Colombia

Iara is from Colombia, and I had never been there, and wasn't particularly eager originally given the stories you hear from that country. But we had a small break together, and decided to go for it, being able to meet more of her family, and seeing what kind of environment she grew up in was going to be very interesting.

There are many cliches about Colombia, and sadly for me, they all appear true. Of course, I could have just been unlucky, and us losing our luggage also had to do with our stopover in mexico, but wow, I spent more time dealing with unnecessary aspects of travel (trying to retrieve said luggage) in this 6 day trip than in my entire world trip combined.

We had to deal with a lot of different people in different situations, but uniformly got the "I don't care, it is not my problem, go away you're ruining my afternoon nap" attitude. And not just implicitly, but in your face. Before I went, I felt that the "banana republic" jokes must be referring to the past, but what I experienced, it was very much alive. Good thing it was just my luggage, and not my personal security at risk, because that appears to be organized even less successfully in the country (there is hardly any real police around anywhere, just private security people who obviously care more for their employer than for you).

Colombia seems like a very fun country. When things go well.

That said, I had an absolute blast hanging around Iara's family (it made me understand her a lot better), seeing Bogota' (all the way from luxurious, european-looking neighbourhoods, old colonial areas to very poor parts of the city), and some of the surrounding country side (we stayed at her dad's farm house, which was fantastic, waterfall showers in the morning included). There is quite a variety of scenery to be had, and some great food (fruit in particular, there are endless new tastes, which inspired me to create some new cocktails ;)