Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero is the most renowned modern Colombian artist.  He no longer lives in Colombia, but is revered there.  Both Bogota and Medellin have museums for his extensive work as well as the art he collected and gave to his native Colombia. 

Botero created large, rotund people and creatures in both his paintings and sculpture.  He wanted to show volume and sensuality as well as the culture and problems of his time in Colombia.  We loved his art, particularly after spending time with our guides learning more about how Botero saw and painted the world.

    

Bomb blast in Medellin (drug wars)



lady with ice cream

a car bomb explodes

the thief

 

And there's still more I loved about Colombia

See photos below:
Grilled mushrooms at Arvi, at the top of one of the Medellin public transit gondolas
The colonial buildings in Bogota, Medellin, Santa Fe de Antioquia and Cartagena
Fernando Botero, the most prominent modern Colombian artist (I'll do a separate page of some photos of his works)
Bean, rice, cheese and chicken stew at Rosarita's, near the Medellin airport (and Rosarita's beautiful gardens)
The excellent guides at the Medellin Aquarium
Walking on Cartagena's city wall
The commitment to education and the large number of universities everywhere
The courtyards you could peek at through wrought iron gates
That everything in our hotel room in Santa Fe de Antioquia was for sale, tagged with the price, including the chandeliers
The demonstrations in Bogota
Beronica, our guide in Bogota
The courtyard at the Hotel Santa Clara in Cartagena
How clean all the places we visited were
How strong and independent the women are
The cultural/racial mix of people


plaza in Cartagena

garden at Rosarita's near Medellin

colonial church, Santa Fe de Antioquia

Cartagena's colonial wall

 

armored personnel carrier, Plaza, Bogota, during demonstrations

   

painted house in old Bogota



More things I loved about Colombia

Candelaria, the old center of Bogota

Candelaria at night

 

the beautiful mountains surrounding Bogota and Medellin

 

Medellin metro--especially the gondolas   

 

 

Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena

Casa San Augustin, our hotel in Cartagena

the steaks at Club Colombia in Bogota

music pouring out of every doorway

Ignacio's family (see earlier post)

Gold Museums in Bogota and Cartagena (see earlier post)

Talking to the police in Bogota before they fired tear gas 

        (see earlier posts)

the lady police colonel outside the presidential palace (ditto)

the demonstrations in Bogota

the campesinos and protestors in the plaza in Bogota

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





view of Candelaria

 

Some of what I loved about Colombia--much more to come

First, the people, who are gracious, welcoming and ever so cordial.

Fruit vendors in Bogota

Ignacio and his family

Even the riot police were friendly

La Iglesia del Carmen Church, Bogota

La Iglesia del Carmen

Moorish arches in La Iglesia del Carmen

La Iglesia del Carmen window of roses



Black bean, rice, tomato, cheese and chicken soup

 

tropical fruits, particularly granadilla and pidaya 





La Iglesia del Carmen window of flowers



 

Bogota, Colombia Gold Museum photos

This is just a wonderful museum.  If you visit Bogota, plan on spending a couple of hours, even if you don't usually enjoy museums.  It is remarkable.

Cartagena--a trip back in time

University of Fine Arts and Sciences, Cartegena

House in historic Cartegena

This morning we walked throughout the historic center of Cartegena, a World Heritage Site.  The Spanish founded the city in 1533 and it rapidly became the center for shipping tons of gold and emeralds from the interior of what is now Colombia to Spain.  Later it was a major slave trading center.  Its history is built on the misery of countless thousands of indigenous people and Africans whose complete exploitation filled the coffers of Conquistador greed.  Today's population is a mix of all those who came before, from Indian to African to Spanish.

Cartegena is a lovely city, built originally on a tranquil bay protected by coral reefs and a narrow entrance that the Spanish fortified to protect it from pirates.  Nonetheless, it was sacked 11 times by pirates lured here by the rich stores of gold, silver and gems awaiting the Spanish galleons that arrived on the trade winds 4 times a year.  Today, the old houses and convents (closed by fleeing Spanish nuns and priests when Colombia gained its independence in 1811) are schools, universities and hotels, often painted in rich colors (and repainted every December to fend off the ravages of the blowing salt air).  Many buildings still await renovation, but are very expensive to buy and restore.  Huge trees grow in their old gardens with the roots gradually stripping the colorful plaster off the walls.  Rosebushes pop out of windows, adding their flowers to the mix of color.  And large vines, covered with purple flowers, often extend for a whole block and cool the faces of the buildings.

When the Spanish arrived in the bay, they rode their horses ashore, leading the local tribes to believe they were gods.  In proper form, then, the chiefs brought gold and emeralds to the new gods, who carted them off to their ships and came back, century after century, for more.  Meanwhile, local tribes, unable to fend off the fearsome European diseases, mostly died out, requiring the Spanish overlords to look to African slaves to do their work of mining, processing, hauling and much more.

Lost in the process was the exquisite gold work of the native tribes.  More photos of this work is on the photo page blog coming up. 

More on Santa Fe de Antioquia

Hotel Mariscal Robledo, Santa Fe de Antioquia

a local truck delivering potatoes and rice

Our hotel was the best in Santa Fe de Antioquia, according to Trip Advisor, and was a beautiful old colonial building with lots of charm.  The downside was the lack of hot water--the shower head had a button to move towards caliente, but only produced tepid water.  The sink had no hot water at all.  Despite being the "best" hotel, it was very basic, with no amenities.  But, we enjoyed the location, the large room, and the charm.  Nonetheless, given the very limited sightseeing and tourist infrastructure--only a couple of restaurants besides very basic, no shops, but bicycling and horseback riding is available--we will not add Santa Fe de Antioquia to our itinerary when we take a group to Colombia.

It's a great place to visit if you want to relax around a pool, enjoy an old colonial town with colonial architecture and not much more, or ride a bike or a horse.  It's about 1 1/2 hours from Medellin in a beautiful valley.  But, then, Medellin itself is in a beautiful mountain valley.  Santa Fe de Antioquia also has a religious art museum if that interests you.  We had planned to spend 2 days in Villa de Leyva, a colonial town outside Bogota, but were stopped by the roads that had been closed to all traffic for days because of protesters.

There was a large police and army presence all along the highway from Medellin to Santa Fe de Antioquia.  The government had ordered that all roads be kept open, so ordered (reportedly) 50,000 troops to make sure that happened.  We saw lots of soldiers, lots of landslides, a few protesters, but no roadblocks.