...a nomadic travel along the americas » colombia

Nomadic travel’s Slideshow

moro — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:04:34 +0000

A year ago began the adventure of this blog… a mosaic of emotions in the deepest heart of the American continent. We have interiorized a magical world, sometimes so complex to be hardly understood. From United States, thinking head of the world as it is nowadays, we have learned to leave aside preconceptions and replace them with curiosity. Mexico has donated to us the immense joy of the travel, endless horizons and the beauty of nature, but also the inexhaustible resistance of a people seduced and then abandoned. Guatemala, wonderful and moving, fertile land of the Mayan world, the search for a better future, that we joined through our cooperation as volunteers. Colombia, an oceanic and magnificent country, so wild to escape everyone’s look; the surprise of an electrifying ferment of lives. Ecuador, synthesis of the whole latinoamerican style, a luxuriant nature and pleasant people: the encounter with the Amazonian rain forest and its peoples, the eternal fight against the exploitation with no rules of the natural resources. Peru with its archaeological beauties, in the undiscovered northern Andean region; the emotion of the “suiza peruana” (Peruvian Switzerland), Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca. Now we fall asleep on the last day, an ethnic mosaic of faces and looks smiles to us, the importance that they have had and they will have in our life, the promise to meet us another time, one day…

We added a terrific interactive tool from flickr, enabling to show all our photos in a slideshow. Just follow this link (Nomadic travel’s Slideshow page) and remember to leave some feedback, whether you think this is a good idea! Shortly we will return with new and adventurous travel stories about Latin America and especially South America…

Tags: colombia, ecuador, guatemala, latin america, mexico, nomad, nomadic, peru, photoblog, travel, united states of america

Nomadic Travel’s Mosaic

moro — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 12:09:56 +0000

Tags: colombia, ecuador, guatemala, latin america, mexico, mosaic, nomad, nomadic, peru, photoblog, travel, united states of america

Towards Ecuador, goodbye Colombia

moro — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:41:17 +0000

The deep canyons dig incurable wounds along the Andean ridge and mark the border between Colombia and Equador: we reach Ipiales following the Pan-American highway from Popayan through Pasto. We greet therefore Colombia, a large and wonderfully wild country, sad and crazy, happy and “thief”… Colombia, a country that more than every other Andean state, has been underestimating its most precious treasure, the wisdom of its indigenous peoples, asphyxiating their culture in a logic of useless conflict. Colombia, the country that condenses all its seducing fascination in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad), written by the Colombian genius, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“Bienvenidos al Ecuador” (Welcome to Equador), says the enormous cartel: the next challenge and many projects to realize, our dream to discover the Amazon. After traveling for so many months we reach the half of the world: a foot to north and the other one to south, or vice versa, we cut the line of the Equator.

Tags: amazon, colombia, ecuador, gabriel garcia marquez, indigenous community, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel

San Agustin

moro — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:16:25 +0000

From Tierradentro the unpaved road goes down to the the bottom of impressive valleys, towards the pueblo of La Plata. The heat increases, entering in the department of Huila: after Garzon and Pitalito, two dusty cities, we reach San Agustin, the “archaeological capital” of Colombia. Reputation due to the traces left by a mysterious Pre-Colombian civilization, clearly related with the cultures of Ecuador and Peru. The monolithic statues narrate the history of a people who underwent the cultural influence of the Andean world and the fascination of the gorgeous Amazonian nature, thanks to the strategic position of San Agustin. Here, the most diffused means of transporting is still the horse, while the typical Colombian chivas transport merchandise and campesinos in unbelievable number, during market days.

The return travel towards Popayan is a a hard trip in camioneta, crossing fields, paramo and forests, flanking tired volcanoes and swallowing kilos of powder… we dream a shower, but what a privilege to visit such remote places.

Tags: chivas, colombia, huila, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, precolombian, san agustin, travel

Tierradentro

moro — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:53:54 +0000

The archaeological site of Tierradentro is an impressive and mysterious artwork, from an unknown but refined civilization. Located in the esplanades of Segovia, El Duende, El Tablòn, Alto de San Andres and El Aguacate, the hipogeos of Tierradentro are oval burial chambers, with a deepness that reaches nine meters. A winding staircase, built using volcanic stones, leads to the entrance, while two columns support the circular vault inside of each tomb. The walls are richly decorated with geometric and anthropomorphic figures, using red and black (life and death respectively), on white background. Nearly nothing was found in the chambers when they were discovered, because of the thieves activity (guaqueros), but what remains gives a clear idea of how incredible were these architecture artworks, able to resist the tremendous earthquakes that periodically hit the region of Tierradentro.

A friend, beyond that many beautiful photos, left trace of our nights in San Andres Pisimbalà, follow this link: www.flickr.com/photos/mariusencolombia.

Tags: anthropomorphic figures, burial chambers, colombia, latin america, nomadic, photoblog, tierradentro, travel

Cauca valley, towards Tierradentro

moro — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:34:22 +0000

In a day of movements with buses and camionetas we cover the whole Cauca valley, from Armenia (eje cafetero) to Popayan, passing through the lively city of Cali. Our goal is the region of Tierradentro, an archaeological site, almost unknown by tourists for problems of security, but particularly interesting for the presence of underground burial chambers, unique example of Pre-Columbian art (V-VII sec D.c.). The village of San Andres Pisimbalà is a charming place, inhabited by extremely nice people, belonging to the Paèz indigenous community. It remembers to us Chiapas and Guatemala, where we lived unforgettable experiences. To reach this pueblo an entire day of travel on unpaved roads is needed, but just for this reason the region conserves its authentic beauty. Here, the nature is wild and strong, leaving no satisfactions to the campesinos, nevertheless you can breathe an incredible peacefulness. We stay at Doña Marta’s casa familiar: she’s a nice old woman who loves cooking us the best arepas of Colombia.

Tags: arepas, burial chambers, cauca, colombia, indigenous community, nomadic, photoblog, tierradentro, travel

Salento and Cocora Valley

moro — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:24:51 +0000

Rising towards the peaks of the Nevado Ruiz, we discover the small village of Salento, a island of peacefulness in the middle of the wonderful Colombian coffee growing region (eje cafetero). A pueblo lost in the past and dominated by the rhythms of nature, that shows its most impressive side here. In direction of the Andean nevados in fact extends the “Valle de Cocora” (Cocora Valley), an Alpine-like valley, where the wax palms, a biological species heading towards extinction that catches up considerable heights (until 80 meters), grow numerous. Dipped in the mountain jungle, we find the ideal place to go for a walk, trek and horse-ride.

Tags: cocora, colombia, colombian coffee, nomadic, photoblog, salento, travel, wax palm

Armenia

moro — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:50:52 +0000

Armenia is one of the most desolated cities we’ve visited during our travel: in the gray buildings and in the looks of the people, in wide measure of Slavic origin, hides a piece of Balkans. In the evening, the center gets full of street nomads, everyone with his “mistaken history” to tell. We get lost in Rosalba’s silences, a girl from Cali with three sons, two recently born and the last one still in her womb, the husband in jail and an ocean of loneliness to carry, heavy as a cross. She gives us all she can, a smile and two splendid bracelets, how to return this kindness?

Tags: armenia, Cali, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel

Medellin, Botero and Pablo Escobar

moro — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:37:15 +0000

Medellin is the city of the Colombian social-economic supremacy, risen in the middle of nowhere and exploded under the protecting wing of the drug traffics. The utopian project of Pablo Escobar: a modern and efficient center, enclosed in a wonderful and green valley, where the Andes become bluffer. Medellin and the skyscrapers, the metropolitan, the suburbs and the favelas, where young people can’t see a future and have as unique hope sniffing glue. Medellin and the extension of our visa, a real bureaucratic odyssey. Medellin and the portrait that Fernando Botero paints, a colorful and eccentric society, animated from voluptuous, sensually opulent personages. The 50′s, the time of the flowers and the brothels (www.museodeantioquia.org).

Tags: andes, colombia, fernando botero, latin america, medellin, museodeantioquia, nomad, nomadic, pablo escobar, photoblog, travel

Afro Caribbean soul

moro — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:23:49 +0000

Afro Caribbean soul, far and neglected spirit, that let seduce itself just beyond the border of the world. In the land of no one, where every man is owner of his life… the land strip that extends from Cartagena towards Playa Blanca and Islas del Rosario, is a dusty fireside of underbrushes and doggone lives, where the whole population it’s of African origin and survives of expedients in the extreme heat. The travelers who cross this border without law get transformed in victims and guilty of a cruel system, money and power. “When you left to us this desert of skeletal cows and foul ponds”. Then, the dancing girls appear from the powder, a frenetic and echoing African rhythm, a cumbia or makulele, a skillful and enchanting dance, mockingly put up in front of a cartel saying: “Don’t give money to the dancing girls who charm the tourists”.

Tags: afro caribbean, cartagena, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel

From Panama to Colombia: Darien Gap

moro — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:30:15 +0000

The passage between Central America and South America is a problem that many travellers are forced to face. The Pan-American Carretera is interrupted in the region of jungle and swamps called Darien Gap, making impossible land connections between Panama and Colombia. From the experience of other travelers we have collected some information, that we publish hoping it will be useful to someone in the future. The options in order to exceed the Darien Gap, avoiding the dangerous passage by land (in the Colombian region of the Choco are present groups of guerrillas and paramilitary), are substantially three:

sailing ship or boat from Cartagena (Colombia) directly to Panamanian territory, passing for the Islas de San Blas (cost: approximately 250$)
flight between Panama City and Bogotá, Medellin or Cartagena (cost: variable according to the season, 150-300$)
bus from Medellin or Cartagena to Turbo (23$), traveling by night in order to reach Turbo in the morning and to go up on lancha or boat until Capurganà (20$, 2hours) where there are economic lodgings and the Caribbean is wonderful. From Capurgana’ you can take another lancha for Puerto Obaldia (10$, 40 min), that is already in Panamanian territory and there is an immigration office. From Puerto Obaldia there are two flights every week towards Panama City (57$).

Tags: colombia, darien gap, latin america, nomad, nomadic, panama, photoblog, travel

Cartagena

moro — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:51:00 +0000

Barranquilla is a chaotic industrial port, famous in Colombia as the center of the craziest carnival of the country. A short travel takes us to Cartagena de Indias, one of the most beautiful historical cities of America… actually the old town, enclosed in the Spanish walls, is an open sky museum: the characteristic wooden balconies run out on the narrow streets, richly adorned by colourful bougainvillea. But just outside the walls, it emerges the melancholic and forgotten soul of the seaport cities, especially the Caribbean ones. Lodged in the prophetically biblical quarter of Getsemani, we perceive the feeling of living an underground world, surely neglectful, but equally authentic. Here the black spirit voices its suffocated complain…

Tags: cartagena, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel

Parque nacional Tayrona

moro — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:31:58 +0000

From the entrance, a short trip by bicycle leads us to the beach of Cañaveral, along a road dipped in the jungle. Finally we are in the Parque nacional Tayrona, a natural reservoir unique for beauty, pure example of uncontaminated Caribbean coast. The first contact with the Atlantic ocean is impressive indeed: a lonely sand strip, delimited by smooth rocks and coconut palms. The tropical paradise, therefore… a long walk leads us to Arrecifes, every step a surprise, until we newly hear the waves breaking up on the coast: before our eyes another wonderful inlet, designed by a turquoise and crystalline sea. We abandon ourselves to the beauty of the landscape, impressed by such a wild ecosystem. We think about the legitimate inhabitants of this region, the indigenous people of the Tayrona, the first civilization met by the Europeans in the South American continent. From them just remain the wonderful looks of some girls who work in the park and the characteristic huts made in stone and wood, with palm leaves roofs. People perfectly adapted to an impressive nature: the open and uncontrollable sea, the peaks steep and covered by the jungle, and the covered by snow summits of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Between these mountains flowered their culture of skillful gold craftsmen, whose most meaningful expression was the Ciudad Perdida, a Tayrona pueblo forgotten and rediscovered in the 70′s.

Tags: cartagena, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, santa marta, tayrona, travel

Towards the Caribbean Sea

moro — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:23:52 +0000

Adiós vereda, hasta luego amigos… finally the travel resumes, after a long pause full of unforgettable moments. From Villa de Leyva, the bus goes up quickly until about the 3000 meters of the town of Tunja, from where we continue towards the North. After hours of mountain roads, exceeding foggy slopes covered by jungle, we reach San Gil and then Bucaramanga, intermediate stop of our travel, a city unexpectedly modern but with a pleasant climate. Travelling by night we finally reach Santa Marta, on the coast of the Colombian Caribbean: the popularity of the people and their unflappable peacefulness clearly indicate that we got to a new world, all to discover. At first sight, we find the same semi-desertic climate to which we survived for beyond a month, but hidden by the hills covered by cacti, the Tayrona National Park, Caribbean pearl of white beaches, wild jungle and turquoise sea.

Tags: caribbean, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, santa marta, travel

Adiós Villa de Leyva

moro — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:24:54 +0000

Clouds, clouds, fast clouds; then sun, starred skies. And full moon, sparkling… The semi-desertic hills that encircle Villa de Leyva hide many surprises. The astronomical observatory of the Muiscas, indigenous people almost completely disappeared, but in the looks of some “campesinos”, is a ceremonial site (El infiernito) dipped in the green of the olive trees. In the proximities, a small museum (El fosil) guards the very well conserved fossil of a kronosaurus, prehistoric crocodile lived when in the region an ancient sea extended. Where the Andes grow in altitude and the vegetation disappear definitively, in the so-called paramo, some splendid lakes hide (Iguaque Sanctuary), encircled by a hostile environment. The Laguna de Iguaque was sacred place for the Muiscas, who believed it was the place where the goddess Bauché had awaken, sustaining with her own arms a child, destined to give origin to their people.

Tags: colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel, villa de leyva

Colombian pizzocheri

moro — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:40:43 +0000

Here is a taste of our gastronomic regional specialties, made with Colombian ingredients and fantasy!

Tags: colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel, villa de leyva

Adobe houses

moro — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 18:42:01 +0000

Since the first days spent in Villa de Leyva, we were curious about the frenetic activity of some masons who, in open countryside, were building a house of unusual aspect, perhaps not particularly nice, but above all burning it. Now we discover that what seemed a game it’s in reality a project of bioarchitecture developed by Octavio Mendoza, a boyacense architect. The concept is very simple: the argillaceous soil, found in large amount directly in the construction place, is used as unique material to model the building. Piece after piece it’s given shape to the structure, that at last is burnt in order to confer it mechanical resistance. The result is a low-cost house of adobe, eco-sostenible, with optimal thermo-regulation properties, of minimal environment impact and antiseismic. The plan seems so brilliant that it has received attention in Europe too, for the moment in Spain and France. The idea is suggested by the example of the indigenous population, in particular the Andean one, that used adobe (a mixture of mud and straw) in order to construct its own buildings for thousands of years.

Tags: adobe, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel, villa de leyva

Bogotá, young and modern

moro — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 21:44:23 +0000

Coming from the North, Bogotá appears like an enormous and shapeless strip of lights and skyscrapers, colorful in the customary wealth and extreme poor islands. In the traffic of the evening we recognize the frenzy that characterizes all the big capitals, but what hits us is the massive presence of soldiers: at every crossing stops a group of young men in uniform that control people, appealing terrible weapons as they were toys… with the distracted habit of who is born with the violence in the eyes. They remember us that Colombia is a country suffocated by a bloody war, begun so many years ago that many people seem resigned to live with it.

Bogotá do not seduce at first sight, but it is for sure a dynamic modern city, vibrant and cosmopolitan, extremely careful about culture (from 2007 Bogotá will be the World Book Capital) and about art, maybe less interested in the poorest part of its population, abandoned here as in all the Latin American countries to a very difficult existence. In the Candelaria, the historical heart of the city, the roads leave their geometric distribution and in the maze of colorful houses takes shape the artistic inspiration which belongs to the Colombian young people. Bars, cultural centers and theaters are attended by musicians, painters, artesanos and undergraduates coming from every part of the country. During the weekend and the holidays, the traffic in the streets of the center is blocked in order to leave space to pedestrians and cyclists: Bogotá transforms in an enormous bicycle path, with many stops to assist to concerts and theater exhibitions.

Tags: bogotá, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel

Vereda Monquirá

moro — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:12:28 +0000

Living in the field, wrapped by the silence and peacefulness, helps to think… and as background of our thoughts an isolated house, a green-pallet grass, a hot sun hidden by the clouds that quickly take shape and dissolve. An impressive landscape delimits our world in this land of silent shepherds, looks consumed by the altitude and the climate. So far to hear the lightest noise, the town of Villa de Leyva hides behind a wooded hill, feeble painting in colonial style, dusty like Latin America. Dearly beloved by the artists, otiose as only the province can be.
Once more the night comes and our world falls asleep, in the silence.

Tags: colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel, villa de leyva

In Colombia

moro — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 21:25:08 +0000

In the porthole of the airplane are condensed all our memories, so much time spent around these hard but green valleys, then suddenly we see again the ocean. Bouncing many times from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic one, we fly over the extended plantations of Nicaragua and Costa Rica; we observe the slow and giant merchant ships going cross the Channel of Panama (Panama Canal), passage for all the goods of the world. Under our feet the white beaches of Colombian Caribbean and finally the impact with the Andes, suave and fertile in this region… now Colombia is so near, crazy and unapproachable: the same vernal climate of Guatemala and the smiles of the children in the street. It’s night when the bus leaves us in Villa de Leyva, our backpack full of projects and many stories to tell, experiences to share and the emotion to meet each others after so much time.

Tags: bogotá, colombia, latin america, nomad, nomadic, photoblog, travel, villa de leyva

...a nomadic travel along the americas » colombia

Nomadic travel’s Slideshow

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