Our Colombia Experience

This is list of some of the things we’ve seen that we considered strange, different, charming, funny and/or just plain weird.  I will update this list as things occur so check back occaisionally!

Eggs sold on the shelf, not in a cooler.

Milk in a box or bag on the shelf

Your dry-cleaning delivered by a man on a bicycle pulling a big box trailer

Pedicures for $3.50 (that is not a typo!)

No cheddar cheese in any store in a city larger than
Dallas

Sub-titles on all the
US tv shows

Shops that will deliver a 2 liter bottle of diet coke to your door for 25 cents.

Side walks so cracked, broken, uneven that it is just easier to walk in the street.

Only being able to drive your car during rush hour 3 days per week, the day determined by the last number of your license plate

Virtual kidnappings…..bad guys call your cell pretending to be the cell phone company.

  They tell you your phone was cloned and you need to turn off your cell for 2-3 hours while they terminate the clone.  While your cell is off they call your family and tell them they kidnapped you and they have to pay the ransom within 2 hours.  Your family can’t get hold of you because your phone is off, so they pay the ransom.

50 + cement trucks decorated with balloons and streamers in a parade celebrating the Virgin Carmen, patron saint of drivers.

20 minute cab ride for $4.00

Having to alternate between Spanish and English constantly all day long

Buses that take off before you are even through the turnstile.

70 cents to get a bus all the way across town

Police with M-16’s and Uzis

Doormen at your apartment building who would do anything for you….ALWAYS open the door for you, help carry your groceries, get a taxi for you, etc.

Say hello to just about everyone you pass (Buenos dias or just Buenas)

Ride in a 1970 Bronco that used to be a police car

Have a maid who refuses to use the washing machine and washes the clothes by hand.

Squatters who build their houses one brick at a time as they can afford the brick.

Hardly any annoying bugs because it is the same cool temp all year round.

People wearing gloves and a scarf in the 45 degree morning

Local stores for making long distance calls…it is cheaper than your home phone.

Little house on the Prairie dubbed over in Spanish (not subtitles).

No heat or AC in the houses….you never really need it!

The strangest looking fruits you’ve ever seen and please don’t ask me to spell them.

Can’t buy boneless chicken

Can purchase just about any antibiotic you want without a prescription but need a doctor to get a B-12 shot.

The bishop’s head covering (I don’t know the official name…looks like a beanie) is fuschia.

TGI Fridays has a wheelchair ramp, but at the end there is a 10 in. drop off to the sidewalk. (We laughed about that for over 10 mins. during lunch!)

People kiss you on the cheek to say hello and good-bye.

El Penol: You can climb up 750 or so steps built into a crack in this huge rock.  The steps alternate between circular and short straight flights.  There is an occaisional hand rail or a 4 ft. high brick wall to look out over.  The steps are concrete; they range from 2 inches to a foot deep and from 15 in. to three feet wide.  Now the unusual part…..you go down the same set of stairs you went up.  Think about it!!!!

Included in the price of a Metro ride in Medellin you can go up the most incredible cable car!  It is mass transit that serves the poorer people who live way up on the side of the mountain where the train can’t go.  Try it on a Sat. evening…..the music and all the people in the street below were fascinating.

It costs way more to feed and provide litter for my cats than to feed and support my teenagers!

Take your kids to check out the mechanical bull in the little outdoor amusment park in the middle of the mall in El Poblado, Medellin.  You can rent them for birthday parties like we rent Moonwalks.

Kids’ favorite foods that you can’t find in the US (in our experience anyway)  Ariquipe (Obleas);  fruit salad (made with fresh papaya, apple, peaches, pineapple, berries, strawberries,etc. with a scoop of icecream and, of course, the shredded mozerella cheese on top;  digging up a yucca and adding it to the pot of frijoles; real chicharrones….not the fake poofy stuff!; unripe mangos with lime and salt; arepas….de chocolo are the best…chocolo is not chocolate, it is a type of corn; kinder eggs (yes, I know they are German, but you can’t hardly ever buy them in the States);