Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Colombia Guide: Traveling to Bogota, Cartagena, and Beyond

Episode Date: February 9, 2018

There’s a reason Colombia is at the top of so many ‘must-see’ travel lists this year. Forget about Pablo Escobar. This beautiful — and affordable — Latin American country has moved on. Get ready for some beautiful colonial villages, Caribbean coast, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites.    In this episode, American expat Andrew Dier, who’s also author of some of the most popular books on visiting Colombia, chats to us about the villages we should see, the empanadas we should eat…everything we need to know to enjoy a vacation in Colombia, from Bogota to Cartagena and beyond. (for photos and links, visit postcardacademy.co)     I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. If you so desire, you can sign up for my newsletter here. And thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcardDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Mikital, and I'd love to start off by saying thank you to those of you who have already subscribed to this show, and to those of you who have left a review on Apple Podcasts. And also, quite a few of you have emailed me this week, and I love hearing from you, so thank you so much for that connection. In a few short hours, I will be getting on a plane to Columbia. Thankfully, Andrew Dyer, the author of some of the most popular books on this country, has taken time out from his anniversary vacation to chat to us about the villages we should see, the empanadas we should eat, everything we need to know to enjoy a vacation in Colombia from Bogota and beyond, especially the Caribbean coast.

We also talk about how much safer Colombia has become in recent years. Do you hear that parents? So now is the perfect time to visit Colombia, especially if you live in the U.S., Flights are incredibly cheap right now. Hopefully this episode will inspire you. Now into my conversation with Andrea. Welcome, Andrew. Thank you for joining me today. Hi, Sarah. Thanks for the opportunity. And I would like to start off by saying happy anniversary. Can you tell us where you are right now? Thank you very much. I'm in Marrakesh in Morocco. It's my 20th anniversary with my partner, Vio. He's a Colombian American. and it's rainy and cold here, believe it or not, but we're enjoying it.

Glad you're enjoying. So, yeah, so you guys usually live in Columbia. You've been there for 20 years. I was surprised that Columbia legalized gay married shortly after the U.S. did. I thought it was like a very conservative place. For gay tourists, is Columbia a place where they'll feel safe? Yeah, it's really evolved, and I'll tut my own horn because my partner and I actually started a gay rights nonprofit called Columbia Diversa back in 2004, and it's the country's main

gay rights organization. And we've been able to accomplish so much little by little carving out rights for gay couples. And it's a very gay friend. You know, the cities, especially, Bogota has a district called Chapinero, which is the gay epicenter against the country. And yeah, we have gay marriage now working on adoption. It's kind of unclear where that is right now. Well, thanks for your work on that. I mean, that does sound like a tremendous amount of important work that you guys are doing. So that's awesome. Congratulations.

And so I guess sticking to the topic of safety, so I'm headed off to Columbia tomorrow, actually. and friends and family have expressed safety concerns. And I think that's like the general feeling from people outside of Latin America. Like when they hear Colombia, they think cocaine, they think Pablo Escobar. Could you just sort of touch on some of that history and then maybe say how things have changed from then to now? Yeah. Well, Colombia has a very complex history. I was thinking about it throughout its founding, from its founding onward.

and I actually have a good history in my book in the Moon Columbia guidebook. It's kind of, I did a lot of research on it and tried to make it as clear as possible. But basically, today, it's a much different country than it was, even when I arrived in 2002. In 2002, when Colombia elected Alvaro Ribe, who was considered a right-wing law and order, type of president, candidate, things really started to change. He is not without controversy, I have to say, because there are right-wing paramilitary groups that are somewhat linked to him. But that's another story.

But since then, things have gotten safer. Government kind of waged war. They tried to take back a lot of the territory that was seated to the FAR, which was the main guerrilla group. They were an army that was built out of a... need or a desire for land rights for peasants mostly. And they were supported by the Soviet Union in Cuba back in the 60s. So it grew out of a had a political background, but then eventually it became more about

drug trafficking and kidnapping as sources of income just to sustain themselves. But two years ago, last year, Columbia signed a historic peace deal with the FARC. and it has not been completely smooth sailing, but it's a landmark event in the history of Columbia. And it's not hard to integrate tens of thousands of, well, about 40,000 fighters for the FARC into Colombian society. But we're working on it. And for the tourists, you know, it's been quite a safe place to visit for many years now, actually. I would say since, I don't know, 2003, 2004. When I arrived, we always asked, we'd like to go see this town or go to this city.

And the question was, is it safe? Is it safe? Now, you don't have to ask that. And, you know, tourists, civilians even, haven't really been targeted by anyone for several years now. I was thinking comparing Colombia to what's going on in the world like Las Vegas or London or Paris you know

you can't even compare it. It's much safer than... Yeah, I think those comparisons are always important. And I also think it's so fascinating how fast things change. Like I have a friend from she grew up in Eastern Germany and I spent Easter with her a few years ago

And it just, I don't know, it really just struck me how everything just looks so normal and suburban, but the stories her grandmother was telling me of like the entire place just being burned to the ground during World War II, I was like, God, you never would have known. So it gives me hope for the world. It gives me hope for the world. Yeah, I don't mean to diminish, you know, the pain and the violence that happened in Columbia over the, over the years. And, you know, every Colombian has been infected by it one way or the other. You know, violence and kidnapping, extortion, losing your house or your farm, having to leave

the country. So those are very real things that happened. But fortunately, I think we're on the right track. And I hope that the peace process will stick. You moved to Columbia from, I believe, New York. You're originally from Florida. Logistically, as an American, how were you able to stay and live in Columbia? What kind of visa did you need? Well, back then, foreigners weren't clamoring to come to Columbia to live and work. It was a little bit of the Byzantine process, getting a work visa. But you basically have to get a letter from the employer and take that down to the ministry

of external affairs, foreign affairs. And still there's some bureaucracy involved, but it's not that hard. So you found a job and they gave you some paperwork and then you just ran around until you finally got the signatures you needed. Yeah, I went back a few times. Okay. Yeah, and nowadays there are a lot of foreigners from North America, from Europe, who are coming to Columbia. They're setting up cafes, starting restaurants.

hotels and working in nonprofits. Yeah, Columbia is becoming really popular with expats. And I was wondering if you could sort of maybe talk about some of the different cities that are popular and what might appeal to one group of people over another. Like, why would somebody choose Medellin over Bogota over Kelly? All right. Well, we'll start with Kali. It's sort of easy. Kali is all about salsa.

It's sort of they consider themselves to be the world capital of salsa, although, you know, New York and Havana and San Juan, they can argue to have that title. And salsa really is a part of everyday life there. What I like about Kali is, you know, there's not a whole lot of big tourist sites you have to check off and go rush around to sea. But it's more about the atmosphere. And like, you know, when the sun goes down in Kali, there's a nice breeze blowing in the Pacific coast. And the city transforms itself and you hear music all over the place. And every night, it's amazing, Monday night, Tuesday, and Wednesday,

there's a place where you can go salsa dancing. And it's not just the young people or, you know, it's everybody. It's intergenerational. And for anybody who, yeah, anybody who likes dancing or music, they'll love it. and people were very forgiving for dancers who have two left feet. I imagine everyone just being very happy in this place. What are the people like? Well, I think that's true.

I think Colombia always ranks up there, like, in the top five, at least, about, you know, in the list of the most happy countries behind, like, Norway or something, maybe Costa Rica. But I think that's common throughout Columbus. Columbia is this aligria, happiness. They're making time for life. And warmth. And then other cities, Medellin, it's in the country's kind of heartland.

Really, what I think of is like the country is Texas. They're very proud. It's kind of a Calais culture around Medellin and rolling hills. And it's also the coffee region. So Medellin was the home of Pablo Escobar, and so it had some dark days in the 80s. But it's had a remarkable transformation. They're very proud of their subway and public works projects like big public libraries in these low-income communities, cable cars that transport, that are like public transport for,

people. And they also have great nightlife. And backpackers in particular love Medellin. And it's hard not to fall in love with it because of its spring-like weather all year round and warm people. And is there any sort of Pablo Escobar tourism? There is. That's a very popular tour. There are a couple of tours in Medellin. I've never done them, I kind of felt ambivalent about those tours. They're quite popular. So you can go see the sites where he grew up and the neighborhood where he lived and also where he was shot down by military or the police. Okay. And I think there's graffiti tours as well. Is that Medellin? Medellin, but yes, Medellin and also Bogota. There are.

There's a big graffiti kind of culture there in Bogota. And the city government at first kind of fought against them, you know, and tried to paint over their beautiful murals that are all over the place. But they've come to realize that it's become a tourist attraction. And these tours, I think the main one is called just Bogota graffiti tour. they're led by graffiti artists and they take you around. And it's also a good way to see the city places you wouldn't normally visit. Bogota has an edge to it.

And there's also a bike tour that's quite popular in Bogota that takes you to neighborhoods you wouldn't know about or wouldn't venture out on your own. Yeah, there are two like big trends that I've seen in my travels this year. or like I guess over the last few years. Street art and government-sanctioned murals where they're actually encouraging people to go out and beautify the city in those ways. And then also coffee culture.

It seems like the whole world has gone hipster when it comes to coffee and the type of cafes that are out there. What is the cafe culture like in Colombia? What are they drinking? Yeah, it has really gotten quite hip, especially in Bobatah. When I was the first moved, coffee wasn't a thing, and you just drank.

In Colombia, what they drink are tinto's, what they call. And their little coffees served in, like, plastic cups everywhere throughout the country. And it's not very good, actually. But it's sort of a ritual that is quite endearing. Like, whenever you go to anybody's house or even to a business meeting, they come around and offer you Tinto and everybody drinks it. And so you end up drinking Tinto all day long. But these days, coffee culture has really taken off thanks in part to non-Colombians who've come down.

And before the best coffee was exported. But now some of that coffee is staying and you're finding special coffees, organic coffees, from all over Columbia, you can try. Yeah, I was going to say it's so interesting that Columbia is famous for its coffee, but everybody there was just drinking really rubbish coffee. So I'm glad that they're allowed to, like, sample some of their own great product more now. If we want to go visit a coffee plantation or see how things are made, do you have any recommendations of any places specific that we should go to?

Well, yes. there is what's called the coffee region near Medellin and its rolling hills, beautiful countryside, and there are coffee plantations all over the place and haciendas, and many of them have hotels. I think I was thinking about for those who have limited time,

maybe visiting the town of Salento, it's become quite a popular, tourist destination, really originally for backpackers, but now it's everybody. It's a colorful, colorful painted houses and coffee farms in the countryside. And also mountains in the Park in Nacional Los Nevados. So there are a couple of coffee farms right next to the town. You can buy my book. You can see those.

Coffee comes from all over the country, but, and some of the best. coffee is elsewhere, actually, like even near the coast, near Santa Marta, and also in the extreme southern part of the country. Yes, so if we're, like, jet-setting around and say we have, like, a week or two, what is the transportation like? Will it be easiest for us to get around? I know there's a lot of jungle. Yeah.

Columbia is probably, what, three-fourths jungle, and roads are no. notoriously poor and poor condition. So the buses, a bus ride, like from Bogota to Medellin, would take 10 or 12 hours and to the coast, from like Bogota to Cartana, like about 20 hours, if everything goes well. Fortunately, a few years ago, some budget airlines arrived in Colombia. One of them is called Biba, Columbia, V-I-V-A-Colombia. And you can get a ticket from Bogota to Cartana for under $100, and it saves a lot of time. Definitely sounds like it's worth the ticket price.

So let's say I am coming to visit you for a week or two, and we're going to go around Columbia together. So what are we going to see? Let's start in Bogota. What are our must sees? Bogota is worldwide known for its gold museum, the Museum, the Museo del Orro. And it's a fantastic place where they display gold artifacts, gold and silver artifacts from the indigenous cultures of the country. So that is a must-see and give it at least three or four hours. They have very good tours there as well.

Secondly, most people stay at Kondolaaria, which is the historic center of Bogota. and the Plaza de Bolivar is the center of that center. It's full of museums. There are some pretty good art museums, actually, that many international visitors may not have known about. But Colombia's had a very, very rich development in art the past 30, 40 years, probably due to the conflict. It's a way of artists to express themselves regarding the comics.

So anyway, there's a art museum, the Museum of the Banco de la Republica, in the cantalaria. It's free. Next to it is the museum of Botero, which is a beautiful colonial house. It's features works by Fernando Botero. And historical churches all over the place. from the 16th century, 17th century onward. And Montserratte is a famous little chapel on top of the mountain. Boatah is surrounded by mountains, the Andes Mountains, the eastern range of the Andes.

And you can either hike up the mountain or you can take a cable car. And depending on the weather, you'll get a great view of the city. And finally, in Boatah, what I love most about it is the Siclovia. And that's every Sunday from, I guess, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., many miles of the city streets are shut and open only to bicyclists and joggers and dog walkers and skaters. And so on a sunny day, you might see, I mean, up to 1.5 million, even 2 million people exercising and is fantastic. Walking around having lunch, that sounds like a perfect weekend day. Okay, so where should we go after Bogota? Close to Bogota is the colonial town of Villeneva, and I would say it's about three and a half hours north of Bogota.

And this is one of the most picturesque colonial villages in all of Colombia. The town streets are coalstone and lined with whitewashed adobe houses, and it's not a lot of sites there is just really beautiful. It's sort of in a desert climate. So the weather is always pretty nice. It has Columbia's largest square, which is called the Plaza Mayor, Colonial Churches. And there's a national park nearby where you can hike up to a lagoon that was sacred to the indigenous people who live there. Probably now you'll need to get to the coast.

Cartagena is magical, especially the first time you visit. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a walled city built by the signyards. They built these massive ramparts to protect themselves from English pirates, English and French pirates. And today, you can walk on the wall and have a mojito. It's pretty awesome, yeah. That sounds like an alternative to Debrevnik. It's cheaper, perhaps even more beautiful alternative. Right.

Tell us more about this place. Katerhana, you know, for me, it's about the atmosphere. As many places in the country, it's a unique atmosphere in the old town, old city of Kartagena. You walk down these streets, narrow streets as Bougambiaia streaming down from the old colonial houses. There's squares and plazas with fountains. And, you know, it's not, it's been a tourist destination forever. Even during the worst times of Columbia's violence, Cartana was fine and safe. I guess everybody, even probably the bad guys, came to Cartana to relax and have fun.

There's great watering holes in salsa. to be heard and in Cuban music. And fantastic. Today there's boutique hotels and five-star restaurants. So you may want to plan accordingly, bring a lot of cash. Okay. And we'll find ATMs everywhere? Yeah, yeah.

Okay. And I don't know why ATMs made me think of Uber, but I guess I'm just thinking of conveniences of travel. Uber has made its way to Columbia, I believe. Yes, it's made things a lot, a lot easier and less stressful for travelers. Because, yeah, I'll be getting off the plane on my own. I'm just thinking, how am I going to get to the hotel? So I think that's what I'm going to do.

Actually, when you arrive in Bogota, there's a safe taxi, official taxi line that you can take and you don't need Uber. And is there, I can pay with my credit card? No. Okay, so I have to find, I'll have to get cash at the airport, I guess. Yeah, that's right. Okay. So what food should we be trying when we're in Columbia? Well, first off in Bogota, the signature dish is called Ahiaco. It's like a potato and chicken stew. You know, I know you're vegetarian, so am I. I've made it at home and put tofu instead of the chicken, but that hasn't really taken off in Bogota, sadly. And every region, of course, has their own specialties, like in Medellin.

Another thing, not really for vegetarians, but it's worth mentioning. It's called the Bandeja Paisa, and it has egg, pork rind, beef, and chicken, and just a cholesterol-filled dish, which I hear is great for hangovers. What about EREPAs? Every region has their own arepe. Some of them are they're made from corn, usually white. The one in Medellin is kind of a bland like pancake or something like that. And they eat that for, I think, a breakfast and for lunch for sure.

Some of them, some arearepas are sweet and gooey with cheese. And in Cartagena, have these special arrepas that they eat for. breakfast or for a snack. It's called Arepa Nuevo. And somehow they are able to cook an egg inside a cornmeal, eat it with salt. So I guess I can survive on some cheese a repas. Is there anything else that I would eat? Well, you have to try the tropical fruits that Colombia has.

I mean, there's, of course, mango, papaya, and pineapple. But there are some others that maybe visitors. may not be so familiar with, like, Lolo, which is a tart fruit. It's kind of a distant cousin of the tomato. Or Guanabana, which is a very strange-looking fruit. It's actually it's called sour-stop in English, I guess. It has this milky pulp. And all these fruits, they make juices out of.

So juice, fresh juice at lunchtime is quite popular. So I'll just have a little bit of a detox in Colombia. Yeah. Although I did hear about hot chocolate and cheese. Can you tell me a little bit more about this? Right. That's sort of a tradition in the colder mountain villages. They make hot chocolate and they serve it with a little chunk of cheese that you can,

I guess they put it on the side and you dunk it into the chocolate or you just let it melt in the chocolate. So you drink the chocolate down. and scoop out the gooey cheese at the end. And, of course, that goes with the little, like, pastry, like, Aca or a panderbono, many different types of pastries. Yeah, at first that sounded very strange to me, but then I'm thinking, well, I do like salty and sweet when it comes to a chocolate-covered pretzels or whatever. Sea salt with chocolate, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And then can you tell me about the. sort of non-alcoholic happy hour. What is that tradition in Columbia? It's called Olsys, which literally means 11s. And it's probably between, let's say, 4 and 6.6. 6.30 p.m. That's when people kind of take a break from work or it's after work. They go to a cafe and have coffee or tea and have coffee or tea and seats or,

cakes or something like that, or like some of these pastries like yucca, yucca flour pastries. So it's kind of a tradition, especially in kind of like a, it's almost an old lady tradition in some places, but everybody does like take a break for a coffee at some point in late afternoon. And just hang out and chat. Mm-hmm. Gossip, yeah. Are Colombians big drinkers? What's the nightlife like? Oddly enough, on the coast where it's so hot, on your round, like 85 degrees, they love drinking whiskey. It doesn't seem to me that would have make sense, but whiskey is the drink.

And they listen to music called Bionato, which is the Colombian kind of country cowboy music. But in the cities, music is everywhere. all kinds, salsa, cumbia, and also in the big cities like Bobata, they attract international DJs if you're into that kind of electronic music scene. You were saying that art has become a big thing there. Is there a particular gallery district that we should check out? There's a burgeoning to gallery district called San Felipe. And it's in a working-class neighborhood, kind of an industrial neighborhood and all of a sudden it's just like in the past couple years cropped up kind of out of nowhere under the radar but there are these probably 10 to 15 galleries there where you can visit and do the

gallery hop some of them are linked with galleries in new york and other places but you know you don't have to be in the in the market to purchase art you can just check out check out the art on display. And do they have any of those sort of like cheese and wine affairs where it's sort of like a party atmosphere? There are a couple, it's not, it's not really hoity, toyty kind of like that. It's more, it's probably more like beer, beer and impanadas or something like that. It's sort of a hipster vibe, I suppose.

I like that better. Andrew, before I let you go, could we do a little, lightning round of your Bogota favorites? Sure. Okay, favorite coffee shop. Favorite coffee shop is Asahar coffee. This is a coffee company that was started by an American. And they have a cafe actually in San Felipe so you can go do the gallery thing and then

take a break there at Azahar. And they also have a, their main branch is in the north. And what's special about Asahar is they serve really good coffees, fine special coffees, and a million different preparations. But what they have a social impact policy. They only source from small farmers in different regions throughout Columbia, paying them much more than like some of the bigger coffee companies paid. It's kind of a fair fair.

a fair trade policy, I suppose, or fair commerce policy. Sounds like the type of place I would want to support. And then, okay, so where do you like to go to lunch? And help us vegetarians out. Is there anywhere we can go? Well, I'm with you on that. I'm vegetarian. And it's really remarkable Bogota is seeing vegetarian restaurants crop up.

Bogota is always changing. I guess that's kind of a theme with Bogota and Columbia. new things coming all the time, new construction, new restaurants, new hotels. But vegetarian restaurants, before I'd have to kind of rely on a can of lentils or something when I traveled somewhere. But nowadays, there's several. To point out one of them, one is quite fancy that just opened a couple months ago, and it's called Makeout. And it's by a chef from New York. Matthew Kinney, he has a fancy vegetarian restaurant in New York and in Miami as well.

So that's on the high end of vegetarian and kind of on the lower end but also good. You can check out raw and also vegetal, vegetal. And they usually have like a set lunch menu for probably like $8. I am going to get so fit when I'm in Columbia eating, drinking all this juice. and eating around food. What about dinner? What time do people generally go out? Do you have a favorite place?

Well, I'll say that probably they go out a little bit later than Americans do. You know, probably eight-ish, nine. And there's a district in Boatah called Chapinero Alto. You know, I mentioned Chapinero is sort of known for being the gay district, but it's not really all that gay. It means gay, hipster, and I don't know. It's kind of a pleasant kind of barrio. And there are several restaurants there that are kind of fun and happening.

There's one called, has the best name. It's called Vianos in Bermudas, which literally means villains in Bermuda shorts. And I don't know why. I think it came from a dream by the owner. Yeah, and they serve like fusion Fusion Colombian European food There's another place in that same area

of Chapinero Alto called Salvo Patria I'm just still like I can't get over I had a dream and I will call it Villains in Bermuda shorts That's the story I got Yeah But it's worth mentioning One more

One more play which is the most famous, most widely known restaurant in Colombia. It's called Andres Canning duress, which literally means Andrew Beef, which I kind of, I think that's funny. It's Andrew what? Sorry, I didn't hear. Beef, Andrew Beef. Yeah. So, anyway, it's a huge, huge restaurant.

They have a couple of sites. but it's a fun carnivalesque atmosphere and they serve all kinds of Colombian dishes from all over the country waiters all waiters and waiters are all dressed up in costume and they do they act crazy and they have musical shows and you can you know usually you have dinner and then it just kind of at some point everybody is dancing that sounds fun okay I'll let it the list. And what about wine or cocktail bar? Is there like any sort of

aperitivo tradition or do people generally just drink after dinner or what is the story there? I would say well, first of all the, yeah, whiskey is quite popular throughout the country so I know, it's not my thing. Oh, I love

it. I cannot wait for this true. Oh, really? Okay, good. You'll be in the right place. Most of the new hotels have swanky bars, cocktail bars and on the rooftop? On the low, some of them have

terraces, yeah, yeah, those are nice and this is in the north of the city. But on the lower end, the very low end, you'll see walking around, if you're spending time in Bogota, you'll see these little mom-and-pop little tiendas where they have a couple of tables, and then right around 5 o'clock, you'll see people gathered drinking beer and listening to music and telling stories with their friends.

So you can try to join in with them if you want. I need to save a lot of money. I only have a few hours to learn Spanish. Well, they're very patient with Spanish. It's a good place to learn Spanish because Colombian Spanish is quite clear. and especially in Bogota. There were a couple of good schools there too. I did hear that if you wanted to try to learn Spanish,

like Columbia was the place to go because of the accent. So, okay, so how about museums or any sort of cultural experience? What is your favorite? Boatah is the cultural capital of Columbia. Tons of museums. There's also a famous theater festival that takes place every two years. It's an international festival. It's taking place.

In fact, this year, it's usually around Samana Santa, which is Holy Week, Easter Week. Normally, in Easter, everybody takes off from, Utah and heads to the coast or somewhere else. But during the theater festival time, a lot of people come to Boketal, actually. And it's amazing because at anyone, on any one day, every

evening there's like 10 different plays or dance productions you can go see and these are from

all over the world the U.S. Slovenia, Australia, everywhere, Korea. That's the theater festival. How do we get tickets for that?

Do we just show up or what was you can I would I think I would Google it. Tell us the name.

I'm sorry. Can you tell me the name of the festival again? It's called the Festival International de Teatro de Boca. I think. We can Google that. F-I-T-B, yeah. There's also a good website to check for goings-on, like big concerts and stuff, is to boleta, T-U-B-O-L-E-A dot com.

And you can see what's going on. Maybe there's something happening. while you're here. And what about like a food or designer market? Are there any places we can go to pick up some cool souvenirs to remember Columbia by? Food in Bogota, there's a famous market called Palo Kamal. And that's sort of near the Kandallaria downtown. And it's humongas and sells fruits and vegetables.

And there is a fish and beef and stuff on. that. But what's nice about it is if you can get up at 4 in the morning and go there, that's when the flower cell are out. And you have to go there early to get the most beautiful flowers. And would they let me just buy like a bouquet or do I have to be a whole like a whole say? Yeah. Oh yeah. You can do that. Yeah, sure. Okay. But Columbia is a huge flower producing country. Okay. And handicrafts, every part of Columbia has their own handicraft. These are century old traditions, usually from indigenous tribes, for instance, like in the coast, the Caribbean coast, they weave beautiful, colorful hammocks. And they're also known for their sombrero voltial.

It means like a turned hat, which refers to the process of making it. It's a woven hat made from this special reed that grows there. And it's sort of like the symbol of Columbia. It's like a cowboy hat sort of. That's the symbol of Columbia. Are people still wearing these like on a day-to-day basis? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

And especially, yeah, especially in the coast on the, in the countryside. There's a fantastic Artisania's festival, handicraft fair. It takes place in Bogota. December and you'll see hand-woven and hand-produced items from all over the country, indigenous tribes from the jungles of the Amazon. And the government actually pays for them to come to Bogota during that time to help sell their wares, and it's a major source of income for them. But if you're not lucky enough to go during that fair in December, you can look for Artisania's

handicrafts in markets. There's some that are geared towards tourists downtown, which are kind of fun to visit. But there's also like high-end handicrafts at the store called Artesanillas de Columbia. And they have a store in Bogota and in Cartagena. Are there any cultural tips we should know about before we go to Columbia so we don't embarrass ourselves? Columbians are very warm and welcoming people. One of the differences that it's really remarkable and I really like about Columbia is that they're actually glad that you're there. If you go to, you know, Germany, nobody cares. But they're actually grateful and proud that you've chosen their country to visit because, you know, it helps, the economy and helps a lot of people and changes people's minds about the country. So,

that's number one. They're very friendly. And when you meet people, you have to go through some pleasantries before you get into the conversation. So you have to ask, how are you, and what have you been doing, and hello? It's kind of, it's a point,

but you have to reserve, like, five minutes for that, those pleasantries. So they enjoy the smell talk before getting into, like, the meat of a conversation. Yeah. Yeah. if you're kind of the New York attitude, like getting down to it. Immediately, they're kind of taken back, I guess.

It's so funny because it's all relative, isn't it? Because I was just, you know, talking to somebody on my Romanian podcast, and she was the sweet British woman. And she was shocked at how, like, direct Romanians could be. And now it's interesting to me that Colombians can be shocked at how, I suppose, direct British. or Americans could seem because we're not having all these intro questions. So yes, it's good to be mindful that that's important in their culture to have a nice

little warm-up chat. So I like that. And then as far as tipping goes for like restaurants, bars, taxis is what is the tipping culture in Columbia? I wouldn't worry too much about tipping. Like in Bovotah in the major restaurants, there's 10% already. included you have to look for that on the bill it's the servicio and cluido in small towns and that's that's true as well in Cartagena in small towns it's not

usually expected or if you'd like just a like five or ten percent taxis you don't really tip sometimes they'll include the tip without your permission but you don't need to tip them And in bars, you don't need to really tip either. Okay, so it sounds like in general, tips are included or it's not expected. Right. In general. Okay.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all of these great advice. Where can people find out more about you? I guess Facebook, Andrew Deere. And you can check out my book. It's Moon Columbia. And I also have Moon Cartagena if you're playing on the Caribbean coast. if you're playing on visiting the coast. Yes, definitely check those out.

And I cannot wait to go there and drink some whiskey and get some sun and read your book, Andrew. So thank you. Have a great trip, Sarah. Thanks again, Andrew. Okay, Columbia, here I come. I am ready to drink whiskey on the beach and also fresh juice and hot chocolate with cheese in it.

I will actually be gone for several weeks. After Columbia, I'm adding to Oaxaca, Mexico. I have been thinking about that region's deletion. delicious food ever since Crystal Dyer talked about it on the episode on how to find the cheapest flights and other travel deals. And I think Crystal and I are actually going to meet up and hang out, so that is so cool. I'm not just going to be bumming around. I will be interviewing some really great people and working on a few other projects. All of this is to say that the Postcard Academy will be on a little one-month hiatus,

and I miss you so much already. But I look forward to speaking to you in what I guess we can call season two. I will be on Instagram though, so if you want to see photos of Colombia or Mexico, you'll find me at Postcard Academy. That's all for now. Until we meet again in March, have a beautiful few weeks wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarah micotel.com slash blank no more.