Bienvenido
A hearty welcome to Buenaventura, Colombia!
This journey starts in Cali and end up in my second home, Buenaventura.
I visit Buenaventura monthly. I began visiting Colombia in 2008 to see my significant other, Victor Renteria Caicedo. My first year in South America was spent in Bogota, the capitol of Colombia. Since my first visit to Buenaventura, not much has changed. If you want to imagine Buenaventura, picture any third world country. The town is poor and is in need of significant contributions and supporters. Other than the port, there is no other viable industry there; therefore there are no viable jobs according to the Chamber of Commerce. The infrastructure is in desperate need of improvement.
Because Buenaventura does not have a large
airport, I have to fly into Cali, Colombia. I arrive in Cali via Avianca Airlines. Avianca is one of the largest airlines in
South American. I choose Avianca for many
reasons but the main reason is the crew is magnificent and it is a great
airline. Even though I work for Delta Airlines, I jump
seat on Avianca. On board the aircraft and at the airport, I feel like I am a
part of this family.
Cali is the capitol of the State of Valle.
It is the third largest city in Colombia. From the airport we take a bus to the
bus station. At the bus station we have dinner at Restaurant Las Delicias De Aquivoca.
The cook prepares a stellar dish for us: robalo fish, sweet plantain; Cameron
rice with french-fries, salad and a sugar paste juice. We stay overnight in
Cali at a nearby hotel.
Travelling from Cali to Buenaventura is very calm and relaxing. The mountains and landscape are magnificent. As an avid traveller and lover of photography, I have a serious interest in photographing the people and the landscape.
There are hundreds of vendors along the
way. Everyone is pretty much selling the same products. As the bus approaches its stop, the workers
race out to the bus to make their sales. The products include peanuts, bee honey,
fresh pineapples, plantain chips, mangoes, arepa bread, masamoarra (made from
corn, brown sugar, cinnamon, milk and water), chicken, pork, borojo juice, coconuts,
etc.
Bee Honey
Currently the highway is undergoing major construction. Several tunnels are being built and the roads are being enlarged to accommodate new development, due in part to the Free Trade agreement (FTA) that is being considered between the US and Colombia. This agreement will link the United States with Colombia. Recently President Obama and President Santos had a meeting to negotiate on a free trade agreement. “At their April meeting, presidents Obama and Santos announced that Colombia was committed to implementing a Labor Action Plan as a part of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The plan would strengthen the prosecution of perpetrators of violence against trade unions, improve protections for threatened trade unionists, address abuses related to the associative cooperatives, and criminalize anti-union behavior. It would also reestablish the Colombian Ministry of Labor, which was dismantled under the previous Colombian president, Álvaro Uribe”.
Sure it will! This is incredible news and hopefully a one
way ticket out of poverty for the people of Buenaventura. It will create jobs and
allow for fair treatment amongst the workers, open the doors for major
industries and bring Buenaventura into this borderless new world of technology
and such. The relationship between business and government will make a huge
difference here in Buenaventura!
On many occasions, while travelling to Buenaventura, the road have been blocked off and backed up for thirty minutes to an hour or so because of construction. In this area there are high mountains that go on and on. To collapse these mountains the workers use dynamite. This causes the debris/ dirt to slide into the road, therefore the traffic is held up to allow the workers to clear the road with bull dozers and dump trucks. The road from Cali to Buenaventura is only one lane and need to be widened before the FTA bill is passed, logged, documented and filed so there will be an immediately free flow of traffic to and from the cities and the port. There is already a large flow of buses transferring people back and forth and ’mucho’18 wheeler tractor trailers bringing in construction materials and/or taking out raw materials (iron, copper, and platinum, gold) produced from the mountains or transporting different products to and from the cities.
While we are waiting for the construction crew to put up the ‘Verde’ sign giving us permission to pass on through, I get out and begin taking photos of the scenery. Between these mountains there is a river that flow quite a ways and drop right into the ocean of Buenaventura. There is an old railroad track on the other side of the mountain that was built in the late1800 and used in the 1900 but is no longer used as a means of transportation. It is rarely used anymore. There’s fruit trees that bear fruit I had never seen before, and trees with bee hives as large as the tree itself.
Between Cali and Buenaventura is a little
town called Cisneros, the people here lives mostly off the cultivation of
crops, such as coffee, cacao (chocolate) mangoes, plantain, corn, sugar cane, and on
lumber and gold mining.
Once in Buenaventura:
People: 90% of the people in Buenaventura are
Afro- Colombian. The other 10% are European – Indian mix. The people are very
humble.
Airport: is located about thirty minutes from
the port. Buenaventura’s port is the first Colombian port and one of the most
important ports on Latin America Pacific Ocean. The town of Buenaventura is
older than Cali. The development was taken to Cali years ago and Buenaventura
was left undeveloped. Watching the ships going in and out of the port one would
think that poverty doesn’t exist. But this is far from the truth. The jobs at
the port are not given to the people of Buenaventura. The citizens currently do
not benefit from the revenues from the port at all. Only a hand full of the
people that live in the community works at the port. My hope is that the new Labor
Action Plan presented by the President of Colombia is carried out effectively.
Language: Everyone here speaks Spanish. A
common misconception is that because the majority of the people here are black
that they speak a different language. No they speak Spanish. A few of them that
worked near the port or spent a period of time in the U.S. speaks a little
English.
Weather:
There is really two seasons in Buenaventura, it is either hot or raining. Generally,
the weather is usually around 85 degrees.
In the summer it is from 85 -87 degrees, it is not very hot but it is
hot. It doesn’t rain everyday in the summer but it is sunny. In the winter
months it pours down raining practically every day. There are winters that last
two months, three month and six months.
It goes in cycles. Three months are summer; three months are winter,
three months summer and the last three months winter. Or, six months summer and
six months winter. In the winter the moment the rain stops the temperature drops
down from 84 degees to as low as 72 degrees. In some instances the sun will be
out when it is pouring down raining. There are also times when it is raining on
one block and not a drop of rain falling on the next block. There are different shapes of weather. For
example: when it rains for three or four days in a row, the fifth day is like a
cool grey day and the temperature is approximately 72 to 74 degrees. The following day the sun
comes out fully and it goes back up to 85 degrees. At night it really gets hot
and air conditioners are not common here. Very few people have fans.
Time: Buenaventura time is two hours ahead
of CST. There is no day light savings time observed.
Telephone and Internet: When dialing from
abroad, use 011 and the country code (57) + area code + phone number. There are no public telephone booths
that I have seen. Some homes have telephones but the majority does not. There
are quite a few people with cellular phones but the mass majority does not have
a plan so they use cellular vendors. Cellular vendors are located on every street
and in every neighborhood and on every corner and are the most popular way to
make telephone calls. You pay by minutes. As an alternative, you can go to one
of the many computer centers or internet café which provides computer and
telephone service. The rates for calling
international are very competitive and the use of the computers are reasonable.
If you are familiar with Skype, Fringe or Gmail you can make these calls free
or at a pretty decent rate. If the parties you are calling have access to Skype
this will be a free phone call for them.
Drug: Drugs are not legal. The law forbids selling and buying drugs. Period!
Security: About 2,000 soldiers and police
officers, who also wear combat uniforms and carry semiautomatic weapons, patrol
Buenaventura. Our neighborhood is
located near a bridge; therefore they patrol this area all the time. It was
common to set bombs to bridges.
Money:
The currency in Buenaventura, as in most Latin American countries, is
the Peso. The exchange rate is about U.S 1.00 = .86 Peso. To simplify things multiply the peso by two
and this is a rough estimate of what the U. S. Dollars is. Another example is
to divide the Colombian price of your products by two and you get an estimate
of what it will be in U. S. Dollars. ATM
machines can be found throughout the city. Most of them accept the major credit
cards. You can use your cards to withdraw cash from cash dispensers. If you
have US dollars, there are Western Unions that can exchange your foreign
currency into pesos. The coins are in the hundreds and the bills are in the
thousands. Western Unions are opened
Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. until 7p.m. and Saturday from 12 noon until
2 p.m. These are the hours of operation for most of the businesses here.
Tipping: Although it is not required, it is
good Carmen to tip. Any amount will do and they will certainly appreciate it
and say, “God bless you”.
Public Transportation: Buenaventura can be best travelled by public
transportation. Public transportation is organized and you can either take a
Metro bus or taxi. It is inexpensive and it can get you everywhere. You do not
have to purchase a ticket just climb on board and pay the driver. Some of
drivers even speak a little English. There are no trams or trains. The Metro
bus runs until midnight in some areas.
Motorcycles: The fastest way to travel is
by motorcycles and scooters. There are several throughout the city. This is one
of the cheapest and most dangerous ways to get around. The motorcycles like some of the
other vehicles are not adhering to signs. They squeeze between cars left and
right trying to get ahead of the traffic and they travel at a high rate of speed. It
seems as if they are not concerned about others safety as well as their own. You
will see a lot of business women on their way to work on scooters and
motorcycles. They usually come in twos.
Cars: There aren’t many people driving cars
in Buenaventura. Motorcycles, scooters, metro buses and taxis outnumber the cars.
Taxi: Taxi is considered one of the safest
ways to travel besides your own personal vehicle. You can hail a taxi from any
parts of the city. The taxi runs all night and they are plentiful. To take a
taxi from down town to the end of the city will cost you roughly10,000 pesos. At
the hotel you can ask them to arrange for you a taxi. Oh, and a lot of them
speak English since they transport tourist.
Shopping: El Exito is the major shopping
center here. Inside they also have a movie theater, bars, restaurants and game
shops. There are many small stores in the downtown area of Buenaventura as well
as in the many neighborhoods’. I find that the stores are very pricey and the
quality of the clothes cheap looking. Equally, there are a lot of vendors set
up alongside the street. They sell fruit,
bakeries, juices, coconut, sunglasses, cellular minutes, belts, ice cream, etc.
There is a mixture of all kinds. Here
you can see and feel the history of Buenaventura. I enjoy shopping with the
vendors on the street, especially the food vendors because the fruits,
vegetables, fish and breads are fresh and the people are super nice. Shopping
at the grocery store is very costly. Depending on what you want to buy, you can
always find it cheaper at the corner stores, market or neighborhood stores. Right on the street you can get pretty much
everything you need for a meal.
Fashion: It is always 85 degrees here so neither a sweater nor a jacket is needed. The majority of the people wear blue jeans and a light weight top. Boots are universal so you will see them from time to time. For walking, I suggest tennis shoes. The streets in Buenaventura are in much needed repair. The streets have a lot of pot holes and the sidewalks are cracked up. So it is best to wear comfortable shoe and you should be okay. In the daytime, I suggest wearing something for a warm climate. Now for the night life, the people are hip and fashion conscious. High heel shoes, tight pants or jeans and low cut tank tops or blouses with cleavage showing for the women. This is what I call making a "fashion statement”. Designer clothes are not necessary, just nice, cute and form fitting. The men will have on a pair of jeans and a nice shirt. Uniforms are worn in all of the schools regardless of the ages.
Dinner/Lunch: Is served between 1 and 2 o’clock. The food
is delicious and colorful. A typical lunch or dinner in Colombia consists of
meat; beef, chicken or seafood (fish, octopus, calamari, oysters, crabs, and
tender shark) served alongside frijoles (kidney beans) or lentils, fried
plantain either sweet or regular, rice, soup and a small salad. Can goods are
not used. The juice that is served with the meal is full of nutrients. Usually
it is a fruit picked from the tree that day or brought from one of the vendors
on the street. It is blended with water and a little sugar is added….you
talking about a royal treat. Each day you have a taste of a different fruit. My favorite is the mango juice. Sometimes the
drinks are made from ginger or sugar paste.
Breakfast: Bread and coffee is served in the
morning. The bread is fresh and the coffee is smooth. I have yet to find a
better tasting coffee. Colombia have many types of exotic coffees.
Culture: Colombia is a place with rich natural resources and cheap skilled labor. It suffers from unemployment, corruption and bureaucracy. The people are largely Catholic. The racial makeup of Buenaventura is Afro Colombian and a European – Indian mix. It is a Spanish speaking community. Family takes priority.
Events: From time to time there are live concerts in the downtown park, the city’s main park, Parque Néstor Urbano Tenorio. There is a diversity of music: vallenato, salsa, currulao, meringue, hip hop, raaggaton and reggae. In the back of the park are small bars that look out onto the ocean.The place has a festive feel. At Christmas time, downtown is beautifully designed and lit up.The atmosphere resembles that of a big delightful street party. Everyone from Cali and afar come on the 16th of July and celebrate the Virgin Mary Day.
This is all for now. I will continue writing about Buenaventura so please check back from time to time.
If you have any questions or concerns send me a comment via my blog and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! www.livinganddoingbusinessincolombia.blogspot.com/
Hope you enjoy your stay!
Mary Roach Armstrong
Please note: If you would like to purchase any of
the Colombian brands of coffee, just drop me and email or send a post in my
comment section of my blog and I will ship it to you whether domestic or
International. Jan1mra@gmail.com
