My last weeks in Colombia; the last of everything

Those two last weeks flew past before you could say Colombia. Jeroen and I passed the Directors office a couple of times to talk about our project and all of us needed to organize all the paperwork concerning our stay.

The last weekend it was out of the question not to go party, so we went. Sunday we went to Girardot, about one or two hours away from Ibagué. There wasn’t a lot to see and it was extremely hot, so we –our ‘family’ and a bunch of friends- went swimming. 

Monday we gave a good bye party in and out of our house which was very nice. There were about 20 people, couple of them from my class, couple of neighbours and a couple of IAESTE people. Few beers, music, crisps and nice people, what more do you need?

We – Sebas, Jeroen, Marie and I- were invited again by the sweetest neighbours ever to come and have dinner. I will definitely miss them!

Thursday evening was our last evening in Ibagué, as we had to leave to Bogota Friday. Then we went to a nice bar with a group of friends, where we had a wonderful evening. As a good bye present everybody wrote something on a Colombian flag. I love it. Love them for that matter. Hopefully we will see each other again, in Belgium – you are extremely welcome to stay at my place!- or in Colombia. 

Hasta Luego Colombia, te quiero..

Villa de Leyva, Cartagena and Playa Blanca

Two weekends ago we went on a trip with a lot of international students. Saturday was a bit of a letdown; we spent the whole day in the bus en left the bus only to take pictures, but Sunday was really fun. A couple of us decided to go and see the village of Villa de Leyva. It was a beautiful small village. We explored the environment by horse with a 13 year old guide. It was fantastic! Afterwards I was stiff about everywhere, but it was worth it; It was between the mountains and bluegreen lakes.

 

After working for school  for a week–I was making a resume of the course- Sebastian, Marie and I took a flight to Cartagena. The bus trip to Bogota was 4 hours and the flight took 1,5 hours. Cartagena is a very touristic city in the north, at the Caraibic sea. I was very curious to see the city, as every Colombian had said it was beautiful. You have different parts of Cartagena; the new part with flats everywhere next to the beach, and the old part, surrounded by a wall. In my course of restauration I learnt that restauration isn’t really integrated in the Colombian culture and that the major of Cartagena wanted to destroy the whole wall to make room for more buildings! Luckily only a small part got destroyed.

Because we were exhausted from our trip, we spent the day on the beach. There were so many vendors; every 5 of 10 minutes thay passed! A popular profession was massaging. Most of the women just rubbed your back..

The afternoon of the second day we went to see the beautiful colourful old town. In the old part, every house has a different colour and a lot of them have pittoresque balcony’s that often hang over the sidewalks.

Most people say it’s at its prettiest at night. Pretty it is, but even at night it’s hot! One walks around at night time with shorts and t-shirt and still transpirates!

After our dinner we headed back home for yet another shower and then prepared us for a night out. We went with our new friends- an Argentine and a Belgian girl who were married- and some of their Colombian friends.

Day three we went to Playa Blanca, White Beach, where we met a nice Spanish girl and an English couple who accompanied us. Because it was a Carraibic island, we decided we had to go there. It was absolutely breathtaking! White beaches –as the name says- crystal blue water and coconut trees… Sigh…

PS We lost the pictures taken in Cartagena but Marta, our new Spanish friend, will sent us hers when she gets back to Spain. I'll probably upload the photo's then!

Week two and three in Ibagué

Monday morning of the first working week Jeroen and I went to a conference with the mayor. Sebas and Marie-Laure didn’t come because he had to work and she was –still- ill because she drank tap water on Thursday. I really had to concentrate to understand but I did understand quite a bit. People from the press took a picture of us –a few of the IAESTE people- with the mayor and his wife and a after that the mayor gave us his card and talked to every one of us. It struck me again how everything is so informal! At the hostel last Sunday in Medellin the woman of the hostel hugged us goodbye!

In the afternoon our - Jeroen and me- classes started. It is a two week course about restoration. Because the teacher is Italian, she speaks really slow and clear Spanish, unlike all the Colombians here. So I understood a lot! We’re with about 25-30 people in our class and they’re really nice!
 We visited the train station of Picaleña with the class to see our case study. It was beautiful but it was a ruin. About 4 families live there and they were refugees of another part of Colombia. It was really dangerous to live there; I was allowed on the first floor and I was actually afraid that I would fall through the floor!
The class was split up in four groups and each group investigated something else: materials, drawings, social context and history.

 


















That weekend was a quiet one; we visited Ibagué, did shopping and Sunday was a baby shower in our house. Not a baby of one of us, it was the baby shower of the daughter of Doña Marleny, our land lady. There were chairs throughout the whole street and you could hear the music two blocks further. There was one man who was fantastic; a small black man about 70 years old, big belly, a hat,… He danced the whole evening! And really good!
Week two of the course we worked in our groups and got ready for the presentation of Friday. The presentation was really nice and formal. After the presentation we – the whole class- went for a drink.

The weekend after that was three days because Monday was a holiday. We had an extra day off! (Well, we don’t really have that many days “on” so.. ) Friday we went with the whole group of IAESTE – an international organization – to a club of someone’s sister. And Saturday we went with the same group on a chiva and after that to Tereque, a famous bar in Ibagué. A chiva is a bus with less chairs than normal and with loud music. So while the bus is driving, everybody is partying. A nice experience, but I prefer a club that doesn’t move!

During the day – Saturday – there was an international meeting with presentations from different nationalities and a couple of little concerts and traditional dances.
Sunday we went to see the waterfalls of Payandé. Beautiful. Extremely hot, but the water was cold, so perfect combination. We were with a lot of nationalities; from Colombia, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, China, …
Funny was that there were a couple of people wanted to take pictures of me and Marie-Laure. Our fifteen minutes of fame!

The week after that was a calm week; Jeroen and I are making a book; A kind of report of the two weeks and our reflections of it. I’m reading the book of our teacher, but it’s going very slowly because it is in Spanish. But I will succeed..

Our house and neighborhood

Our little red house in the little street

Our view when we go to school (here it's a bit clowdy)

Other views of Onzaga

Our first week in Ibagué and our trip to Medellin

Iiiieuw, monday morning I had a cockroach in my bedroom! It lay on his back, so I was planning to keep him there till he died, but then Sebastian – my German ‘roommate’ – killed him and threw him in the toilet. I told this to Jessica and she started laughing; I wasn’t dead or didn’t break a leg, so what was the problem?!

We – Sebastian, Marie-Laure and me – visited Ibagué centre for the first time, with our new guide Yesica. Ibagué is told to be a small town but there are about 600 000 inhabitants!
There was a music school with the ‘Music Park’ in front of it. We just arrived at the ‘park’ and two people invited us for coffee! As a Belgian I was thinking “  What do they want?”, but they just wanted to give us coffee! The two guys had a tiny café next to the Conservatory where people could ask information about Ibagué. Before we left, they asked us to write something in our language. We wrote the same sentence in Dutch, French, English, German and Afrikaans (Sebastian has lived there). Normally they’re going to paint it on the walls! Well, we can go and check up with them in a few weeks.

There were very funny traffic lights for the pedestrians; you could see how many seconds there were left if you wanted to cross the street. If you had less than 10 seconds, the green man started running! :D
The whole week we discovered new things of Ibagué. One of the first things I discovered was that eating out was cheaper than cooking yourself! The first day we ate ate at home and cooked spaghetti. Marlena and Yesica also ate the spaghetti but found it very strange that there were carrots in it and that we didn’t use cream.

Because Felipe’s family invited us to the swimming pool on Sunday, we thought we’d do something in return. So Marie-Laure and I went out to buy eggs and chocolate for chocolate mousse. We only found one kind of chocolate and we bought the eggs at Yesica’s parents’ shop. Suddenly ew had a problem with the eggs –the mixer was too fast- and the chocolate started getting hard again! So we bought an other 20 eggs –yes, 20, it was for 20 people- and started pouring milk with the chocolate. The result wasn’t that good but everybody ate everything. I hope it was because they liked it and not because of good manners!
We did have a lot of chocolate sauce which we ate with crackers, really good!
And we’re now sick of the thought of eating egg, because we had an omelet with about 20 egg yokes. Divided by three but nevertheless; it could kill somebody!

Marie-Laure and I also went to the university a couple of times to get to know the peole and our project. The director of the architecture department drove us to the places where our 'case studies' were. He is really friendly! As always here in Colombia, it was really informal. 

The weather here is mostly very good- about 25°C average- but it has been raining a lot lately.
Thursday we met a lot of other IAESTE students – the organization which we’re here for. There were people of Germany, Colombia, Jamaica, England,…

Friday evening we left with a group of IAESTE people to Medellin. The bus was really comfortable but it was ice cold! The weather outside wasn’t that good either;  there was a storm!
At 6 in the morning we arrived safely. We checked in in our hostel, took a little nap, and left for the city center.

We saw a couple of plaza’s and took a few cable lifts where we saw the slums.
As in Ibagué, the rich people live uphill while the poor live closer to the river.
We thought we’d see flowers because it was Feria del Flores but apparently all the farmers come to Medellin with their flowers and at the end of the feria, they all walk in a big parade.
We did see hundreds of horses because there was a horse parade. Of course we bought ‘sombrero’s’!
At night we went to the zona Rosa, the ‘party neighborhood’. It was extremely crowded because of the Feria!

Sunday morning we headed back to Ibagué with one extra passenger; Jeroen, an other Belgian –also of Sint-Lucas- who’s also going to live in our house.

Sunday in Ibagué; todo es tranquilo

This morning we packed our stuff for the swimming pool and left for Yesica’s house. We went with her boyfriend’s family and it was an hour drive.
It was Nestor’s birthday today – the father of Felipe, Yesica’s boyfriend. The swimming pool wasn’t at all what I imagined! It was a pretty pool with a ‘hut’ next to it, in between the mountains. The whole family was there and we were welcomed like old friends! As always we ate good food and way too much!

Before we arrived at the pool, we stopped at a shop where the boys bought licor. Apparently this is normal, because all the adults drank it. There was aguardiente - a drink with anis - and rum with sprite. I’m not crazy about the aguardiente, it is really strong.
We played volleybal and chatted whole afternoon, with the whole family, very nice!

I knew Ibagué was called the music city of Colombia because of the Conservatory, but I’ve also noticed Colombian people always listen to – mostly loud – music. The funny thing is that even the sad songs sound very happy!

Our arrival in Ibagué

Saturday we left for Ibagué. Before taking the taxi, we said goodbye to Katia and Oscar and thanked them for their hospitality! 

We took the bus at noon and drove for about 4,5 hours. Very nice views; spectacular mountains, eclectic villages, people selling things at the side of the road,…

It would have been more beautiful if I didn’t have to go to the bathroom! I had to go after one hour on the road. Especially the last hour was difficult because there were a lot of huge bumps on the street! At that moment I wasn’t even afraid of the chaffeur’s driving style anymore! Here in Colombia everybody drives twice as fast as the signs tell you to drive. I first thought they counted in mile per hour, but it was kilometer per hour! Anyway, Colombian drivers have given me a couple of heart attacks, but I’m still alive! I can’t get used of the lack of seatbelts in the taxi’s though…

Before we left we were told you shouldn’t buy food in the bus but I didn’t understand why, until the bus stopped in the first village; there were at least 10 people trying to sell us fruit, sandwiches, ice creams,…


We arrived at about 5 pm and there a lovely woman waited for us; she was named Claudia and would bring us to our house. She is about 24 and studies after work. I thought I would stay in a host family, separate from Marie-Laure, but apparently they changed plans; now we’re together with a German boy and it’s not really a host family. The house belongs to a woman who lives close to us. She is called Marlena and is very sweet. She has a daughter but she already has children of her own.


Our address is Onzaga Manzana 10 casa 2, Ibagué (Tolima), Colombia (South America)


We unpacked and met another girl. She was named Yesica and she lived one block away from us. The blocks are really small so she is practically our neighbor. We met her family, who were also very nice people. They own the neighborhood shop and know the whole neighborhood. We talked the whole evening and played with her little sister and dog. At the end of the evening we got invited to go to a swimming pool the next day; of course we said yes!

A new day in Bogota

Thursday Marie-Laure, Ana – a Colombian friend - and I visited Monserraté, a church on top of the mountains where you could see the whole of Bogota. This was spectacular! Bogota lies between the mountaintops and it is huge. There are about 8 million inhabitants!

Some people used to climb the mountain on their knees, but now the path is under construction because it was too dangerous.
Behind the church there were hundreds of plaques with prayers and thank you's for God. I even read one where they thanked God for giving him an American visa!

While we were passing the little shops, we met 3 Irish guys who were on a trip trough South-America.
When we got down with the teleferico - elevators- we took a cab downtown and visited the Botero museum. Botero is a famous Colombian artist who draws fat people in a cartoonesk way. Apparently he and his wife are very thin! The museum building was fantastic; it had patios, balconies, fountains,… Botero’s art wasn’t really my cup of tea although I really liked his version of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

After dinner at Ana’s we met up with the Irish guys and a couple of Colombian friends. They also invited friends who invited their friends. So after a while we were a group of about 15 people with different nationalities; Australian, Irish, American, Colombian, Dutch and Belgian! It was a great evening. Very strange finding yourself on the other side of the world, in a metropole, having fun with a lot of people you've never seen before!
Afterwards Marie-Laure and I stayed at Juliana’s apartment – another Colombian friend. It was a strange yet wonderful day!

Discovering Bogota

Wednesday we did a lot!

Both Marie-Laure and I woke up at about 6 am Colombian time, because it was about 14 o’clock Belgian time. We had a heavenly breakfast! Fruit, joghurt, bread, orange juice, tea and eggs :)

At noon Juliana, another friend of Marie-Laure's, came to pick us up. We went to Ana and from there, we took the taxi to the local university. The traffic is terrifying! Funny signs too; like ‘forbidden to honk’ or ‘watch out crashing cars’. It seems that taxi’s never use their indicators!

Anyway, when we arrived at the university we met up with two other friends of them. They just had their first day of school.

The ‘village’ around the school was called ‘La Candelaria’. It was filled with colonial buildings with a lot of colours.

After a brief walk through El Chorro, a famous little street, we had lunch at a Mexican/Colombian restaurant named ‘Dos Gatos Y Simone’. Very good, but very heavy!

After lunch we went to the ‘museo del Oro’, the goldmuseum. We even learnt something new: Tumbago! Marie-Laure was even baptized ‘Tumbago-Girl’ by our guide (because she was pointing out every tumbago-object).
Tumbago was ‘gold’ but it existed of 30 percent gold and 70 percent copper, which gave the pinkish colour.
Apparently El Dorado was in Colombia: the Spanish people thought tumbago was real gold, but actually it wasn’t worth that much. Nevertheless, I thought it was as beautiful as real gold.
While visiting the museum, we met another friend of the girls, so we were with 6 people.

We visited the three churches in front of the museum, but we couldn’t visit the Botero museum because there was a protest. So we strolled along the presidential building and the plaza del Bolivar, where we met a homeless guy who knew everything of every building.

After our walk we took the bus, which was an experience itself! These very little busses kept their doors open most of the time and stopped everywhere people held their arms out.

We went to Ana’s house and had a drink and left for dinner. We sat outside while eating but it was surprisingly cold! In Bogota the weather is relatively cold because it's situated in the mountains.

I had a lot of fun, Colombian people are such nice people!

The adventure begins!

So tuesday I finally left for Colombia! Marie-Laure and I said goodbye to friends and family and left together. The adventure begins!

The flights went very well. Especially Brussels-Barcelona, as we talked the whole flight.

We had to wait a bit at the airport of Barcelona because the flight was late. It was really quiet there; you really had the feeling the airport was almost empty!

The plane was really big; I didn't know there would be so many people going to Colombia! It was a pleasant flight. Everybody even had a little television screen. That was quite a funny sight, all those screens in the dark.

During our flight we visited our newly acquired Colombian friends Maria-Carolina and Fernando, who were sitting in the back of the plane. We met them before we boarded. They were very friendly! Maria-Carolina wrote us a whole guide about beautiful places and good food. This made me very excited for the rest of the trip!

After the arrival - the flight took more than 10 hours- we had to go past the immigration to get a visa. As a tourist you are allowed to stay for 60 days, but somehow the man behind the glass didn't understand me (although I clearly said I was a tourist and that I would stay in Ibagué) and he gave me a visa for 45 days. Luckily our friends were able to help us and finally I got 60 days.

Apparently you can elongate your stay to more than 100 days. I guess I just looked like a criminal..

Maria-Carolina and Fernando said Marie-Laure and I looked like Colombian people and would blend in the crowd. Now I only have to learn how to speak Spanish properly!

When we finally got outside Ana, a friend of Marie-Laure's, and her parents picked us up. They took us to the apartment where we would be staying. The apartment belonges to Oscar and Katia, two people from the Belgian Embassy and old friends of my grandparents.

Today was Colombia’s Independence Day. The country has been independent from Spain for 200 years now. That’s why there were so many people at the airport; a lot of flights were delayed for 3 hours because of the air show. For the same reason there were also a lot of closed streets, what which lead to a delay in arrival at Katia and Oscar’s. Oscar thought we had taken a taxi, so at the time we arrived, he was a bit worried. Such lovely people!

Their penthouse reminds me of a museum; everywhere you look there are paintings, statues and old furniture. It is a bit of a maze because all the rooms are octagonal or abstract.

Because we had been awake for almost 24 hours, the soft bed was more than welcome!

Ibagué

Ibagué is the capital city of the Tolima department of Colombia and is located at 1285 meters (4215 feet) above sea level on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Central, between the Combeima and the Chipalo rivers.

The city is known as ‘the musical capital of Colombia’, due to its famous conservatory and musical events during the year. Ibagué is a small city with a special charm. There are about 465.859 inhabitants.

The Villa de San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas ("Town of Saint Boniface of Ibagué of the Valley of the Spears") was founded in Cajamarca, on 14 oktober 1550 by the Spanish Captain Andrés López de Galarza. The regular attacks of the local Pijao-indians lead to the removal of the city by the Spaniards, to its current place, 42 km to the east. The current name is shortened to Ibagué.

Grotere kaart weergeven

Me, Myself & I

Name: Eline Verriest

Age: 21

Place of residence: Bertem, Belgium

Currently living in: Ibagué, Colombia

Studies: Starting my final year in Interior Architecture (master)

School: Sint-Lucas (Wenk) in Schaarbeek, Brussels

Hobbies: Playing the accordeon and the piano, ballet dancing and doing some creative stuff...

The Project

This building in this photo is the old station of Picaleña.

The project I'm (going to be) working on is a part of a big research project investigating the meaning of cultural identity in developing countries.

Durability is not only important in technique and energy but also in cultural elements. In a country like Colombia there isn’t much public interest in cultural and architectural heritage and in the social identity of the people. Old characterizing buildings are being replaced by American looking architecture.


This project focuses on learning how creative you can be with the original typologies and the redirection of old(er) architecture.

I will help develop strategies to redefine the qualities of the typologies in terms of a new future.

This project is a multidisciplinary cooperation with the University of Ibagué and is done under the supervision of professors of the University of Pisa and Rome.
The first half of August, there will be a course where we shall occupy ourselves with the elements of restauration, technical concepts, history of the architecture, making technical drawings, studying building materials, repair and integration of the building in the environment and exploring new possibilities for the building. The latter will be a continuous work process throughout the following weeks.

Two of my fellow students of Sint-Lucas will accompany me to Ibagué. One of them, Jeroen Stevens, will work on this project and the other one, Marie-Laure Paquet, will work on another one.

Links

Here's some links to websites that interest me or that have something to do with me or the project I'm working on.

• Sint-Lucas. The website of the school where I intend to graduate in 2011.
  http://www.architectuur.sintlucas.wenk.be/index.php?id=1290  

• VLIR-UOS. The organisation that offered me this scholarship.
  http://www.vliruos.be/