In Popayan I realise for the first time for real what colonialism means and that dealing with it is not as easy as I would like it to be. It cannot be undone. Should the city they founded be razed to the ground? Should the purely indigenous peoples get back everything that was stolen from them? When does a Colombian belong to the indigenous peoples? Of course there were intermarriages between the indigenous peoples and the Spanish. The slave trade and de facto chattel slavery were the greatest atrocities.
The Spanish wreaked havoc in South America
It is almost surprising that people are not angrier at these colonisers. “Discovered” by two Spaniards in 1499, many more Spaniards travelled to Colombia in the following centuries. That also came here to search for gold and other precious stones. In 1538, the Spaniards made the country their colony. It was not until 1810 that Colombia declared its independence from Spain. The Spaniards founded the first trading ports, such as Cartagena. Driven by their greed for gold, they advanced into the interior of the country. Among other things, they passed through the valley of the Río Magdalena and founded cities such as Popayán. Cartagena had the dubious privilege of being the exclusive slave trading port from which these slaves were distributed throughout the colony. At the beginning of the 17th century, so many black Africans were shipped to Cartagena that their number exceeded that of the indigenous population.
Church
A central role in the development of Spanish colonial society was played by the Catholic Church, which was responsible for all institutions of education and social policy. This church has been under the control of the Spanish crown. So when we visit Colombia today and see all these beautiful cities, it has more to do with colonialism than with the people who originally lived on Colombian territory. And of course we don’t just find one or two churches only in these places. Their power is clearly on display.
Gold
80 per cent of the world’s gold production in the 17th century came from Colombia. Indians worked in the gold mines, many of whom died of weakness and the diseases brought in by the Europeans. After that, the work was mostly done by African slaves who could be bought in the port of Cartagena. Colombia is one of the states created by the break-up of Greater Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela).
Ethnic groups
Over 80 ethnic groups make up the country’s indigenous population. They all have their own eating habits and different art and music traditions. In addition to the national language Spanish, over 65 other languages can be heard. Children from the age of 6 to 12 are required to attend school. However, there is a great shortage of teachers, especially in rural areas. Children from very poor families go to work to help their parents instead of attending school. Many thousands of street children fight every day for food and a safe place to sleep. We see none of this in the centre of Popayan, but in the outskirts and on our further journey.
But what we see is the fight against injustice on the streets in the form of street art. One of these supposed Spanish heroes was torn from the pedestal of his monument by the indigenous people of Popayan. This pedestal with an indigenous person can now be found in streetart.
What comes after Popayan for us
We will continue our journey along the Rio Magdalena river valley. Marveling at one or two beautiful places full of colonial architecture. I won’t forget the injustice done to people to create these places. Visiting this country as a privileged foreigner in Colombia comes with responsibilities. We are the privileged foreigners. And that doesn’t change just because we are travelling by bicycle. This splendour in Popayan is due to exploitation and abuse by Europe.
Digital nomads and travel companies portray Colombia as “one of the cheapest countries to live and work in”. The locals suffer from this inequality (e.g. gentrification). Colombia is one of the ten countries with the lowest cost of living in the world. As a foreigner in Colombia, you should keep this in mind, especially as someone from Europe. Given the fact that Europeans have exploited and abused Colombia (and the global south in general) in the past, it is especially advisable to consider the optics and impact of your presence.
We decided to take a car with the bicycles on the roof to Neiva and from there continue cycling. The area we have to pass through is still in the hands of rebels and the drug mafia. Colombians themselves call it the “war zone”. We didn’t want to find out whether we would have been affected or not. And there would have been only a bus, which would have taken us to one of the big cities and that wasn’t an option either.
We enjoy our time in Popayan
And so we enjoy the days in Popayan until we find a driver with a car to take us. We drink coffee with cheese, eat fruits and ice-cream with cheese, eat vegetarian arepa with cheese (Arepa, round corn cakes that can be bought everywhere on the roadside although they are often not really tasty). Another big thing for us is to familiarise ourselves with various types of fruit. We discover Lulo as our favorite juice drink. And we are incredibly happy when we discover that Colombia has another favorite fruit that we already know from Indonesia, the Guanabana.
Some other fruits we try are Gulupa, Pitaya, Borojó, Tomate de Arbol and Guyaba. Most of the time, however, we also try them as juice. And I just can’t get enough of them. You can order the juices here with water or milk. We don’t like the ones with milk so much. It’s just the milk flavour that we don’t like. So we always order them with water and only with a little sugar. Otherwise the fruit flavour gets lost quite a bit.
“Jugo naturales de lulo en agua y un poco de azúcar, por favor”, one of the few sentence in Spanish that we learned quickly.
As the National Geographic once put it:
“If the world’s biodiversity were a country, it would be called Colombia”
“Pico Y Placa”
Of course it wouldn’t be a post from me if I didn’t have something to say about the traffic in the city :-). In fact, it is bearable and we wonder about the many small motorbikes and scooters and learn something about “Pico Y Placa”.
Most cities around the world struggle to keep traffic at a good level.
City leaders spend a lot of time and resources trying to find solutions to the never-ending problem of traffic congestion, and for many mayors, solving the traffic problem seems to be their only goal – and therefore the only measure of success or failure. Billions are spent on various traffic management measures, such as widening roads and motorways, building public transport or introducing tolls to discourage the use of private vehicles, but the problem of congestion never seems to go away.
Even though there is no magic formula that will regulate traffic forever, apart from giving up the car and relying on pedestrians and public transport, some measures are more effective than others. That’s why I want to talk about ‘Pico y Placa’, a traffic reduction policy that was introduced in Bogotá, Colombia and spread from there to many other cities.
“Pico y Placa” literally means “peak hour and licence plate”
Which refers to the peak times in traffic and the licence plate. It was first introduced in Bogota in 1998. Originally it was only introduced during the morning and afternoon rush hours, but over time it became an all-day restriction.
It works as follows:
Certain vehicles are not allowed to enter a predetermined area on certain days of the week, depending on the last digit of their licence plate number. As a rule, the designated area covers the entire urban area of a city, but it can also be just an area with a high traffic density within a city. Five numbers are restricted daily from Monday to Friday on a rotational basis, which means that each week a group of vehicles are not allowed in this area for three days.
Motorbikes and public transport vehicles are exempt. For private vehicles, this restriction applies from 6am to 9pm, and if you do not comply and use your vehicle at other times, you can expect a fine of 468,500 Colombian pesos ($102.47 USD) and your vehicle will be towed away. Pico y Placa enforcement tends to be very strict. With random checkpoints set up throughout the city, and this regulation has become ingrained in the mobility and daily lives of Colombians.
Pico y Placa can be effective in making traffic more bearable and this is exactly how we feel in Popayan.
