Colombia - My Wishlist Sights

Colombia is a country in the north west of South America, sharing borders with Venezuela, and Ecuador,  

Bogota  - the capital

The capital is in the centre.

What is is on my wishlist?

1 The Botero Museum

Sculpture by Botero in Bogota, capital of Coloumbia.

Has lots of sculptures by Botero, known for his contented curby ladies, people, aniamls and birds. I first saw his horse in a Singapore subub by a railway station exit. Then a big baby bird on the waterfornt in the commercial city centre.

2 Bogota, a big city and culutral capital, has other art, culture and history museums. My second must see is the gold museum.

3 The free museum about Falc and other terrorist organizations tamed worldwide and now at peace. Maybe a glimmer of hope.

Useful Websites

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Let's look at Colombia, the country which is the birthplace of Shakira, successful singer songwriter

The flag of Colombia.

Colombia is in South America and the language is Spanish. As you might guess, it is named after Christopher Coumbus. Colombia has several neighbouring countries.

Famous Landmarks - statues

Statue of Shakira with Guitar from 2028

Statue By Sculptor Fernando Botero

Statue of Shakira installed 2023

Other famous Colombians

Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1927- 2014 was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1982. His well known movels include Love in the time of cholera, based on the courtship of his mother by his father, despite her parets' opposition. 

Statues of him are in the capital, Bogota, and in  the gardens of Havana, Cuba.

Capital

Bogota.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Colombia-related_articles

Wikivoyage Colombia

https://wineinternationalassociation.org/top-3-wineries-in-colombia/

Please share links to your favourite blog posts. 

New, Second Statue of Singer-Songwriter Shakira in Barranquilla, Colombia

In December 2023 Shakira, the Grammy award winning singer-songwriter, was honoured by a huge statue of herself dancing, in her home town of Barranquilla, in Colombia.  The statue is 21 feet high. Shakira also has a Shakira Day, September 29th.  The statue echoes her song, hips don't lie.

The city already had a statue of Shakira with a guitar. This has been there since 2018.

Her home town is known for its four day carnival.

Statue of Shakira with a guitar, in Barranquilla, Colombia
 

This picture or her was taken in 2011. very glamorous yet down to earth.

Picture credit

Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires - 11.03.05 Macri y Shakira visitan un Centro de Primera Infancia

Shakira in 2011.

 She is now, in 2023, aged 46 years.

back in 2007 Shakira said,

I’ve always lived through my mouth. I am fixated on chocolate, the spoken word, things I’ve said and the things I should never have said.

• On what she considers her oral fixations in “Shakira” in Outlook India Magazine (2007 Apr 9) in da club w ma twin 

On her official website you can buy teeshirt tote bags a mug at 27 not cheap, and a bucket hat. She also has perfume.

Useful Websites

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67826941

https://people.com/shakira-receives-statue-in-her-colombian-hometown-of-barranquilla-8420265

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shakira

Statues to see for free in Botero Plaza, Medellin, Colombia, and in Spain

Colombia

COLOMBIA - FIND IT
Colombia - my first thought was where is it, I've hardly heard of it, and my second thought was why would I go there? I now have one good reason to go there, the wonderful Botero sculpture park by a major museum in Medellin.

 Also it turns out that the country is named after Christopher Columbus, not many adults have not heard of him,

 In my recent times, Colombia is the birthplace and home of well known Nobel prize winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Marquez also wrote Love in the Time of Cholera about his courtship of his wife-to-be despite opposition from her parents.


Thought, bronze sculpture by sculptor Fernando Botero in Botero Park, Medellin, Colombia.

MARQUEZ - READ UP
I just had a thought. I shall briefly digress into the book, which is so well known and widely read, and can be read before you plan a trip to Columbia, or on the plane there, and then I shall come back to the sculptures.

Gabo" wearing a "sombrero vueltiao" hat, typical of the Colombian Caribbean region. Most of the stories by García Márquez revolve around the idiosyncrasy of this region.

The name Marquez probably rings a bell, two bells. It is also a name you might recognize from the news about two Spanish motorcycle riders, bothers world champions of MotorGP.


Wiki sums it up, the writer Marquez, succinctly:

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (American Spanish: [ɡaˈβɾjel ɣaɾˈsi.a ˈmaɾkes] (listen);6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo [ˈɡaβo] or Gabito [ɡaˈβito] throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language, he was awarded ... the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

WHERE AND WHY VISIT MEDELLIN?
Colombia, spelled with a double o, with your eyes look for it on the map of the world, cut out of the north west corner of South America. A free site to visit is the sculpture park, Botero Park, double o again, in front of the major museum in Medellin (double l and the letter e twice) where the sculptor Fernando Botero was born. I kept typing Ferdinand until I remembered the song Fernando's Hideaway, and realised that Fernando and Botero both end with o.

Medellin is the country's second largest city after the capital, Bogota, so you might make this a two centre trip. The big capital city has the expected population of around 12 million, offering more museum and visit opportunities, whilst the second city of Medellin is nearer 1 million, a more manageable size where you can quickly zoom in on your tourist target.


BOTERO AND BOTERO PARK
The bronze sculptures were donated by the sculptor Botero.



Botero's work is known all over the world. He also created sculptures displayed in the USA, in New York and Washington DC, in Paris, France, (he has lived in both countries) , as well as Armenia, Spain, Singapore and many more places.

Here's a handy list of what you will see if you go to Colombia, or what you can check out online.

Botero Sculptures in Spain


Woman with mirror, in Madrid, Spain, by Colombian-born sculptor Botero.


Cat, by sculptor Botero, in Barcelona, Spain.


Hand, by sculptor Botero, in Madrid, Spain.


Medellin is known for textiles and speak Spanish language schools.

LEARN SOME SPANISH QUICKLY
Finally, for fun, in Colombia the language you will find useful is Spanish. You could try learning some words from Memrise, which allows you to record your own memory aids and share them with other learners of the language. Duolingo, another free website good for starting a new language, offers multiple choice with pictures, and simple sentences.

Useful Websites
duolingo.com

memrise.com


TRAVEL HELP - SUGGESTED WEBSITES

Finally, the flag.

Flag of Colombia.

TRAVEL
https://wikitravel.org/en/Colombia
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, photographer, researcher, author and speaker and teacher of English and other languages.

For handy Spanish For the Traveller see next post.
I have several popular posts on countries around the world including Spain, and learning Spanish. Please share links to your favourite posts.

See Natural Wonders From America to Ireland on the wonderful Science Nature Page

Photo by Patrick-Emil Zörner, "Paddy". Details of copyright and attribution and other details on the Wikipedia website.

Problem
Many videos on Facebook and elsewhere showing unusually dramatic or cute and quirky places leave you with hours of research and appealing for help to track down the place shown.

The videos on the science nature page are in a new league, top of the ladders when it comes to clarity.  I started watching a video on science, on dolphins being intelligent. A friend on Facebook who comes from Toastmasters International had sent it to me. Then I spotted in a column on the right, the mention of the words travel and places.

After watching the video, I tried to find it again. It had vanished. So I scrolled down the Science Nature page until I found it.

What is so good about this video? The clarity of the captions and the factual information. You know which continent, which country, the name of the place. The information is given large on easy to read subtitles. I love subtitles.  Then, even if you turn off the sound, you can see the name of the place, long enough to copy it down to look up later.

All that it missing is the practical travel information. That is where I come in. I have to research how near is each destination to the country's main airport. I would also like to know the best local hotel.

I bet there are more costs. Is there a charge to enter the area such as a national park, if you are driving, or if you are on a tour which does not include entrance fees? Alternatively, what is the cost of a local all-inclusive a day trip to see the place, or an inclusive holiday including that destination?

This video on travel shows some of the world's best places to visit, not the usual man-made landmarks, quaint villages, ancient archaeological sites and underwater discoveries of lost cities, but all natural wonders.

They are:
1 BOLIVIA.

2 The Dark Hedges, NORTHERN IRELAND.

3 Long Sheng Rice Terraces, Guangxi, CHINA.

4 Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, RUSSIA.

5 Caño Cristales, Meta, COLOMBIA. (That sounds and looks like Canyon of Crystals.)

6 Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming, USA.

7 Pamukkale, Denizli, TURKEY.

8 Iguazu Falls, Misiones, ARGENTINA.

I had heard of Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Pamukkale in Denizli, Turkey. I had seen pictures of The Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland and the rice terraces in Guanxi, China.

Other places which are already well-known waterfalls such as Niagara on the border of Canada and the USA, and Victoria Falls on the African continent. My other wishlist item is Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, which could be added to a trip to see The Dark Hedges.

Useful Websites
https://www.facebook.com/officialsciencenaturepage/videos/187180335228143/
https://wikitravel.org/en/Kuril_Islands

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.