Semana Santa – Easter in Colombia

Today it’s Easter Sunday and now in the afternoon I can say, that I went to all important services in the past week.

Colombia is one of the most catholic countries in the world, anyhow Latinos understand the catholic religion a bit different than how I knew it from Germany. Cheerful songs, people clapping and the all known kneeing down are part of every mess. And then there is Easter or here the so called “Holy week”, Semana Santa. This is the week of Jesus’ Passion, his dead at the cross and his resurrection on the third day is celebrated in this week.

Before the Holy Week there are 40 days of Lent (the fasting period) which is initiated by the Miercoles de Cinisa (Ash Wednesday) on which you prepare yourself for the holy week, in behaviour and thoughts, preparing yourself for Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. In those 40 days the pastor will preach for example about how to improve your behaviour with family friends and in general in society to give more love and live how Jesus taught us.

Holy Thursday

As I know it from German traditions the Holy Thursday we started the most important holiday for Catholics – Semana Santa. The last supper is celebrated:

Luke 22: 19-20

¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

²⁰ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

In the Catholic Church, during the Holy Communion Jesus is believed to be really present in the “oblea” and the wine. On this photo you can see the “Santisimo” I which Jesus is present in form of the “bread” and wine. Therefore on the Holy Thursday the Santisimo is very nicely decorated and put into the church for one whole day so people can pray to Jesus being present.

Good Friday

The next day will be the day of Jesus’ Crucifixion of Jesus. In the “Vía Cruicis” is a tradition in which all XIV moments and sufferings Jesus’ will be remembered in a 2 hour walk in which all 14 moments are represented by “stations” in which the youth group of our church replayed the steps life. It was a very impressive and wonderful experience. It felt like half of the neighbourhood was in the group in the end of the walk. Singing and partly suffering people relived the suffering of Christ.

In the service of this day was about the seven words of god before Jesus’ death as well as the bible part of Jesus’ Crucifixion. During the mess the 7 words are read by different people. One of the last girls became very emotional and cried. For religious people here it is a very emotional week including sadness, suffering but also joy and happiness for the resurrection of Christ.

After Jesus Death at the cross he was carried to the “sepulcro” (=tomb) where he was buried. Also this is represented in the church for people to pray for Jesus and Maria in her hardest time. Many people pray the “Rosario” (=rosary):

Dios te salve, María, llena eres de gracia, el Seńor es contigo.

Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres, y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre, Jesús.

Santa María, Madre de Dios,

ruega por nosotros, pecadores,

ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte.

Amén

All those days the church was open as long as possible from 7 a.m. to 21 p.m. Due to our church being a very young one, still located in a mall which has these opening times. I went to pray on different times during this week and the church was almost always pretty full. Also all the services are very very full – a bit comparable to the difference of normal messes in Germany to a Christmas mess. I am super in love with all the decoration and impressed of how this small church put so much effort and love into this beautiful and important celebration.

Bright Saturday

Saturday is definitely the happiest of all the celebrations. In the morning there is a mass to accompany the virgin Maria in her sadness. And at night, just as common in Germany there is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

In the beginning of the big (very big) mass the Easter Fire is blessed and passed on by everyone. A nice tradition is that the father is singing for about 20 minutes the most important parts of the bible. In addition our father sings very beautiful. After that the mess consists of a lot of singing, parts of the bible of different important events like the story of the creation of the world, Noah and Abraham. Between the different Bible parts the choir, in which also Jorge’s mom and sister sing beautifully. Funnily they even sung some songs I know from the church in Germany.

At some point it was time for Jesus to resurrect from the dead, which is symbolized by a Jesus figured put in white and one red sheet. Also the candles and water, people brought in all kinds of bottles was blessed by the father. Blessed means to make something holy, and holy water can be used to bless people or things and connect them with God. I know that blessings have a way higher meaning but it would be too excessive to explain it in all detail. I hope you can forgive me for that. If you would like to share your opinion on it, feel free to share it in the comments (of course in a polite and friendly way).

Yo soy la luz del mund - I am the light of the world

People waiting for their water to be blessed

The services those three days (Friday to Saturday) are actually seen as one, as only on Saturday night the really end of the mass is celebrated with the blessing of the father for the community.

Once home we ate something in the family (well after almost 3hours of service plus the preparation time for Jorge’s parents) and had a nice moment together.

Living the holy week in such a religious place, a whole new experience I fully enjoyed and from which I´ve learned a lot.

Muchos Besos,

Leonie

Things that are different in Colombia (compared to GER/NL)

- People ask me why I don't have a second last name. In Latin cultures (including Spain) having a second last name is very normal, as you will get the first last name of your dad and then the first last name of your mom. This was sadly only the males last names are given further. 

the packed bus experience

- Nobody knows how to write or pronounce my name and many would like to call me by my second name Rebecca. Léonie is originally French and a really not common name here.

- In public toilets there is not always toilet paper inside of the cabin but outside where you wash your hands (the first times I didn't figure so I had to go out and get some haha)

- In the bus people let the seat "cool down" from the last person who sat down. (I actually never understood why people don't sit down properly but leave around 20cm between their butt and the seat for around 10 seconds until they sit down.)

real or not??

- I've been asked multiple times if my eyes were "real" or if I wore contacts (this comes due to my eye colour not being very common here. There are white, blond people that can have green eye, but blue does not really appear often here from people being Colombian)

- Traffic in Bogotá can be insane and therefore when the bus is very packed around night rush hour, people voluntarily take your backpack, bags or anything bigger you carry for making every bodies life easier (less bags in their faces, better way for you to hold on to something).

people waiting for "alimentadores" which are supplementary busses to neibourhoods further from the transmilenio station - when I gt back from work around 6/7 pm it is super packed

Respect each other in the bus!!

- Speaking of traffic, if you every go by car, bus, scooter, motociclye or anything comparable within Bogotá or Colombia, I can tell you hold tight onto something. Going around by public transport is especially intense at times, as traffic here does not know many rules. Most of the times it works underneath the principle of the stronger (bigger) the car, the faster you’ll get somewhere. Honestly I always thought that there were no consequences to their rather “fightful” driving style but now once in a while I saw some minor car crashes of cars kind of “kissing” each other.

- After living and working here for three months I also figured that communication is especially different from the German directness I grew up with. For example in emails or texts in Colombia you first ask how the person is doing, how their day was or how their family is doing … (you get the point). Then AFTER the person answered (when sending texts) you *finally* get to the question you wanted to ask in the first place. A real patience exercise for myself.

- Lesson for self: don’t be too direct here  

- In the office I sometimes encountered that if I have a “Bitch resting face” (super relaxed face) people mistake it a lot for being sad or angry as everybody in Colombia just eat happiness for breakfast every morning *grumpy German speaking*. No honestly people here make a lot out of their lives and almost never have a negative attitude, even though life here in Colombia can be truly tough. 

- Everyone here is professional when it comes to what fruit to eat depending on your stomachs mood. This has saved my life multiple times. I can tell you eating one WHOLE Pitaya (also known as dragon fruit, but the yellow and more yummy version) is NOT a good idea :D In general try to ask locals about the “effect” of different fruits as you’ll think you have an infection or bad reaction on something you ate even though it is “normal”.

Of course there is a lot more to tell about how people, life and culture here is very different here but maybe that I’ll tell you in a part II of this post. Let me know in the comments below ;)

Muchos Besos,

Leonie

Eje Cafetero - Colombia's coffee heart

Colombia - THE coffee producing country, the country with very big and beautiful coffee regions, what else did I have to do then visit the most famous one? I had the wonderful luck of my best friend from Iceland, Laufey, being in the country as an end of her South America trip.

After researching all the internet for different tips, listening to friends who've been to Colombia I picked out the best spots for us and the time we had to discover this w
onderful part of Colombia.

For our trip we only checked Armenia, Salento and Valle de Cocora. Here a small disclaimer there is a lot more to see like people have recommended me the "Parque del Café" which is a Theme park with rollercoasters and different information about the production and preparation of coffee. There are a lot of cute villages where you could stay for a few nights in a real "finca" (=farm) in Villages like Finlandia, Quimbaya or Montenegro. If you do some research there is a lot of blogposts on that topic.

Here a map for you to check out the different spots we visited (click to make it bigger)

Back to my/our trip so because Laufey was already in Cali we said we'll meet in Armenia as it was the most central for where we planned to go as well. On the list were visiting were a typical Coffee finca and visiting the wonderful  Valle de Cocora that is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park since 1985. Honestly since Chile I really learned that planning everything in detail how it people really do normally in my culture, is really not necessary for most travels in Colombia. When planning to go to Armenia I took a night bus from Bogotá at around 21:00. I heard different opinions on how long the bus might take - from 6-9 hours they told me everything. In the end it sadly took me less time. I am saying sadly because I knew that the earliest Laufey could be at the terminal would have been 8/9 am. On the other hand it was very good that the bus took less time as the airco was really strong and I was not really prepared for this as the climate in the coffee area is pretty warm (more or less humid and between 20-27°C). Anyhow after arriving at 4am in Armenia I tired to rest a little bit in the only café in the whole terminal that was open, sipping on one small coffee for about two hours and getting a cup of "avena" (=porridge milk but with oat flour).

Finally around 9am I met with Laufey and we got into a taxi to the center of Armenia. While in the taxi the taxi driver actually helped us to find a hotel. He asked if we had a place to stay and we said no, then he said well I can bring you to one that is in a safe and good location and pretty cheap. Once we arrived there we got a double bed room for 50.000COP (~ 15,50€) for the room with breakfast for both of us. Next to the nice room and offer they also offered us different trip we could take from Armenia. One offer was about the "Parque del Café" the other one was to the coffee farm "RECUCA" which lies close to a small village called Barcelona [https://www.facebook.com/recucaoficial/]. Recuca is a coffee farm that is made for people to get to know more about the region, history and more infos about how coffee is produced. Because if our shortage of time (about 4-5days for all our plans) we decided to take the tour in the coffee farm as we could take it easily after having a breakfast in the city.

Finally back together eating yayyy

First we arrived really well and put our stuff into the room we left for a typical Colombian breakfast in a small bakery close to our hotel. After that we came back, got ready and left to take the bus to Recuca. Back at the terminal we entered one of those middle big busses that cover around 16 people. Once the driver told us we were at the place to get off to walk the rest to Recuca we got off and were blessed by blue sky and a street  that was covered at the sides with big banana plants. the around 2.5km to the farm we walked as we really felt like enjoying the weather, views and the silence. After more than half a year being able to share all the stories personally was really amazing and we could connect on a different level in the nature.

when you have a lot to talk about 2.5km walking are nothing

 

Enjoying my coffee with a view

feeling more Colombian than ever

Once you arrive at Recuca you will be welcomed by people in the traditional clothes offering you a first cup of "tinto" which is black coffee sweetened with panela. Until the next "recorrido" (=tour) was starting we could enjoy the view of the back terrace and drink the delicious surprisingly soft coffee. The three hour tour started with some explanation about the traditional dresses of men and women. As people from Quindio (the state in which Armenia lies) are also considered to be "Paisas" they have a very flirtatious way of telling stories. Please don't get me wrong - it has not a lot to do with flirting in the western kind of way but more "flirtatious" with everyone, men and women, young and old. Further the guys that told us the stories about how back in the day coffee was collected and how life on the farm was like was also super funny and including the whole group. Just listening and watching of course are way too boring for those "Paisas" so next on the plan was getting active, putting ourselves in those blouses and skirts and learning some typical dances as well as taking many different pictures around the very traditional looking area of the Finca. All tour guides were happy to help us out to take pictures together in the nice and classic looking scenery.

Getting in touch with the traditional clothing was amazing but of course that wasn’t what we were there for - finally we got to taste freshly made coffee. In addition they also explained us how to make colombian 1st class coffee the best way. It actually reminded me a lot about how we make coffee in many parts of Germany. In the farm they used a cloth as a filter, but the commonly used paper filters are also fine. Then one has to pour 100°C in a circling motion over the coffee, waiting until the water is running down. Then you can repeat pouring down water on the coffee in the same motion again. This is important because if you just pour the hot water 90° down it will burn the coffee. Black first class coffee from Colombia can be drunk comfortably without milk or sugar *normally Latte Macchiato full of sugar drinking person speaking*.

this is the typical way to pick coffee beans. To my side you
can see the only other German of the group, from Stuttgart

Rito del Café 

In the end we also had the opportunity to shop some local coffee from the farm itself, of course I also picked out some presents for family ;)

To round up the whole Eje Cafetero experience we ended the tour with a typical late lunch “Bandeja Paisa”: Rice, minced meat, chorizo, platano, arepa, egg and as a drink “agua panela” with lime. A delicacy I definitely will miss once I’m back in Germany.

Chorizo, rice, arepa, minced meat and platano. Yum!

Before all the group went to eat I took a quick solo pic of the restaurant area. Love the colours

Thanks girl for visiting the country of my heart. I hope you liked it <3

After some pictures with the beautiful view we made our way back to Armenia to get a snack in town and visit the service and look at the beautiful light decoration of the town.

Love the view of Colombian mountains

Using the light for some amazing sun shots

Stay tuned for my next blogpost about the other part of our trip to the Valle de Cocora, THE National park of wax palm trees.

Muchos Besos,

Leonie

Ecuador - the most unexpected trip of my life

Quito 2018

16/01/2018 this day for me started with a visit in the Colombian Migration. 

A small throwback to when my 90 day of a tourist visa ran out – here in Colombia as a European citizen you can enlarge the visa for another 90 online as one has 180 each year. In my case it worked out really well and I thought in 2018 I could do the same – online – as I had other 180 days for 2018. And as I have an occupation in a university here so I thought I won’t have to leave the country for a day just to renew my visa. Well in the end it turned out to be like that - I had to leave Colombia within the next 36 hours, because if I didn’t, I’d have to pay a fine for not leaving the country on time. 

Praying to god to send me a solution later that day I was actually able to find a very cheap flight to Ecuador for more or less $200 for the next day which was the last one to stay in Colombia with my tourist permission. And like this I had the great opportunity to discover Ecuador for a few days. To my greater luck I even found a very nice couple on Couchsurfing that could host me for the three nights in Quito and who helped me out getting to know the city and more of Ecuador.

DAY 1:

On the 17^th I arrived in Quito around 6 p.m. and once I arrived at my Couchsurfing hosts home it was already 8:30 p.m. We only shared a meal together and then I went to sleep. The next day I went out to discover Quito and the best way seemed to be one of those common hop on hop off busses with two floors and a cool view above the streets of Quito. To help me out a bit Cindy, my host, brought me to a very nice church – the Basílica del Voto Nacional – honestly a MUST SEE if you are in Quito. Further this church was located very central so I could continue with the bus tour after. So I started to get to know Quito by discovering all nice spots of the church such as the main church, the Santisimo (the Holy sacrament where catholics keep the communion and which represents the holy place in the church where Jesus is most present), and the tower from which one has a very beautiful view above the city of Quito.

El Santisimo was the most beautiful place of all

 

Finally arrived on top and it is definitly worth all the stairs

The very "safe" way to get to the tower

After a wonderful and calm time in this impressive church that reminded me a lot on the Notre Dame, I went down to one of the main squares. After a small search for this central spot I encountered it thanks to the nice help of Ecuadorian police which makes the center of the city a very safe place. 

 

Loved this sandwich!!

At the Plaza de la Independencia I found the station of the bus easily and figured I’d still have 45 minutes until the next bus will pass. I took that time to look at another church located right at this square – the Catedral Metropolitana de Quito – also a very beautiful church where it sadly is prohibited to take pictures. After that I had a tipical sandwich in a café next to the church and the opportunity to finally catch some Wifi.

Plaza de Independencia

At around 3 p.m. I started my hop on hop off bus tour, that in the end wasn’t coined by a lot of hopping, but more sitting on the upper deck of the bus to discover in the last full 3h tour around the city. It was actually a very easy and fast way to get to know the hotspots of Quito, including the La Virgen de El Panecillo, also known as the Virgen de Quito. This statue is located on a hill in the middle of Quito qhich gives you a breathtaking panoramic view above the city. The tour was very nice in the sense of taking us not only to the most important sightseeing points but also letting us explore the hill for around 30 minutes before continuing the trip. Around this are you can also find nice locals which are selling all kinds of souviniers. Personally I really enjoy buying memories from the places I’ve been to so some magnets and other cute stuff from Ecuador and Quito couldn’t be missed.

The tour costs $15 and if you want you are also able to buy tickets online at http://quitotourbus.com/quito-city-tour/

Gringo bus like in every city - PLUS Wifi

The city showed itself from its best side with a rainbow

La Virgen de El Panecillo

Amazing Panorama photo of Quito I could take from the hill

At night I decided to go to Baños the next day. My hosts told me it is around 2,5h away so I thought that is really doable considering I just had one day to go back and forth.

DAY 2

My second (proper) day in Ecuador I spend in the beautiful town Baños – a must do when you’re in Ecuador. Different than my hosts expected it took me around 4h to get to Baños as on the way the bus was stopping in a (felt) frequency of 10 minutes to let out or pick up passengers on the way - Hello Welcome to South America. The positive side of taking the bus was that taking buses in general in Ecuador is very cheap. For my 4 hour trip I paid $4,50.

To arrive as early as possible I arrived at the terminal at 5 a.m. and took the bus at 5:20. We arrived at Baños around 9 a.m. First thing at the terminal was a guy offering me tours and bringing me to their agency. Normally I wouldn’t follow such people right away but as I had no time to lose this was the best and fastest option. They offered me a waterfall tour and the tour to the tree house with the famous swings (Casa del Arbol). After lowering the price from $25 to $20 with the argument that I take both tours with them (#whatlivingincolombiataughtme) I figured I had one more hour to finally get a breakfast and then start my first tour to the waterfalls. 

My breakfast was typical Ecuadorian: Fresh Mora (blackberry) juice, hot milk that I could either make myself a coffee with milk or a hot chocolate with, “full grain” (integral) bread with butter and jam and to round it up like in all northern south American countries: scrambled egg.

3 hour Waterfall tour:

At 10 a.m. I was ready to get on the Chiva – a common Ecuadorian and Colombian vehicle that is decorated from the outside and is normally known as a party bus kinda thing. In the last row I had a nice view to the back of the bus and I was accompanied by a very friendly elderly Ecuadorian couple.

Our first way went over a small bridge over the main river “Pastaza” which had a very impressive view. After we continued the trip by going through a tunnel that led us to a smaller waterfall that is supposed to make your hair grow faster – sadly the weather was not on my side - too cold - but once I want longer hair I definitely have to come back :D . Further down we encountered a rock that has the shape of Jesus’ face – when touching the wall they told us you can make three wishes and within the next years they will become true. 

Can you see Jesus?

On our way to the next waterfall we had the opportunity to do zip lining for $10 – even though I am like the most anxious person in the world I jumped over my shadow and did it. For around 20 seconds I hung on a string more than 100m above the ground. At first I was super scared but as the guy getting me ready really felt that he just send me off fast than I could think about it twice and in the end I LOVED IT!!!

I did it!!

 

El Manto de la Novia

Further on the way we saw a waterfall called El Manto de la Novia which is a waterfall of 60 meters height and which we could see a bit closer taking some sort of “cable car” which in the end was actually more scary than the real zip lining I had done before. 

  

After sufficient selfies from the cable car we went further on to the last and most famous waterfall called “Pailón del Diablo”, which until now is one of the biggest waterfalls I’ve seen in my life. All the scenery is very impressiveand beautiful, and with the stairs build right next to the waterfall it reminded me a lot on a Asian scenery. There you definitely will get wet – to my luck it also started raining when we were about to leave and as the car is open it was a rather cold experience. 

 

arrived and my hair was still dry at that point

...and here it wasn't dry anymore - Pailón del Diablo

Resume of the first tour: Damn why am I here just for one day?! There is a lot more I would like to do!

 

2 hour Casa del Árbol tour

My second tour as to the Casa del Árbol and its Columpio del Fin del Mundo (Swing at the end of the world) – one of the most known places in Ecuador. Passing by a view sport to see Baños from above we continued our trip to the Casa del Arbol. First thing to do there is of course to take one of the 4 swings you can find in the area. Even though the weather wasn’t the best with rain once in a while and many clouds I was able to take some nice pictures and enjoy the view. If you’re lucky arriving there with good weather you will also be able to see the volcano close to the spot.

THE foto from the Casa del Árbol

All in all, my so unexpected trip to Ecuador was a full success and I am keen to get back to it as soon as I can. If anyone thinks about a trip around South America I can tell you do not miss the spot.

That’s it for now – hopefully some clearup also for all following me on social media and who were wondering what I was doing in Ecuador after visiting so much of Colombia. In addition for sure I’ll write some posts about the different areas around Colombia I have visited before in the end of December and January. I hope you liked this rather long post. Let me know what you think about it.

Muchos Besos,

Leonie