Friday was (another) bank holiday weekend in Colombia. Yes, there are a lot of bank holidays…17 in fact. There are Bank Holidays to celebrate Saint Joseph’s Day, Labour Day, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the Assumption of Mary…etc. etc. The UK had 10 in 2012… This bodes well for when I start working.
Friday, it was Independence Day. This one I’m on board with. The man above is called Simon Bolivar and he liberated Colombia from the Spaniards… According to Wikipedia, he “was a Venezuelan military and political leader. Together with José de San Martín, he played a key role in Hispanic-Spanish America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of the most influential politicians in American history.” and “Bolívar remains regarded in Hispanic-America as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator. During his lifetime, he led Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia to independence, and helped lay the foundations for democratic ideology in much of Latin America.”
So a pretty awesome guy.
He is hailed in South America…There’s money named after him, ships, his statue is in most cities and towns in Colombia and Venezuela. In fact…every city or town has a main square known as Plaza Bolívar.
So, how did I celebrate the Independence Day? By going to a finca in Carmen de Apicala in ‘terra caliente’. AKA ‘hot country’. Yes, it’s cold in Bogota, but to get some heat, all you have to do is descend the mountain to get a warmer climate.
Beats taking a Ryan Air flight.
I was invited to a finca with a pool and 15 other new friends. Hard to resist. It is a custom that many other Colombians enjoy up and down the estratos.
Here are the photos.
Let me know what you got up to.
x
Girl with parrot pet
On the way back to Bogota, we stopped off for lunch at an arepa house
I had arepa with cheese and chorizo with picante sauce. It was DELICIOUS and only 4,000 COP
How they made the arepas with cheese…They reminded me of Mexican quesadillas and were just as tasty
A friend had arepa with pork crackling (front) and black sausage (back)
The other friend had Bandeja Paisa…A kind of Colombian version of the British breakfast fry-up
Hi, a little correction: it’s tIerra calIente.
And yes, Colombia is the country with more holidays in the world, but it’s one where the people work the most too. bye.
It doesn’t matter what the reason for the bank holiday is – a weekend at the finca is how all bank holidays are celebrated, if possible!
In London I did the closest thing possible to celebrating all things Colombian… I went to see the Colombian group Ondatropica play live. The group is a collaboration between the Bogota “electrocumbe” group Frente Cumbiero, led by Mario Galeano, and Cali-based British DJ/producer Will Holland, aka Quantic – the British Council gave them some money to form a British-Colombian group to take to the UK and represent the country at the festivals around London celebrating the Olympics. Great gig. :-)