Tips for Tourists

A Few Tips for Tourists

The north Atlantic coast of Colombia has long been a destination for tourists. With comparatively little of the violence that other regions of the country suffered in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta – and their surrounding pueblos – have offered refuge to visitors from the interior of Colombia as well as other countries. Walking around the historic walled city of Cartagena or a beach-side area near Santa Marta during the high tourism months of December and January or July and August, it’s not uncommon to hear – among the street vendors’ nasally, choppy costeño Spanish – flickers of German, English, Dutch, French, and other languages from low-budget backpackers or wealthier arrivals from the most recent cruise ship. The beaches, the heat, the historic sites and vibrant sounds draw visitors from all parts of the world to enjoy the best the Coast has to offer. 

Having lived for the past year on a tight budget as a Peace Corps Volunteer and saved my pesos to splurge while “playing tourist” with visiting friends from the United States, I’ve been able to observe and participate in the tourism industry as both a local and a foreigner. As a result, I have some advice and tips for anyone considering planning a visit to the coast of Colombia.

Cash is King. – Most establishments (unless you are staying at luxury hotels, enjoying fine dining, and shopping at boutique stores) don’t accept credit cards. On a few occasions I have planned to pay at a store, hotel or hostel with my credit card only to be informed that the credit card machine is not working. So you will likely have to withdraw lots of money from an ATM and pay for most transactions with cash (probably while cursing your financial institution for some ridiculously high international transaction fees).

We’ll Need Some Identification. – If you do use a credit card, be prepared to show a photo ID - it's a standard practice here. Actually, you'll want to keep some photo ID on you at all times in case you are asked for it when entering a nightclub, buying a bus ticket, checking in to a hostel, or traveling between cities and your bus reaches a police checkpoint. A copy of the photo ID page of your passport should be fine (since your actual passport should be stored securely in your hotel room unless you're in transit).

Wait, that costs how much?!? – It’s more expensive here than you may think. If you want to eat well, sleep decently, and enjoy the tourist sites of the Coast, you’re going to be paying some money. This is particularly true in Cartagena and Santa Marta and especially during the temporada alta (high season) when rates increase. A nice dinner can run between $40 and $60 US dollars per person and a good – but not extravagant – hotel room can be well over one hundred dollars. (“Wait!” You may think. “How do Peace Corps Volunteers survive on their monthly living allowance in these pricey places?” Good question! Stay tuned for a forthcoming blog on that topic!).

Feeling Hot Hot Hot! – It gets quite warm here. I had some well-traveled friends visit in August and one of them remarked how she had only felt heat like that in Cartagena during a trip to the Middle East in summer. Be prepared to hydrate constantly, regularly apply sunscreen, and wear a hat and sunglasses. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself needing to change your sweat drenched shirt or even bathe more than once a day – it’s pretty normal for even the locals to bathe twice a day, especially during the hotter times of the year.

Chill Out. – Don’t be over ambitious in your planning. There’s a lot to see and do here, but you might need to plan some time to just relax. The heat can really take it out of you and make you cranky if you don’t find the time to chill out. When traveling for more than several days, I’ve found it good to keep an afternoon or even a whole day free of plans just to get caught up on sleep or to read and relax instead of running off to the next site.

Don’t be a Target. – Keep an eye on your stuff and try not to put yourself in a precarious position. Best not to leave your backpack unguarded on the beach while you’re going for a swim or put down your bag in a busy plaza because you just absolutely need to take a picture of the breathtaking sunset. Considering walking alone on your way back from the disco even though it’s only 1 am and you’ve been down this street earlier in the day and you’re only 10 minutes from the hotel? You might want to have the club call you a cab instead just to be on the safe side.

Local Knowledge. – Going off the beaten path and trying something not mentioned in your tour book? Catch word that there’s a little town that was unsafe 5 years ago but now is totally secure and the best new place to visit? Hear that there’s a cool way to walk to the beach instead of paying for the boat with all the other tourists? Best to run that by the lady working the front desk at the hostel or the guy running a tour agency down the street. Whereas your guide book may have be written by a fellow gringo and updated two years ago, the locals have the latest info and know when situations change and they’re likely to point you away from any potential hazards.

Street Eats. – Street food can be super tasty, especially if it’s late night and been a few hours – and a few beers – since dinner. Unless you’ve been in the area for a few months and your intestinal system has had plenty of time to adapt to the local conditions, you might however want to pass on that meat on a stick. Hospital visits are never fun, especially when they occur on your vacation. And if you absolutely can’t resist the temptation, ask them to heat it up again for you since it might have been a few hours since its initial cooking.

Can It. – Throw all toilet paper in the trash can. The sewage system here isn’t equipped to handle toilet paper so it should go in the trash can. I have been to other Latin American countries where there have been common exceptions to this general approach, but here in Colombia I find it the standard practice. So unless otherwise told explicitly, toss it in the trash can. 

Look Out for the Little Guys. – Tipping isn’t as common in Colombia as in the U.S. I never tip taxis and only tip at restaurants if the tip (propina) is already included or if the meal is at a nice sit-down restaurant. That being said, leaving a small tip ($4.000-$5.000 pesos) on the nightstand in your hotel room for the overworked, underpaid cleaning lady or slipping the bellboy a $2.000 bill after he just lugged your massive bag up three flights of stairs can go a long way.

Mind The Crosswalk, but Mind the Drivers and the Motos More. –  Using a crosswalk is always a recommended way of crossing the street. But be warned that the cars, motocycles and buses will probably keep barreling down the street without slowing down or even considering stopping to let you across unless they are obliged to by traffic lights. So watch your step - nobody wants to recount that one vacation they absentmindedly wandered into the street while in awe of the historic walled section of Cartagena only to be flattened by a taxi driver.

The Music Will Stop Soon, Right? –  It can seem a near constant here on the Coast that there will be music on somewhere and not at a low volume. Music is all around - blasting from a nearby house, spilling out of the club on the corner, rattling the windows from who knows where - and there are not a lot of generally accepted reasons to turn it down. Even if you're staying in one of the nicer, touristy areas, your hotal room may share a wall with a disco that blasts reggetón and vallenato until the wee hours. Best to ask the front desk if you should expect your room to be quiet and to bring a pair of earplugs - that is, unless you plan to join the party until the disco shuts down as dawn approaches.

Uh, What Did you Say? –  Travelers with no Spanish language may find their trip here to be challenging due to the language barrier; travelers with moderate Spanish ability may be baffled and confused by the local Costeño accent and vocabulary. Despite the high volume of tourists visiting the Coast, do not expect that your waiters/taxi drivers/hotel clerks know more than a handful of words in English. I would say it's best not to expect any of the locals to speak English and then be happily surprised if they do. So get a basic Spanish book and brush up on a few words and phrases before you go!

Take It Easy. – Relax. You’re in Colombia and not everything will go as planned. Tourism on the coast still has a ways to develop and – unless you’re going high-class for the whole trip – not every establishment or employee will have everything under control. Roll with the punches and don't take it personally. Be patient but persistent and you should be able to work through any issues or misunderstandings without much difficulty and with plenty of time left to his the beach. Not before putting on some fresh sunscreen, of course! So don't forget to take it easy! Or as they say in Spanish: ¡Cógelo suave!

New Years

New Years, or: Burning Juan Chuchita

In advance of New Years Eve, I was informed to wear pants. And that a man named Juan would be set on fire at midnight. But most importantly, I should put on pants.

While kids may receive one or two toys (soccer balls, dolls, bicycles, etc) for Christmas, the main gifts are new clothes. New Years is all about the party and you gotta look good for the party, so Christmas is all about getting the clothes for the event on the 31^st. A nice designer t-shirt, some swanky jeans and fancy new sneakers are perfect. Since some of my neighbors were talking about it back in October, I picked up a nice new shirt and sneakers back home in the US over Thanksgiving. So I was good to go and my host mom looked relieved that I wasn’t going to be wearing all old clothes and that I had something new “to show off.”

As had done several other families in the neighborhood, the folks across the street had assembled their very own Juan Chuchita. A life-sized doll made of stuffed old clothing, each Juan Chuchita had a painted face and was placed on a chair or against a wooden pole so that it was sitting up. Besides those standard characteristics, most were made out of old uniforms (I imagine because it’s easier to stuff and zip a full-body uniform than it is pants and a shirt) and many had bottles of beer or rum tucked into their front pockets or in the crook of their arms. Oh, and most had very large phalluses. At least one had a very attentive creator who included some sort of pubic hair. Naturally, these were all going to be doused in gasoline and then lit on fire at midnight, I was told. Not one to disagree on such matters, my response was an emphatic “sounds good to me.”

Here are a handful of photos of the Juan Chuchitas I saw in town:

Starting off the night, we had a small, family dinner with natilla making an appearance again. (This time it was coconut natilla which I enjoyed more than the caramel-like arequipe flavored natilla we had at Christmas.) We also ate buñuelos, small balls of fried dough that reminded me, to some degree of old-fashioned donut holes. They were tasty.

After dinner and a few drinks, we gathered again at a family member’s house down the street, had some more beverages and waited for midnight. With a few minutes to go before midnight, the crowd broke out in a traditional song about it being a few minutes until midnight (“faltan cinco para las doce” I believe they sing) and small bottles of gasoline came from their hiding places. As the clocks hit twelve, matches were lit, sending the Juan Chuchitas up in flames – plastic chairs, Styrofoam phalluses, uniforms and all. Everyone exchanged hugs, yelling “Feliz Año” (“Happy Year”) and the fiesta continued for a few more hours.

Tired and ready for bed, I made my way home passing circles of ash every few hundred feet of the dirt road, remnants of the Juan Chuchitas that were sitting there hours earlier. In with the new, up in flames with the old. Happy New Year.

Christmas

By American standards, Christmas here on the Coast of Colombia is a low-key affair. Leading up to Christmas – as in the US – the Christmas decorations are brought out of storage or bought and hung both inside and outside of the house. Since toward the end of November a Christmas tree has been decorated the living room of our house as well as a stuffed “bear,” as my host sister calls it. (“It’s a moose” I tell her, to no avail.)

Like many of the houses in the neighborhood, strings of colored lights illuminate our front porch and shine light on pine green garlands, covering the top of the doorway, which have a nice frosted hew to them. A big face of Saint Nick is nearby with “Feliz Navidad” stenciled underneath it. Across town hang strings of colored streamers and even plastic bags as decorations. They can actually serve as neat, cheap decorations.

Here in Colombia Christmas is celebrated on the 24^th. My host mother’s parents invited us over to their house for a large family dinner with all of their other children and their respective families. About 25 of us squeezed into the family room of the house to dine on the usual rice, meat, and potato salad as well as some natilla, a typical custard made for Christmas time.

 After dinner we continued snacking on popcorn, watermelon, and mango slices along with a large quantity of Aguila beer, a staple of any party on the coast.

 The actual 25^th was quiet. I expected some commotion, some kind of raucous cultural event. Instead, silence, other than my host siblings trying out their new bicycles in the dirt street. Whereas Christmas gifts in most US households are hidden under beds and in closets to keep them from curious children, most Christmas gifts in my community are announced well in advance to the neighborhood kids. My host siblings already knew in November what clothes they would get for Christmas and the bikes may as well have been kept on the front porch weeks before the actual day.

A lot of the children in my neighborhood went to church in search of free gifts. The sermon, I was told, included something like this:

Priest: Did you come here today to celebrate our Lord and savior or are you here for the gifts?

Chorus of children: Gifts! Gifts!

Back at home down the road, it was strange to experience such quiet on a day that – to me at least – is electrifying with anticipating, even if you know (as an adult) what is inside the boxes under the tree. The silence lasted until around 8 pm when the giant speakers were pulled out and another street party erupted and we played everyone’s favorite game of “Let’s watch the gringo try to dance!” Despite being in another continent than my family, it was a merry Christmas.