What's Colombia like?

- "Where are you from?"
- "I'm from Colombia"
- "Oh, cool! What's it like over there?"

In the past year I've probably had that conversation more times that I can count, I mean, it is the McGillian conversation by excellence, not just out of convention, but rather because you never quite know what the other person might reply. Despite the frequency with which this happens, it's more than likely that I've never given the same answer twice, so here's my go at trying to answer "What's Colombia like?". I'll begin by saying that it is a very difficult question to answer, and that's why I never quite know what to say, but here's my best shot.


Sometimes my first instinct is to reply as if I were a travel agent: "Beautiful!" I would say at first, "we've got such diverse natural beauty, many different climates in the same country. In fact, we have  the world's greatest biodiversity per unit area!" In the middle of the Canadian winter I would  emphasize that "If you're ever cold in Bogotá, a two-hour car ride will take you to tropically hot weather!" I would then go on to describe Bogotá as a cosmopolitan and modern city. "Three times the population of Montreal!!" I'd yell over the party's loud music, trying to gauge the person's perception of my country and home city.  I could go on with things like "it's the only country in South America with two oceans!" or "We have this really cool thing in Bogotá that every Sunday we close some of the main streets for people to go out cycling, jogging, skating... since it's never too cold or too hot we can do it all year round." I might try to yell in one breath between two songs. While this would be honest, it does have an artificial aftertaste to it, it's my desire to pitch the good things about my country, rather than my personal thoughts, what's driving me to say it.

Another choice would be to try and address all of the negative aspects about Colombia, and let's not kid ourselves I'd have a plateful to choose from! Quite a risky move I usually think to myself, probably not the best party conversation. Giving a full and accurate picture of contemporary Colombia in terms of politics, economics and society is quite hard. Colombia is apparently full of contradictions: "yes, it is one of the largest drug producing countries, but no, it is not socially acceptable to consume drugs everywhere, actually I was shocked at how open people are here in Montreal about doing drugs". Armed conflict, forced displacement, inequality, lack of opportunities, the list goes on... it would be foolish to deny that my country has its share of problems, but I don't think I could do justice to any of them in casual conversation. I think I've made my point on why it is so hard to paint an objective, accurate picture on "What's Colombia like?" The thing is that when I hear the question "What's Colombia like?" I naturally think about my personal, subjective view:  What's Colombia like, for me?

Colombia, for me, is naturally filled with memories. When I think of Colombia I think about my family, my friends, my experiences in school. The images that come to my head are not of the great biodiversity or of the political troubles, they are rather images of my room and all the books I have left behind, of my friends and the all the fun we had in school, of the amazing teachers I had, of all the parties and dancing (yes, in Colombia any party is a dancing party), of my favourite restaurants. When I go back to Colombia my greatest expectations are not to drink "the world's best coffee!" or understand the problems with our politicians, but rather to have a homemade dinner, to share an amazing (and amazingly cheap) beer with my friends, to be able to tell jokes without thinking if they'll translate well, to eat all of the food I cannot find in Montreal (you cannot imagine the craving I have for a hamburger from El Corral, a Colombian food chain), to dance salsa, merengue, reggaetón (you name it!) with my friends.  Maybe the reason why I find it so hard to answer the question "What's Colombia like?" is because my subjective answer is very different from the objective answer, which is in itself complicated enough.

Long story short, it's kinda really complicated. I think the best thing is for you to come visit and I'll be able to show you what I mean!