Part 5. July, 2008

We found an attractive spot and after a 2-month period of negotiations and creative financing propositions an agreement was reached. When we told the family about where we were looking at a lot, they had never been to the Valle de Tenza much less Somondoco. In fact only one person in the large family had even heard of the village other than as one of the Emerald mines.

The papers were signed at a Notary on November 13. The following weekend we met a person that MaEl and Ernesto recommended to start our construction. That meeting with Heinor Torres started a relationship that is still going strong. We met Heinor at the lot and we discussed the potential building sites. I then spent many hours over several days sitting and getting to know the land. 

A humorous thing happened that we only recently found out about. While I was just sitting in a folding wooden chair the neighbor, a man significantly older than I am, reported to his grown daughter that Papa Noel was sitting in the vacant lot... The daughter could not believe what her father had reported, that provoked a visit and our first meeting of our new neighbors.

We blocked out where the house would fit and be best located in regards to the views, sun and breezes. We then needed to have a visit of a big backhoe, here called a retoescavadora. Four hours with this machine changed the rough land into a muddy but more orderly lot... When this had been completed, Heinor brought a crew to build the placa.  They moved big rocks from an old border fence to help fill the deep places that the slope required. The thickness of the placa ranged from about 6 inches to nearly 3 feet. The big stones cut down many bags of concrete. The construction here is essentially floating on the ground. There is no freezing but no bedrock either. To reach bedrock you would have to go down 1500ft and it just isn’t done.

The crew finished the placa in about a week and then left it to cure for another 2 weeks. Then construction could proceed.

On the 18th of December we waited for the trucks to arrive. Gloria stayed at the entrance to town while I led the trucks, one at a time to the lot. The house arrived in 2 dump trucks and one stake truck. The next morning construction started. We had to supply 4 local workers and 2 oil drums. I also had Heinor join in to help out. Servivienda sent two technicians who arrived at 6 am. We watched what was happening as they got organized then we needed to go to Guateque for some business.

We came back about lunchtime and were astonished to see the walls of the house were almost half done. The use of the oil barrel was astonishing. One of the Technicians stood on each barrel and used them as ladders. To move from one place to another they moved them by dancing on then and moving then without getting down. By the end of the first day all of the walls were in place. The next day, using the barrels and a couple of ladders, they installed the supports, trusses and then the roof. So at the end of day 2 the house had a roof and all the walls finished.

Sunday morning the crew arrived and installed the windows, interior and exterior doors and the porch railing. We had a completion lunch with a lot of food from Heinor’s mother and several cases of beer. OUR HOUSE WAS BUILT IN 34 WORKING HOURS!

The type of construction has proved to be very appropriate for here. There are no extremes of temperature so insulation is not used. The elevated placa protected from any ground water. The floating placa and the loose attachment of the walls to the placa allowed for the structure to flex and move in the case of earthquakes. Our house has 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a very large kitchen, a living/dinning room and a laundry room

After the original house was built, we still needed to do a lot of work. We did that as we could afford it, bit by bit. We ran an extension cord to bring us a little electric for lights and a microwave. Heinor installed the bathroom fixtures and on December 24 we were ready to spend the night. However that was a day of family celebrations in Bogotá as was Christmas. We returned to our house on December 26 to spend our first night in our house. We spent our night in the house 38 days after paying for the lot...           

Part 6, August, 2008

Part 6. August, 2008

We now have a place to stay. The house structure is up and we can move furniture in. Still no flooring over the bare concrete, and it feels dirty and is dusty all the time.

There is water connected from a nice spring at the neighbor’s. We have 3 separate systems that process the used water. From the toilet we have a pipe connection to a septic tank with a large leech bed, from the bathroom sinks and showers we lead to water into the front yard so the water is reused by the plants, from the kitchen and laundry the sink and floor drains all go to a drainage system and is absorbed in the soil downhill toward the Quebrada. 

The only electric connection is a long extension cord that one of the workers attached to the electric wires up the pole. Pirated current I guess.  We were cooking in a microwave sitting on a stool. The first improvement was a shelf to hold the microwave, much better.

During the construction phase, the first dump truck that delivered material got stuck in the muddy soil. The soil here is very fine clay that is hundreds of feet deep. During the rainy season mud is everywhere. I HATE mud. OK I had to live with that complaint. Before the rest of the fill for the placa could be delivered, we needed to put a lot of fill in the driveway so trucks could come and go. After the grading, the whole area was a bare muddy horror. The first consideration after the house itself was to start the long process of mud reduction.

My wife and I split the tasks. If it has to do with function, it is my job. For example the house design and orientation, that is Bill’s task. The garden, more a matter of form, fell to Gloria. We spent time both at the finca and also in the house we were renting in Chia. Every time we returned to Somondoco we passed a Vivero (place that sells plants). We would buy as many as we could carry in our little Samauri 2 door. The number would vary depending on what else we were moving.

Gloria really had her work cut out for her. The first thing she did was to plant around the edge of the placa on the front side and the end toward the gate. These were the highest sides of the placa, about 3 ft at the highest corner. The other 2 sides were nearly ground level and also out of sight to most people.

The drive way was about 50 feet of muddy gravel. I had 4 dump truck loads placed on top and smoothed out. Gloria wanted it bigger than I visualized but I have learned to listen to her so the driveway became pear shaped.  She planted a row of shrubs and lower plants along the lower side of the driveway. The upper side was straight due to a drainage ditch and fence line of big stones that had been there for hundreds of years.  It may well be a demarcation of the verada or section of the township. Our finca is in two veradas (so we have to pay 2 sets of real estate taxes).

If you look at the photos in Facebook, you can see what Gloria’s efforts have produced.
Here some plants grow very fast. We planted a tree, Tulipanes africanus, which was about a foot high when we planted them (5). They started to bloom after the second year, and now in the 4th year they are huge. There are 5 of them and for some reason they have grown in that order. #1 is the biggest. The trunk is more than 8 inches in diameter and it is more than 20 feet tall.  We planted hibiscus and many of them are approaching 10 feet.

Here there is no growing season, things grow all year long. A few things haven’t grown very well. We put in about 30 coffee plants 3 years ago and so far have only gotten ONE coffee bean. That was because I bought very cheap plants. $10 USD planted, labor and plants included. I will need to buy some better plants and try again.

If any of you would like to correspond with me

I would love to hear from you, my e-mail is w_turley@yahoo.com . Until next month take it easy, I will be.    

Part 7

Part 7. September 2008

          We have been living in Colombia for more than eleven years. During this time I have had to make many lifestyle changes. While I lived in South Florida, for example, my beverage of preference was Iced Tea. It was cheap and easy to find as a generic powdered mix. I kept a pitcher in the refrigerator ready to use all the time. When I tried to do the same in Colombia I could only find small containers of Nestea. It was very expensive! Loose tea not available, Instant Tea  forget it; so tea bags were the only reasonable solution.

My wife objected to the mess of making large pitchers of tea so I needed to find another substitute. I don’t drink coffee, never have, because I don’t like the flavor. I really wanted a caffeine jolt before going to school, hence Coca Cola.

This is only one simple example of needs to change. Many things that are commonplace in the states are not here. Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Colombia I have tried to celebrate it anyway. Turkey is the most expensive meat $ 4 to $5 USD /lb Cranberry Juice or sauce is just not available, Stuffing  unheard of? Canned pumpkin is  not available. In fact pies are not at all common so if I want a pumpkin pie I must start with the whole pumpkin and make the crust from scratch.

When I made stuffing in Florida I liked to add pecans for crunch here they aren’t available.  OK no cranberry, substitute raspberry sauce  (from scratch),  stuffing from scratch using calados for the dried bread and brazil nuts for the pecans. Instead of getting a big bird with lots of leftovers, just get one big enough for the one meal. Problem solved.

Some of the not available products that I could not find for the first few years now are available. A good example is bagels. There is now a bagel bakery in Bogotá which sells bagels at about $ 2 USD a dozen. I don’t live in Bogotá! However my wife goes there once a month to take care of business. Problem solved.

The quintessential sandwich in the US is the PB & J. Peanut butter is very expensive $4USD for 12 oz  and grape jelly is not available so use Mora ( raspberry). Another solution would be to make your own peanut butter.  Here in Colombia the concept of sandwiches is not as common as in the states. In Somondoco there are four bakeries but none of them sell sliced bread, but they all sell a variety of rolls. Rolls make good sandwiches.

Colombia has a huge variety of foods.  In fact the are several distinctly different regional cusines. These reflect local ingredients which may be locally common and inexpensive.  Colombian foods are not at all like Mexican. Spicy sauces are served as condiments on the table not in the food.

There are many very common soups. Most meals are accompanied by arepas, which are corn cakes which come in many varieties. The most common is white about ½ inch thick and is cooked over open flame or on a griddle. This is really quite flavorless but is a good accompaniment for meat. However there are many variations which are exceptional treats for the gringo palete. Here the local arepa is called Arepa de Laja. This is cooked on flat stones ( laja) and has cheese in the mix and is very tasty. Along the coast they serve arepas with a egg cooked inside. This is cooked in oil like French fries. Other arepas may be made with yellow corn and sugar which is cooked like a pancake.

And so the list goes on with arepa varieties. Plantains are another staple of the diet. This is a member of the banana family but are much bigger and starchy rather than sweet. They may be French fried, baked with guava paste, boiled in soup. There is a process where chunks are French fried then rolled into a flat cake and French fried again. These are used as platforms for meat sauces or eated straight.

That is enough for now, it is time to get lunch, this talking about food makes me hungry. I will continue with this topic next time. I would love to hear from you, my e-mail is w_turley@yahoo.com . Until next month take it easy, I will be.    

Bill Turley

Part 8

Part 8. November 2008

Last month I started to tell you about foods here in Colombia and the adjustments needed to live here. When I came here for the first time and my wife was returning after being away for 10 years, we were invited out to eat just about every day and frequently twice during the day. There was only one item repeated during the 2-month visit. Imagine that, more than 60 (probably 75+) different company meals with only one the same. That one was Ajaico, the signature dish from Bogota. It is a thick soup made with 3 kinds of potatoes that are only all found in that area.

Soups are mainstays of the Colombian Diet. Sancocho is a typical soup made with chicken, beef or pork, or any combination of them with potatoes, yucca, onions and platinos.  It is not New England Clam Chowder (which I miss), but it is available.

I expect a friend to visit in a couple of weeks and she wants to experience "ethnic" foods. One such meal will be Sancocho de Galina cooked over a wood fire. Galina is a range-reared mature and tough hen. I don't know why, but the wood fire gives a different flavor even inside a pot of soup.

Meat, here in the country, never sees the inside of a styrofoam package. It is sold only on market days and is not refrigerated. It is still warm when purchased. All the meat from the baby beef is sold before 11 in the morning. The cuts follow the muscle groups rather than cross them and the bones as is common in the US. If you buy a sirloin steak you would buy only the boneless sirloin called Bola. It is then cut as you want it. Soups usually are made from the cuts with bones such as the ribs or the tail.

The first time I saw a meat market in Colombia I was horrified by the open hanging cuts of meat.  There is so much made of proper handling of meat and packaging in the US. Yet there are always problems with people getting sick from bad meat in the States. There are recalls in the news frequently due to contamination. Here in Colombia I have NEVER heard of any such cases.

In the US there is interest in eating organic, here, in Somondoco, that is the only food available. Organic milk, expensive and hard to find in the US, is the cheapest and is available from farmers if you want it very fresh. There are people with their 3 gallon cans of milk that deliver it fresh to the village housewives for about $1 per gallon. You can buy as much or as little as you want, by the cup, quart or whatever.

That holds true for just about everything. You can buy 1 egg or 5 or 30. The same is true with flour, salt, sugar or rice. Just a little: buy a spoon full of sugar if you want or a half-cup of rice. It is not at all uncommon to see someone buy one single cigarette. 

If any of you have any questions that you want to ask me PLEASE write me and I would love the chance to answer you. My e-mail is w_turley@yahoo.com

Bill Turley

Part 9

Part 9. December 2008

Hello again! Last month I wrote about some food issues. I will continue on that theme again this month. For the first several years I was here I missed my standard eat out breakfast, Egg McMuffin and Hash Browns. I was thinking about a trip to the US to be highlighted by breakfast at McDonalds and another at a Bagel place. . THEN McDonald came to Colombia! Now, once every 4 months, when I take my dog to the Vet for his heartworm shot, I stop at a McDonalds on the way. 

Wrinkles loves it when I stop because I get him a sausage patty. Sausage is not available here in the meat markets or grocery stores, not as we know it.  Jimmy Dean Links and that type of seasoning is not what we get if we buy sausage here. If you go into a store and ask for it you will get hot dogs. There are several different sausage type products, many course-ground like Italian Sausage. These are chorizos and vary by locale and even vendor. They can be made with beef, pork or even horse, and goats and sheep.  Pork is made into many other forms such as longanizos.  

American style hot dogs are very common. The common form sold on the street is loaded down with a variety of sauces and topped with crushed potato chips. Burgers have changed since my first trip here. That was about 15 years ago. I was walking through a shopping area and was hungry; I saw a sigh for hamburgers at a good price so I bought one. It was HAM on a roll, smoked sliced ham. 

Now there are hamburgers sold all over the place, in chains such as McDonald and also in other small restaurants. They cost the same as steak though. Ground meat is no cheaper than solid cuts. However it is not made from all parts of the body as it is in the US. If I buy a pound of ground beef from my local butcher I need to add some grease to the frying pan as it has almost no fat included. It is made from stew beef.  I still can not get over that beef and pork are about the same price as chicken. The most expensive meat is turkey, can you believe that?

Eating out is common.  The laws restricting restaurants are not apparent here. If a person has a charcoal grill they can set it up along the road and sell grilled food. Corn on the cob, called mazorcas, are grilled over charcoal. This is not sweet corn; it is what we call field corn. Grilled to a light brown and served with butter and salt and eaten in the hands. Not as good as sweet corn but not bad either. A treat is to stop at a place that is cooking meat or chorizos, then drive on to another place that sells desserts. There is a chain of them called Endulce su Paseo, (Sweeten your trip) which offers more than 50 different desserts.  These are along the major roads leading out of Bogota on the way to the warmer areas where many people have weekend homes.

There is a major exodus from Bogota every long weekend, of which there are 18 a year. They even change the traffic flow going into the city on Monday afternoon. They change the outgoing lane to one-way going into the city.

Here in Somondoco there are two restaurants for that clientele. They both sell fish dinners, one sells them fried the other sells them grilled or baked.  There a very limited menu: the fish or meat + chicken served with French Fries, yucca, salad, rice and patacones. Patacones are platanos fried in oil, pressed flat and fried again. They are better than they sound.  Cost for this banquet is about $6 USD for an additional dollar add refrlajo  a mixture of beer and crème soda

The friend I was expecting was unable to come right now due to a  car accident on the family.  She plans to come as soon as conditions allow.  I would live to hear from you anytime write me at w_turley@yahoo.com   

Bill Turley

Part 10: Christmas in Colombia

Christmas in Colombia

This month I think it is appropriate for me to comment on the way Christmas and New Year are observed here in the South Land. The first and most obvious differences are the length of time spent on the observances.  Here the Christmas Season starts on December 8, the Day of the Immaculate Conception. For a non-Catholic the observation of Conception, 17 days before the celebration of the Birth, is hard to understand. But anyway that is the fact here. The decorations are put up in advance of that date and the lights are lit that night. The also have dozens of candles in homemade candle holders along the sides of the walkways.  These are frequently very simple such as paper bags with sand in the bottom or cut off empty 2 liter soda bottles with sand to stabilize them.

In Colombia there is no question about the nature of the celebration, it is a totally religious time of the year, even more so than Easter. The last 9 days before Christmas are celebrated with masses in the Churches each night. Families also gather together in the cities. In smaller communities such as condominiums, the neighborhoods come together. In Somondoco it is a municipal activity. There are parades each night before and after the celebration of the mass. There is always lots of food, drink, and music, as is characteristic of Colombian Social Occasions.

Everything reaches the climax on December 24, and the celebrations often extend all night. In areas such as Somondoco, where it is legal, there are lots of fireworks. Presents are opened at midnight (or before).  Presents are from the Baby Jesus more often than Papa Noel (Santa Claus). There is a festive big meal served at midnight.   

On Christmas Day things are very subdued, people sleep late; recover from too much drink etc. On the 26th business goes back to normal until the 31th. On New Years Eve, early in the afternoon things kick off. As Midnight approaches things become more and more festive. There is a lot of snack foods and of course lots of alcohol. The popular drink is Aguardiente strong anise flavored liquor) Again like at Christmas there is a mass and fireworks. At midnight the sky is lit up with fireworks. There are customs of walking around the house with luggage (promotes travel during the next year), carrying lentils in your pocket, having money in your pocket.  They eat 12 grapes for good luck.

During the days leading up to the 31st, they make a life sized doll with old used clothes. This doll is called The Old Year. It is fascinating to see the creativity that goes into these dolls. Last year there was one standing behind a wall like in a urinal. Cars stopped and laughs could be heard as the passers bye enjoyed the humor.  After, but close to midnight, the Old Year is burned and when it is burned up, a big dinner is served. . The evening is over about 4 AM at the earliest. The 1st is even quieter than Christmas Day.

One holiday treat is buenuelos, these are little balls made of flour, sugar and most importantly cheese. They use a special uncured cheese for them. They are made into balls and cooked in oil. The temperature is critical so the outside gets cooked before the cheese melts and breaks out of the shell.  Cooked correctly they are perfectly round and smooth balls and taste great.

Poinsettias, so common in the US as “The” Christmas flower, grow wild here. I have five plants that I planted as cuttings when we built our house. Now they are over 15 feet tall with many flowers that last for months.   Remember there are no seasons here and I will have over 20 different species of flowers in bloom for the holiday.

The schools here follow 2 basically different yearly schedules. There is the general one and one to mesh with International Schedules. The most common one ends the school year before December 8th and the next year starts after January 15th. So all or most of the kids are out of school for the entire Christmas season.

The worst traffic jam of the year is the weekend following the vacation time. A large percentage of Bogotanos leave town for all vacations and puentes. This regularly results in huge traffic jams when everybody returns at once. In Bogota they change the 2 way Autopistas into one way into the city. Even with 8 lanes of incoming traffic there are jams.

Contact me anytime if you want to at  w_turley@yahoo.com
 
Bill Turley

Part 11: Scenes From Colombia

Scenes From Colombia

These pictures were shot at Bill Turley's home in
Finca Picaflores
Somondoco, Boyaca
Colombia

The author, Bill Turley, and his constant companion, his 180 pound Bull Mastiff. They are at a family BarBQ across the Quebrada from home. Wrinkles loves to socialize with groups of people, there were 80 + people there that day hence his big grin.

Colombia is a country about the overall size of Florida. It is transected by 3 high mountain ranges (The Andes), interspersed by deep river valleys, including headwaters of the Amazon. Colombia is located very close to the Equator, dead center tropical. The climate in Bogotá is really quite cold even though it is tropical. Go down the mountain and it gets warmer then hotter and finally tropical. Go up the mountain and you can get ice and depending on the mountain even snow. Due to the location near the Equator, Colombia does not have seasons. Before buying our finca, altitude was the most important factor we looked at. We had spent years in Bogotá, too cold, and a year in Cali, too hot.

This red ball flower grows on a shrub about 6 feet tall ( at 5 years old). The flowers attract dozens of hummingbirds, these gave us the name for our finca, Picaflores, which is one of several names for types of Hummingbirds. There are also always butterflies there too.

During the construction phase, the first dump truck that delivered material got stuck in the muddy soil. The soil here is very fine clay that is hundreds of feet deep. During the rainy season mud is everywhere.

This is a photo from the entrance to the finca. You can see the pond and some shrubs. This is the narrowest aspect of the house.

The first time I saw this property, a gorgeous, large, iridescent blue butterfly. I later learned it was the magic butterfly that was in the movie “The Blue Butterfly”. I have come to believe that it does indeed have magic in its shiny wings. I guess that when I saw that gorgeous iridescent Blue Butterfly, I really started to fall in love with this piece of paradise. 

Our artificial pond was dug using manpower and lined with schist rocks. The water comes through a pvc hose from a quebrada. We have had problems with water flow when little fish like guppies get into the system and then get so big that they block the fountain flow. The Spanish moss is common in places. We brought some here and it has flourished

Here there is no growing season, things grow all year long. A few things haven’t grown very well. We put in about 30 coffee plants 3 years ago and so far have only gotten ONE coffee bean.

Part 12 Market Day

Market Day

Hi, again.  This month I want to take you on a trip to our market on market day. Today is Tuesday, February 3. In the USA it would be a cold or snowy morning. Here it is sunny and in the low 70s. The three of us climbed in our little old Samurai and drove the mile and a half to town. The road is really not very busy because 8:45 is too late to see goods on the way to market.

We did see a distant neighbor taking a load of wood to market. This amount of wood costs about $7.50. This load will probably go to a restaurant where it will be used for cooking. A lot of the cooking here is with wood, besides grilling meat (yummy) it is used to bake in dome shaped ovens made from our clay soil and to slow cook soups. I don’t know how it happens but soups cooked this way really tastes different with the faint smoky flavor.

The market is a large structure that this small town provides for people to sell their products and produce. Most rural communities have these Plazas de Mercado, which are used weekly for the markets. Any person who has an excess of produce just hauls it to market. They display their goods and settle down to sell what they have. Prices are negotiable of course. No one wants to carry stuff home if they can’t sell it. While some people use horses, like our friend with the load of wood, donkeys and mules are also used.  However 90% of the transportation is by foot with bags on their shoulders.

There are a wide variety of things offered for sale. The woman above has Plantains, Bananas and Tomatoes.

This farmer has Pineapples, Plantains, Herbs and Peas

These bags are measured in a special unit called the arroba (@). A bag usually weighs 4 Arrobas and since one Arroba is about 25 pounds, a bag is 100 lb. A person generally carries one bag, while a pack animal carry 4 or 5 bags. This is a one-horse load of two kinds of potatoes.  Somondoco produces three kinds in commercial quantities

Customers frequently use the services of several men with wheelbarrow to transport their purchases home. This service is generally limited to the people who live within the village. The market itself is down the hill and to the right.

Bill Turley

Finca Picaflores
Somondoco, Boyaca
Colombia

Part 13 Market Day -- Part 2

Market Day -- Part 2

As I watch the cable news from the USA I seem to hear about  many problems with contamination both organic and chemical. Eat Organic! Avoid a carbon footprint, eat local. Local is better and more nutricious.  That is all that is available here. The dispay area in the market  is filled with local produce.  The use of chemical fertilizers is very limited because the natural organic fertilizer is generally available, free, in quantity. Most farms have a couple of milk cows which are very efficient fertilizer manufacturers. I read in Mother Earth News that a cow puts out over 50 lb a day.

As you can see in this  wide angle view that there are many items of produce tha tare very familiar but there are many things not found in the States. People just walk around and see what is available this week. As there are no seasons there always are different thing as well as staples. In the background you can see a meat market stall. The meat is freshly killed probably only 3 or 4 hours ago. I will write another column just about  meat .

Some people spend the time between customers in value added activities such as shelling peas to sell by the bag rather than in the shell or even on the vine, which is also available.

The next 2 photos show the variety of produce available.  This produce is all harvested fully ripe without consideration about transport  times. Some were probably picked as late as this morning. I have frequently bought a bunch of bananas that is still dripping sap from the cut stalk. In the States the Bananas were harvested very green, the difference between these and ones harvested ripe is like a totally different  fruit .

There are many things you just wouldn’t find in ths States like these roots. The ones on the left are yucca. Here it is cooked in soup, boiled or fried. In the US this is sold processed and called tapioca where it is commonly used as a dessert.  The other one both younger and older (darker) is arracha which is used in soups or boiled and served as a side dish.

I hope you have enjoyed this little excursion to Market Day in Somondoco, drop me a line and let me know what you think.  Suggest any topics for the future at my e-mail w_turley@yahoo.com

Part 14 Feeling Safe in Colombia

Feeling Safe in Colombia

Our host suggested that this month’s column be about safety for US Citizens in Colombia. Before I came for a visit, all I knew was what the media reported. When I arrived late one night at the El Dorado Airport, we were the last ones to go through customs and outside were a large group of “disorderly” people. Was this an attack, a demonstration? What it was, was my wife’s family there to welcome us with their customary warmth. 

We spent the next 2 months being taken all over the area. I have never been basically fearful so I had no real fear during these 2 months. I was shocked when we went to Montserrate, a popular peak near Central Bogota. There were many pairs of soldiers, well armed with pistols and assault rifles. There were a few with machine guns and rocket launchers.  I assumed they were Army because they wore green uniforms. They were instead, police. I became accustomed to seeing the fully armed police where ever there were crowds.

When we were looking for a place to buy, we were concerned with the safety reputation for the areas where we were considering buying. We did reject some otherwise attractive places because of a spotty reputation.  Colombia has had a problem with paramilitary groups and terrorists. That is a certain fact. Over the years since the election of the current president, the severity of the problem has been greatly reduced.

When we were driving from Bogota to Somondoco it became a game to guess where a platoon of tanks would be deployed along the road.  The road we had to use was only one of two possible routes from the extensive plains called Llanos and the populated areas of the Sabana de Bogota and Boyaca.  The population density between the Eastern Range and the Central Range is much higher than in Los Llanos. Many of the FARC strongholds were in isolated areas of the Llanos. The first time I saw the 6 tanks in the platoon, I was shocked. The tanks didn’t have tracks, wheels instead, so they could use the roads. Sometimes they carried on roadblocks to check vehicles.  About 3 years ago they were not there more than they were there. Now they are never there.

We had a visit from representatives of a Para group. Apparently a small group of about 30 paras were in the area.  They lived in abandoned houses, notifying the owners that they were using the place. A close friend of Gloria’s, the ones who helped us to find our finca, had a group in residence.

One afternoon there was a man and woman at our gate, we went to talk to them. They were members of the para group.  They introduced themselves to us and we chatted for while.  I thought they were nice enough but Gloria was spooked.  They had heard of some problems in the area, maybe some resident had spoken to them. There had been some incidents of missing cattle and a case of a man molesting his very young step-daughter. The man decided to leave the area and cattle loss stopped. I would not call their impact a negative one. When they left the houses that they had commandeered, they were cleaned and in case of any damage there was money left to make repairs.   My first impressions were born out.

Colombia does not have as effective police forces as does the US.  There is less governmental involvement in the day to day life of the citizens. That is why the Paras were formed and needed.

Today I feel so much safer here than I would in Phoenix or El Paso. The number of kidnappings and terrorist acts has dropped dramatically while I have been here. The comments I hear from News from the States about the bad guys being better armed than the police forces, not so here. Even the police in this tiny village have automatic weapons readily available if not on the streets. There are about 20 officers here all the time with over a hundred for special Fiestas and Celebrations.  We have hosted groups of police at our gate and given them Cokes.

In summary, I would say that living here is certainly no more dangerous than in the US, particularly in the Sun Belt. There is less inference in the daily life by the government either State or Federal. Local Government is small and very responsive to the residents. One very good example is the problems of Rabies Vaccinations for dogs. They are mandated but provided free by the Health Departments, which sends technicians door to door to provide the shots to every dog and cat.  Incidentally the tech is very relieved that I take my “little” baby to his own vet.

Part 15 Country of Biodiversity

Country of Biodiversity

Hello again. This month I want to tell everybody about the differences between what the environment is like here in comparison to the Northeastern US.

This is deep in the tropics. The term is not a climatic term rather it is a geographical one.  Colombia is the country of biodiversity. This does not mean there are more animals, not at all; it means there are more kinds of animals.  For example the US has fewer than 10 species of hummingbirds, while Colombia has 350 species.  There are places in the States where people can usually see one or two kinds of hummingbirds just about any time (in season). Here on my little finca I see about 4 species every day, usually just fleeting glimpses of a few individuals.

In order to illustrate this principal of variety, think of a typical woodlot in the States. There are very few species of trees, usually one or two species with hundreds of individuals. Here there are very few of each species with hundreds of species. Look carefully at the picture of grass. You can see clover, grass, a tiny blue flower, and several broadleaved species. This is what is normal here. If you look at the earlier photos of my yard you will see a uniform green lawn. This is what it looks like up close. 

Plants really try to grab every bit of light that they can. The normal woodland structure has several layers with a canopy, mid level and floor. Some species have developed the ability to quickly fill a niche that comes open. The picture of a tree shows a species that has evolved to penetrate the canopy and even to extend above it. This is called an emergent. This stick like tree is about 4 years old, it doesn’t waste resources in growing sideways it just gets as tall as possible in the shortest time.

The forests are self clearing. This is a picture of a group of epiphytes, locally called quiches, which grow in just about all trees. They start out as very tiny cute plants about the size of a dime. They grow quite large and they have wide leaves that grow in whorls, close together so as to catch a lot of the rainfall. The plants are quite heavy when filled with water, when the limb can no longer support the large number of these heavy epiphytes  that can weigh 50 lb and more, the limb breaks and falls to the floor.
  

You can see from this photo taken up on the mountain how the canopies cover much of the land.  Our house in the one near the center of the picture and the house of my sister-in-law is above it. These are taken from about a mile away. The dark strip of trees between the houses is a ravine with a significant stream of water the year round. This provides an area that is very different from my yard. It is a perfect sanctuary for birds, butterflies and other things. It is much cooler in the ravine even on the hottest days. I love to see one of the residents of this ravine (quebrada), the Blue Butterfly of the movie with the same name

That is enough for this month, please write me if you have any questions or ideas you would like to see in this spot. My email is w_turley@yahoo.com, write soon.

The obvious legal statement.

The folks at Slightly Creaky are volunteers. None of us get any salary or compensation in any form. We are not a corporation, just a few folks working out of our houses. If anything on this site bothers you, if you notice mistakes, please let us know.

While we do maintain editorial rights, things slip past, especially on the message boards. The submitted columns and news articles, as well as the postings on the message boards, belong to the contributor(s), not to the Slightly Creaky team. We are simply a vehicle bringing you information to the best of our ability.

Be sure to read our complete Legal Information and Policies