Colombia Is Not What You Think It Is
Before I started learning Spanish, my mental image of Colombia was embarrassingly thin. Then I went down the rabbit hole.
Let me be honest: before I started learning Spanish, my mental image of Colombia was embarrassingly thin. Coffee, maybe. Shakira, definitely. And a lot of blank space where real knowledge should've been.
Then I started studying — really studying — the Colombian way of speaking. The usted for everything. The warmth baked into the grammar. And I started wondering: what kind of place produces a culture that warm?
So I went down the rabbit hole. And wow.
Colombia has everything. The Andes cutting through the middle like a spine. The Amazon rainforest breathing in the south. Two coastlines — the Caribbean doing its turquoise thing on one side, the wild Pacific on the other. You can drink coffee in the mountains in the morning and be on a beach by afternoon. How many countries can say that?
But here's what actually got me: the people. Colombians have this reputation for being some of the friendliest humans on the planet, and the more I learn the language, the more I see why. This is a culture where you address everyone with respect — usted isn't just for your boss, it's for the taxi driver, the barista, the stranger who helps you with directions. Politeness isn't a performance there. It's the default.
The music doesn't hurt either. Vallenato, cumbia, champeta — there's a rhythm to the whole country that makes you want to move. And the food? Arepas, empanadas, ajiaco, bandeja paisa — I'm learning the words and getting hungry at the same time, which feels like the correct order of operations.
Bogotá sits almost 9,000 feet up in the mountains, cool and buzzing. Medellín has that famous eternal spring. Cartagena looks like someone bottled the Caribbean and built a walled city around it. Three cities, three completely different worlds, one country.
I'm not planning a trip tomorrow. But I'm learning the language like I am — because some places earn that kind of respect before you ever set foot there. Colombia's one of them.
¿Han estado en Colombia? Tell me where I need to go first. 🇨🇴