Semana Santa

Semana santa pilgrimage in Barichara.

Church in Barichara.

Semana santa is the week leading up to Easter, and the entire country is on vacation. Most people just have off Thursday-Sunday but schools take the whole week off. The high season for all touristy spots is Christmas and the New Year and Semana Santa. Everything and everywhere is una locura. Flights are expensive, hotel prices go up, busses are full, hostals are full, city streets are so full of people you can't move and it is impossible to snap a picture without some annoying colombian doing a stupid pose in your frame. To my surprise, Jueves y Viernes Santo (Thursday and Friday) are more important and a bigger holiday than Easter Sunday. Busses stopped running Thursday and Friday, terminals were closed, people were flooding out church doors and there were pilgrimages to church. Yesterday, Easter sunday, as I rushed to the grocery store to buy some supplies for my Easter dinner with Jessy I was thinking about what everyone I know and love in the US was up to on Easter sunday. I was imagining pastel colors plasted in every store and restaurant, colored eggs, colorful easter baskets, peeps, the smell of egg salad (vomit), stuffed animal bunnies and chicks and any other adorable little animal, little girls with pig-tails and pretty floral print dresses, young kids hastily searching for candy and of course the queenie's egg and a family dinner (we usually have lamb or something). For most people in the United States Easter has entirely been taken over by hallmark. Most children who don't have religious families or backgrounds don't even know the real reason Easter is celebrated. Sure people still go to church on Easter, and watch religious plays and treat the holiday as it should be and always has been, but consumerism has again taken over this day in an overwhelming way. I couldn't tell if I was sad to not see pastel colors vomited over everything yesterday or if it was kind of refreshing.

Since Semana Santa is the only week of vacation before summer vacation students and families with kids eagerly try to "aprovechar" (take advantage) of the week off. Since I had just spent three weeks travelling around and having vacation I didn't find it necessary to sprint off to some other side of Colombia (or another country). I spent the first half of the week with Lloyd as he packed and got ready to go home. Then I got on a night bus to the Santander region by myself. The plan was for two friends to meet me Friday morning but due to semana santa craziness they couldn't get tickets and I was left alone in San Gil. But it was a blessing in disguise, I had the greatest time ever travelling by myself. A skill that I've been trying to nurture and build and I finally felt like I may have semi-accomplished it! I actually kind of wished I would have stayed longer.


Santander is a region of Colombia bordering Venezuela and neighboring Antioquia and Boyacá (Bogotá region) known for lots of outdoor adventures, eating hormigas culonas (literally ants with huge asses) and goat and horse (yummoo). The town of San Gil was flooded with mostly Bogotanos and almost every bed in the city was taken. I luckily got taken in by a super kind couple (Colombian woman, Swiss man) with a hostal who squeezed me in on a blow up mattress. I spent the weekend, running, hiking and swimming and it was so amazing.

view of valley from Barichara.

view of Barichara from up the hill.

One day I went up to a little town called Barichara known to be a beautiful Colonial towns where many Spanish films and Telenovelas have been filmed. It was very charming and Bohemian and I took a bazillion pictures. Another day I went to a river section called El Pescadito (the little fish) which was incredible. The geographic features in this region are insane. Its about the same elevation and climate as Medellín but the mountains are almost more square and clearly made of a different geologic substance as the dirt is often a reddish color. Santander is where the Andes plummet into deep, dramatic, beautiful canyons as a few very large and powerful rivers run through the region. I could have sat and stared at the mountains for days.

colonial colors with color accent.

the church in Barichara.

checking out the view

I love the old colonial look, so much history right there.

more colonial Barichara

El Pescadito is a river that flows over amazing rock formations, creating natural waterslides, waterfalls, deep swimming holes and just all around beautiful formations.

hiking to el Pescadito

family party time at el pescadito!

 Again since it was Semana Santa this place was packed with families, young hippies smoking weed, tents, intertubes and fires with pots of sancocho. Sancocho is a soup made from chicken broth, its very simple and very traditional. It is made on the streets of poor neighborhoods as it is cheap and easy to make. As I watched these families and groups of friends cooking their sancocho on the fire, swimming in the water, taking pictures and hanging out I couldn't help but laugh to myself. In the US when we go camping we bring hot dogs and hamburgers and maybe corn to throw on a fire, simple things that are easy to cook. We don't lug a huge pot to the campground and make soup! But Colombians are very strict in what they eat. Fast food like hot dogs and hamburgers are what you eat in the cities, and on the street, they are like delicacies and most people's favorite food. Soup, rice, meat and potatoes is a normal lunch, so you must not stray from the norm even when you are out in the wilderness camping. Colombia is strong in their traditions something I truly admire, but also something that cracks me up.

the upper part of the river where i decided to hang out

 Another reason I found myself laughing to myself was the excitement these people had to be where they are. Grown men were literally acting like 11 year old boys jumping and diving off the rocks into the water, laughing at their friends as their legs separated diving off rocks, the canyon echoed with the sound of belly flops, and then running back up to do it again. I watched men do this for hours and hours. Meanwhile the girls and women were up on the rocks, cooking the sancocho, combing their hair and posing like slutty super models for pictures (a thing that drives me crazy.. the way people pose for pictures.. especially girls). Another thought that had me laughing to myself as I watched these Colombians utterly enjoying themselves. Another thing that I had to notice, was their swimming abilities. This is something that has had me laughing since I got down here since I spend most of my time at the pool, but I would safely say that if Colombia was flooded the entire population would be killed not by impact but because they cannot swim. Now I realize that I happen to be from a family that has swimming and water sports in the genes and I come from a community where we were taught to swim at the river as young children so to me it seems like an obvious skill but there are certainly Americans who can't swim or can't swim well. But Colombians are on another level, and the funniest part about it is that they are so into it and think they are swimming so well. But thrashing your arms around and throwing your head back and forth is not swimming my friends. I watched a man jump in the water and swim to the edge literally looking like a dog, definitely the best doggie paddle i've ever seen! Yet another (and the last) burn I would like to make on Colombians is their choice of swimming attire. How can it be comfortable to jump in the water fully clothed when you have a bathing suit on underneath? Or how can it be comfortable to wear underwear underneath your bikini bottoms? I watched a girl who had been roaming around in her bikini for hours, put on a pair of long grey leggings and then jump into the water??.......???......... WHAT!? How does that make any sense? How can there be a reason for doing that? Maybe they are hoping to be warming? Maybe swimming in clothes has something to do with body consciousness? But Colombians do not need to be body conscious, they are naturally hot (most of them) and they have the worst diet ever (super lucky). Americans are way less body conscious and we are like the fattest people out there!!  Maybe they don't have money to afford a bathing suit? I'm just not sure, but it just is so uncomfortable to swim fully clothed. This reminds me of another hilarious swimsuit moment. Months ago when I was in Cartagena with Meg and her boyfriend Keko I was eager to head to the beach. But Keko responded that he didn't have his swimsuit. Meg and I looked at him and his outfit (nylon sport shorts and a tshirt) and we were like "dude just swim in those, you are wearing shorts!" Keko got a very surprised look on his face and laughed, "these?" he said "no, no these are for the street not for swimming!" Meg and I looked at each other and laughed explaining to him that that is the normal bathing suit for boys our age in he US. Later when we were alone Meg said to me, "you should see his real bathing suit, its essentially skin colored underwear." Speedos are definitely still totally in down here. This all goes into the category of cultural things I will never understand, along with why both Colombians and Ecuadorians like to cover themselves in sand when they are at the beach and then run around and play soccer like sand monsters... do they not chafe and itch?

I also went to a waterfall with these two awesome Swedish girls. I really wanted to see these waterfalls and I thought they were going to be truly amazing and they were quite breathtaking but they were so over-run and full of tourists I couldn't handle being there for more than 15 minutes. It was an unfortunate trip because it took an hour to get there and back and I only stayed for a few minutes because it was like a zoo of annoying Colombian tourists who moved at a snails pace hiking to the waterfall and they were pushy and cut you off as you tried to climb up to the waterfall. 

cascadas de Juan Curí. 

The trip was just what I needed, to get out of the city (its really been getting to me lately) and be one my own, with my own thoughts and my own decisions. 


My time is rapidly coming to an end. I will be home in less than two months. Its a bittersweet thought but in general I know its time to go home. 


Happy Easter to all, and happy spring.. see you in less than 2 months!!!! ahhh so exciting!