The Colombia Archives } My trip to Colombia
Alright, what's up guys? so, you don't understand how many times I've tried to film this. This little explanation of what was going on in In Colombia. I don't know. I just I tried scripting it but I looked way too uncomfortable and like you know like I was saying I guess I'm not a good actor but so I'm just not going to script it and talk about like just talk from the heart about my experience in Colombia, you know. So that's why it might seem a little bit of all over the place because I just I freestyled it, you know, I guess we'll start from the beginning on Colombian.
For those of you who don't know, I was born in Colombia and lived there for six years of My life, which was, and enough time to be able to learn Spanish and read it and well, talk it proficiently, I guess. But before the trip, I did not remember anything about Colombia. I was way too young to retain any of my memories there.
so that part of me, just nonexistent 17 years ago, my dad went to Colombia for work. He's an American but he learned to speak Spanish in his teen years or something like that. Maybe a little younger. But yeah, he was living in Colombia and my mom, my mom who's always lived in Colombia her entire life, you know, that's like all she knew and they got married and they had me in 6 years later after the had me, we moved to the United States for his work.
So yeah, that's how that happened and the last time we visited Colombia after moving was 7 years ago and I barely remember any of that and I just felt like I lost contact with my culture, you know? And I really wanted to reconnect with my relatives, who I, I don't, didn't remember at all. Like, I felt like, I barely knew them, and so that's when I decided that I wanted to go back and I wanted it to be my 16th birthday present and, you know, So my dad agreed and so me and my mom got the tickets. Just for both of us and on March 30th 2023, We embarked on a journey back to my birth country. I was really excited to go back. I was so ready to explore Colombia and reconnect with my culture and eat all the food because I swear, Colombian food is just so good.
It's literally the best thing ever. And obviously see my relatives again, especially my aunt. My aunt, Who's the youngest sister out of four, she Helped My mom take care of me and my sister when we were younger living Colombia and she's the one that visits us most, so, I'm closest to her and she's like, basically, like my best friend, like we get along so well, and I love her. Ya simple as that I don't know what else to say. She's she's just the best. So I was really excited to see her and I wanted to see my cousins Laura, and Jacobo when we got there.
It was like a whole other world like first of all, I live in Florida so it's super super flat here. No mountains, just plains. And then I'm going to Colombia where it's literally all mountains. It was like, wow, this is beautiful. So when I did get to know my relatives specifically, my aunts and my grandma, they all welcomed me with open arms.
Well it was such a relief that they were so kind about taking me in. I mean, you know, I was scared about how well my Spanish was going to be there and scared that the culture shock will be too much. I don't know, I was scared but they helped me through it and they were super nice and they guided me all throughout these different towns in Colombia that we visited. And I can't complain. They're just the best. We had a really good time.
Oh my God. I said that I wanted to get to know my cousins, right? So the first time we went out all together, we went to this butterfly exhibit, which is really cool. I took a million photos and we had really good time.
It kind of felt like I always knew them like have you ever met a person where you just start talking to them? It feels like you've always known them. That was what I felt with my cousins. So I'm super grateful that everything went really smoothly and yeah, and we had a really good time. So, another thing we did is that Jacobo invited me to his basketball practice because I love basketball. I love watching it and playing it.
So I want to see what it was like, you know, in a whole other country in South America, what? And they're really good I will say, and I had a really good time. Practicing my Sports Photography. So you can go ahead and look at that.
My family was like, basically my tour guides throughout all these little towns near Calarca where we were all living that we visited. So I'm not going to show you every single little thing that happened but I will show you the the highlights because well there was some exhausting boring, just not so amazing times and I'm not going to lie to you and say that everything was amazing. Like that's just the truth.
So but I'm not going to bore you with all those details. I'm just going to show you the highlights and yeah. So this is my bag. We get a good look at my underwear, love that for me.
So yeah, I'm going to put these shoes in there. I'm going to wear those shoes to the airport. I'm going to also pack my Converse because these are essential I wear them with like most of my outfits. So yeah.
So a little update. It's Wednesday, 12:19. Yeah.
One day before. I already checked into my flight me and my mom did we had a little crisis trying to fill out the Colombian immigration paper stuff. I don't even want to get into it because it was so stupid. We figured it out so is everything is fine now. I'm just trying to like finish up packing and packing The essential things that I couldn't wait until the last day to pack like facial, swimsuits, blah blah blah.
Um, facial? I mean skincare, swimsuits and blah blah blah. So yeah, everything's Everything's sort of starting to happen, kind of nervous, but also super excited. So yeah. So first of all, we went to our Armenia, which is like the city just outside of Calarca, that was cool.
The menu is on the bottle and on these little like, masks Los Chorros De San Rafael Those are some waterfalls that we hiked to it was so beautiful. Like, oh my God, it just blew me away. When I saw those waterfalls. The hike that was like way dangerous and exhausting was so worth it once we got there cuz it was wow, just wow Then we went to salento, which is the town that Encanto was based off of like the architecture and stuff.
Everything was really colorful and, and the food was great. So, Okay. And we went to Cocora Which is like half an hour out of Salento and it's like, it's a Giant Mountain. Where on top There's this big hand that is, like, kind of cement and people like, to stand up there and take pictures.
And it looks like, you're basically on top of the world. So we had to climb up this mountain, and it was so exhausting the mountain wasn't very tall, but it was super steep. So I literally on my knees and my hands are getting up there, but again, it was worth it.
Like the view was stunning. Just look at the videos. that's all you need to see, and the climb is immidetly worth it This is literally a bathroom, like what? we gotta go all the way up there. So to conclude, I had really good time, you know? And I love the food.
And Love the music. And I Didn't necessarily felt like I belonged but I felt really comfortable there. So the best part of the trip was just being able to explore and really immerse myself in the culture. the way people live there which isn't that different but it is different and it was a really interested me and everything was beautiful and the nature was amazing like the air smell different. It smelled fresher. And
Turns out I really missed mountains and I didn't even realize it. Shout out to Laura, who literally, every time I put her on camera. She goes like this. It's an addiction. She can't help herself. So comment down.
how many times he does that I bet it's more than More than she said, oh yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to tell you a little story about how the Colombian immigrations did not let me out. Yeah. So basically, there was this little stamp that, my dad had to put on this letter saying that he was letting me and my mom into the country and out of the country and we didn't have the stand when we went up to immigrations to leave the country. So they told us we could not go. So, yeah, my mom cried. I was like, okay, well, I guess more time with my cousins.
That's fine. Uh obviously it pissed us all off but like Come on, I can't not enjoy a little bit more time with my family. So we stayed a week extra and my dad went all the way to Orlando from Tampa, to get the stamp at the Colombian Embassy and the second time was a charm and they let us out. Yeah, that was really annoying. So, Now my parents say I have to renounce my Colombian citizenship, but honestly it's like do I really want to do that? Maybe if they let me in and out easier, but come on, it's cool to say, hey, I've got a Colombian citizenship, I'm very proud of it because the country is beautiful and the people are great... most of them. Anyways anyways, that's all I have for today.
Bye, bye.
2023-05-11 14:41
