, fruit and coca leaf products and everything is 100 per cent Colombian. Fruit and juice sellers, jewelry makers ,street entertainers and musicians are everywhere. ( guama – a pod fruit with a delicious chewy cotton like inside)

No matter how much partying you have done Saturday night, Sunday is not a day to do nothing in Bogotá. There is just too much going on. (kids in plastic on water?)

Muchas Gracias Beronica Buitrago Vega for a wonderful time in Bogota and for setting the tone for an amazing trip.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Travel Well, Fly Safe

Travel

Category Archives: South America

Cartagena, Colombia

Luz A Salento Music School In Colombia

Photos From Filandia And Salento – Towns In The Coffee Triangle, Colombia

The Cocora Valley, Colombia

Picking Coffee In Colombia

Colombia-The Land Of Make Believe Fruits

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them – Graffiti Art In Bogota Colombia

Day Trip from Bogota, Colombia

La Cometa And Andres Carne De Res – Art, Food, Drink And Dancing in Bogota, Colombia

Things That I Have Learned In Bogota, Colombia