A piece of arepa for your peace

It had been years that I had been interested in visiting Colombia, but the news coming out of Colombia in the last few years had not been the most inviting ones.  For a while it was the war of drugs and then the war with the FARC and all along reports of kidnappings and people one moment here and gone the next.  Not necessarily what anyone would want to participate in during a relaxing holiday.  So Colombia was put on the low burner, way in the back on my list of places that I wanted to visit.

But then a glimmer of hope.  After 2 years of negotiations in Cuba, the rebels and the government reached a peace agreement.  It was going to be signed in October and then it was to be taken to a vote of the people.  We took advantage of the moment and decided to visit Cartagena as the gateway into future visits to Colombia.

After visiting, the report is that we really liked Cartagena de las Indias, as it’s known in Colombia.  We had a wonderful time.  It has a well preserved wall around the old city.  Offers lots of sights and eateries so in short, it has been made into a tourist haven.  From the looks of it, Cartagena must have been a very important city of the new world for the Spanish colonizers because the circumference of the wall made for quite the large city back then. And this was done relatively early after the discovery of America.

So now, the walled city is all the rage.  Definitely beautiful and romantic. We saw so many couples getting hitched that it reminded me of The Strip in Las Vegas.  Having visited a few old cities in Central and South America, it’s hard to beat Cartagena de las Indias when it comes to it’s size and how well it has been preserved.

Being Caribbean, the city it’s hot all year, but August seemed to be even hotter than our own hangouts in Miami.  So a lot of our outings were just before sunset until around 10 or 11 at night.  The city was lively at that time.  Restaurants were filled to capacity and the streets were busy.  Few cars are allowed in the city so walking, horse-drawn carriage or bicycling are the only ways to go.

Once we found out that the best local food was found in a little joint known locally as the Palace of Cholesterol, we were filling up with our dose of cholesterol at least once or twice a day.  We were committed to it, but also committed to a strict diet of salads for at least a week after returning home.

In between our fun times with the carimañolas, arepas and papas rellenas, we walked all over and as I was doing that, I was paying attention to the number of “Si” and “No” signs on the windows of cars on the roads outside the walls.  We learned that the “Si” were for those in favor of accepting the peace treaty as proposed which would allow all the “rebels” to slide into regular life without any reparations from their years of terror.  Obviously, the “No” were opposed to that.  I’m thinking that everyone wanted peace, the only thing in contention was whether the rebels would be accountable for their sins or be saved by the grace.

Days after we left Colombia, we found out that the "No" votes won and thus the peace agreement was dissolved.

Trying to sympathize with both sides, I do see each of their points.  But after 50 years of terror, I would have said, let us start fresh with a new page and forget about it.  Of course, I’m outside, looking in, and not having lost family members or friends to the years of atrocities.   It’s definitely easier for me to side with peace, but the Colombians had to make the choice and so it was.  I just hope that peace will eventually be attained in Colombia, not only for my selfish desire to return to visit Medellin and Bogota, but for providing a better next 50 years to the nice people of Colombia.