Today was an awesome day. After many days of having lectures on how to teach TEFL and learning Spanish, worldteach took us on a day fieldtrip. We ate breakfast at the hotel downstairs. Every morning from 8am-9am they have a nice buffet of fruit, bread, cheeses, fresh squizzed juices, coffee and more. Also they offer special Colombian foods like arepas with cheese or egg( a mass of corn) tamales, and omelets. The fruit in general is wonderful. My new favorite fruit are the pitaya and granadilla. A granadilla is like an orange tenis ball with a hard shell, but inside there is sweet juice and seeds to suck. The pitaya is a yellow bumpy fruit on the outside that is white and has tiny black seeds on the inside, and is super sweet. In general the fruits and vegetables here are great. Other favorites are friend plaintains, empanadas ( masses of dough with either cheese or meat) and a sausage stuffed with rice. I really don't understand it
colombia offers really amazing food, yet all Colombians are really fit!
We got on the bus to go to Laguna de Guatavita at 9am. The path there had a lot of greenery. This land was once owned by the indiginous Colombians who believed that the mountains was the male and the water or spiritual was the female. The male mountains conqured the water to form a laguna by penetrating the water. It's a mix of really wonderful spiritual believes, and i can't help but to think that it has a bit of machismo. Also our tourguide told us a story of how to be a casique (chief) the nephew of the chief has to spend nine years of isolation in a cave, when he gets to the next stage he has to spend 4 years in a different cave, but with the four most beautiful women of the village coming to tease him every night. The chief in training has to force himself not to give into the relations with the females for 4 years every night in order to prove himself as the casique. It's a funny story that reflects a lot on the culture that is still strong now in day in most of latin america, which is machismo.
The lake sits between beautiful greenery. It is believed to be created by a crated that fell to earth harboring the gold god, which up to then has lived on the bottom of the lake. Throughout the years this had been the reasons for the Spaniards trying to extract gold from this area in Colombia and calling it 'el dorado'.
Laguna de Guatavita is located about 50km outside of Bogota. It was a spiritual lake for the Muisca people (indiginous Colombian). It was about an hour walk to the top of the mountain, with twists and turns, many lush green mountains, farms out in the distance, and many curved trails that were hidden by tree branches. It felt like being in an enchanted rainforest. There were also many stone stairs to get up to the lake, which reminded me of many of the hikes in Mexico. Once at the top, the laguna was incredible. In one picture you can see the greenery sorounding the lake, the lake itself, the skyline, the farms out in the distance, the trees and green mountains in the surrounding areas, and the clear blue sky dotted with clouds.
The next place we visited was called the city of Guatavita. All the houses have white walls and red rooftops made out of clay. The town is really nice and has a friendly atmosphere. It's mostly restruants, music, and indiginous artists selling thier arts and crafts. If you keep walking down there is also a nice waterview. Some of the indiginous Colombian arts and crafts include: dreamcatchers, handmade earing and neckleces, handsewn bags, ceramics, clay pots, straw-woven baskets, brightly knitted ponchos, and more.
More then the arts and crafts what really surprised me about Bogota was its people. When I went to buy my brightly colored bag, i started speaking to the man selling them, and he told me that he had been living in Bogota for a while and that he moved to this laid back town to sell his artwork. He told me about Manizales my placement site, and assured me that if I was to come back he would show me all the good places to eat and give me a tour of the town. A 'buenos dias' 'buenos tardes' or 'buenas noches', good morning, afternoon, or night, can turn into a conversation with a Colombian. As an American coming into a new culture I was very hessitent about what I should do and how I should act with Colombians. At first i didn't great anyone and that was a shame. My field director Courtney ( the one in charge of the volunteers while we are here) told me that if i simply greet Colombians they are superfriendly. Now I greet everyone with a hello and good day, thier attitude totally changes, they open up and give you the biggest smile. When i went to the restroom, i said good day to a girl and her face lit up, she gave me a genuine smile side to side, with a mouth full of braces. Colombians, are most likely the warmest people i have ever met! For example the other night when i went out to dance salsa at a discotech with the worldteach group, even if a 30 or 40 year old guy asked me to dance that would be acceptable. Here the culture is to be happy and dance, if a guy sees a women not dancing he will ask her to dance not becuase he's interested but for the pure joy of dancing. Guys in Colombia are amazing dancers, even the old men! They are also very willing to teach, so I have a good feeling i'll be a much better dancer when i come back to the States!
The last part of our tour was the well known 'catedral de sal Zipaqueria', the salt cathedral. In this case pictures are worth much more then words, but unfortunatly i was not able to put great pictures, becuase it was very dark inside, so i will try to describe it. As we walked in out tourguide explained to us that salt is a natural resource of the mountains and that in just 3 years Colombian workers created a cave made entirely out of salt within the mountain. The cave includes many displays of crosses, some made out of plaster, and others out of salt. It also includes scenes of the resurrection of jesus, and beatiful reproductions of statues such as angels, and works of michaelangelo and davinci. For me the most amazing part was the ceiling in the center of the salt cave. As you looked up you could see the milkyway made out of salt, and the while illuminated by a blue lights to display the details. The whole construction is 1.5km, or tunells which run underground, and which include, many statues, croses, and prayer rooms, all made entirely out of salt.
At the end of the day we came back to the pension viaggio and our field director bought us pizza. We were all so hungry from a day of walking that as a group of 20 people we finished 8 pizzas. There were hawaiian, peperoni, mushroom, tomato, cheese, and also pizza without cheese! Up to now the orientation in Bogota has gone above and beyond my expectations, the lectures are very relevant, the trips are fun, and of course the food is amazing! Hasta pronto. Next time I write will be from either Bogota or Manizales. Que tenga un buen dia
Miss everyone,
Besos,
Neta
