Bogota Blogger

I have left Bogota. But I still have a lot to say about it, and am going to try to start writing again consistently. I left because I got a new job in Turkey, so I was ready for a different experience, but I could easily have lived in Bogota for a few years more. There’s lots to do and it has many andvantages for a foreigner. I would love to spend more time in the city, and in Colombia, and in South America, but the job situation dictated that I should move, and that is what I did. I would not hesitate to go back to Bogota and/or Colombia some day to live, and I most definitely plan to return to visit (maybe next July), now that I have some connections there.

Comparing Progress in Colombia and Turkey

I see a billion similarities between Colombia and my new home, Turkey. And a lot of differences, too, but more similarities. They are both in about the same place economically and in many ways socially as well. One big difference is that Turkey hopes to get into the European Union so is likely to clean up its act at a faster pace than Colombia, but in Colombia I also see some movement. The natural resources of Colombia are just astounding, the human resources are just waiting to be tapped, and development could come very quickly with just a little effort and some reform policies that a certain minority segment of the country’s leadership seems aware of and ready to make, if possible. Turkey will get there first, but when Colombia finally starts to compete, it will have a lot of raw talent to back it up.

Looking Back on Colombia

Since I left three months ago, I have kept up with Colombia in the news and of course talked to my friends who remain there. After two years in Bogota, I had started to become a little cynical (but that is my nature–I was cynical the whole time I lived in the US too) about the government and the “ruling class” idea that Colombia seems to hold onto. Early on I had thought that it is too bad the upper class doesn’t want to allow a middle class to develop, because, sadly, they don’t seem to realize that their own lives would be dramatically improved if the whole country were allowed to progress. 

The Tourism and Retirement Rush–Not Quite Yet

I think that someday Colombia will become a major tourist destination and also a major retirement destination, if a few things change–some minor ones and some major ones. The major one, of course, is the security issue, though I believe that even at this time that issue is very overblown by the press and that Colombia is suffering unjustly from an image problem that is no longer accurate. So, Americans and others can come to Colombia safely, and many do, but only a certain type of person at this point is willing to look deeply enough to see that it’s really an okay place to travel to and to live in.

Other smaller problems, such as the litter one I wrote about before, are also obstacles. There are beautiful beaches in Colombia, for example, if you can get off the beaten track, and there are POTENTIALLY beautiful beaches that are loaded with trash. A friend of mine visited the desert/beach area in the northeast of the country last year, and said the desert was on the one hand stunning landscape, but on the other hand was in places a desert of discarded plastic bags. When I visited Cartagena I loved the colonial old town with Spanish architecture and cobblestone streets, but sometimes the trash in the gutters made me feel a little unclean.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.