Colombia, a summary [The Americas – #chronicles 2022]

(Written in June 2022, published August 2022)

I’m currently at the immigration queue on my way out of Colombia. One month went by since I waited for 3 hours on another immigration queue to get into the country and I remember it as if it was yesterday.

Where has time gone?

Knowing fairly well that I still have to write and reflect a lot about my time in Medellin and Cartagena, I’m getting all the inspiration now to look back overall about my past month…. But to be honest I think words fail me.

My route (and the people I met) were:

• Bogotá
  • Capital, good intro to the history of Colombia, including current political situation. Walking tours of the city centre and food tour. Biggest night club in South America. 🤍Matty boy, Katie🤍
• Cali
  • Salsa, salsa, salsa. Where I celebrated with locals the result of the elections. Where I met the most incredible people who I’ll take with me for life. 🤍Sarah, Jose🤍
• Salento
  • Coffee, jungle hikes, nasty insect bites. 🤍James, Tom, Ali, Angus🤍
• Cali (yes, I went back lol)
  • More salsa! Reggaeton! Dance…. 🤍Andrew, Eduardo, Tahra, Luke, Jules.🤍
• Medellin
  • A different side of Colombia but one that broke all my stereotypes about it. Where I experienced first hand the results of community work in action! More salsa! 🤍Ollie, the Irish crew🤍
• Cartagena
  • Hot, hot, hot. Too hot. This is where I said my goodbyes to Colombia.
  • 🤍Where I met up with Tahra, Matty, Ollie, Jules and Sarah again🤍

Colombia will forever have a special place in my heart. I had no expectations about it at all and It completely blew my mind.

The people are fantastic. They’re outgoing, helpful, funny. They have this special ability to make you feel at home and you end up staying for way longer than you initially thought you would.

I’m thankful to Colombia for the people it allowed me to meet but also for giving me back my love for Dance. I studied dance when I was younger but along the way I stopped dancing, even though I still attend performances and support the sector. But unfortunately, the love for dancing went numb during the past 15 years. And then I got to Cali and it all changed. The way Colombians appreciate dancing is like nothing I’ve seen before. It’s a part of who they are and it doesn’t matter if you’re old, young or if you know how to dance. You will be asked to dance floor.

Colombia gave me back something I thought was lost and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I will probably continue to add to this post, but for now, I leave here a promise of coming back, to pick up the bits of my heart that were left behind and to dance my soul away till the early hours of the morning.