How are you?

In Spain, saying hello when you meet somebody is: hola, que tal? (hi, how are you?). Of course, as everywhere, this is nothing but a set phrase and nobody really cares about the answer, in fact you just ask back the same. I guess in Britain it is much the same, you say "how do you do?" and the answer is "how do you do?".

Now here in Colombia, at least with the persons I get into contact, these set phrases get exaggerated. You are asked, how are you? then: are you fine? followed by everything ok? did you sleep well? Have you got up fine this morning? and more...

Now, imagine the coffee from which I just have returned, meeting with Priscilla, her mother, and two new models (you will see them tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... very, but really VERY special, and one of them so sweet and beautiful that you want to die for her - you will see...). Each of them went through all the questions above, and I said a felt thousand times: fine! (What else)

If you really want to know how I am... I am a bit concerned about my general health. Or I am simply getting old or I have some problems with my heart, or both of it. Fact is that I get out of breath extremely fast. The lockdown (staying two month locked inside and then always wearing a breath-taking mask, thus almost two years of much less body movement than health would need) has left its obvious and unpleasant marks. In the same amount that my belly has grown, my muscles have disappeared.

Here in Manizales everything is very steep. The city lays on uncountable little mountains and there is no place to walk straight ahead: it goes up very steep and down again. And I get out of breath even after a short rise, so much, that sometimes I have to sit down to come to a normal heartbeat and to get air again, and my legs are hurting. It's kind of embarrassing. My fitness in more pleasureful parts of life unfortunately also decreases, as some girls might complain... and I am more and more the (very) passive part...

Well, besides of these personal problems that have nothing to do with my Colombia journey, all is very well. Till now I had quite a lot of photo sessions and some more are coming up and until now his journey is more a working trip than holidays :-)

I think, I have already mentioned it once: this is my first journey to the Americas. It is quite different to what I expected, especially because it is not that different as I expected...

When traveling to Africa, Madagascar, Asia... everything was totally different. The way people looked, the houses in the cities, the food, the way of interaction. But here cities are just... cities. I expected (only for my prejudices, of course) to find a happier expression of the people, more color, more smiles. But actually the colors of clothes you see most are black and gray. At least in the cities and during day time there is no special happiness to see or feel. It is all very normal, except of the fact that you must be more careful.

There is an excessive base flattery when people meet: a lot of "how beautiful", "how wonderful" - but actually this is all meaningless, because everything and everybody is so very wonderful and beautiful. On the other hand, this is also nothing special that I could call "typical" for Colombia: hypocrisy is very international and in fact it was more fun and distinctive in Thailand with their eternal smile and where you can insult somebody who will smile at you and say "thank you velly much" :-)

Again on the other hand I see that I will not get a real impression of Colombia. On one side because 3 weeks are much too short to dive into another country (this I knew before) and on the other side because of my security concerns based on "what is said" that prohibited me to make larger excursions by car or even visit the beautiful areas up north and near the border to Venezuela, where it seems that kidnapping and other joyless encounters with Guerillas happen quite often.

The German foreign ministry has a list of 14 areas of which they URGENTLY advice of not to visit. It says "The aforementioned groups are active in a wide range of offenses (drug economy, illegal mining, smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, attacks, violent and homicidal crimes, etc.) and act aggressively against intruders or potential victims. This is especially true in Colombia's border regions with Venezuela and Ecuador and in rural, sparsely populated areas. State control is still not guaranteed there."

In other words: exactly the most interesting areas are marked as the most dangerous. I have no idea, how reality is. I know that politics in general are the least reliable sources because to lie is their core business, but on the other hand it is difficult to talk with Colombian people about the security in their country. It is completely understandable: Colombia has a bad image in this regard, and it must be very annoying when every talk leads to topics like drugs, criminality, risks... while you are citizen of a beautiful country that you love and that has much more to give than those negative points. So they tend to downsize the risks and here I am between two exaggerated positions: jambo jambo, no problem (so they say in Africa, always), and "fear for your life every second".

In the end, because of the lack of real information (and personal experience) and because I am no hero, I am sure I miss a lot of beautiful opportunities just for being a fearful coward.

Still, although it is not that exciting, different and new as I expected or hoped, it is an interesting experience, and I will keep you updated!