A trip out on the country

Today I woke up in a small village called Anolaima. It is situated about 70 km northeast of Colombia's capital Bogota, in the department of Cundinamarca.

I had decided to take a couple days off and went to Bogota, where I met up with an old Colombian friend that I hadn't met in 25 years (!). We met in Switzerland when we did an exchange year.

As my friend also had some days available we decided to take a bus out on the country, and we decided to hit Anolaima. As all busrides I have taken in Colombia this was a curvy one (due to the Andes), and the last part of the three-hour trip was all steep bumpy dirt road, with the passengers jumping up and down in the seats while the traditional music was played loudly in the bus's loudspeakers.

Anolaima got its name from the natives of the Panche tribe, the Anolaymas. Somehow this village invites to think about history, as the character of the village is very traditional and it almost looks as time stopped here. The pace of the people is very relaxed, and everybody is friendly. They don't even seem to notice the tall Scandinavian stranger walking around, but I am sure they do, they just politely avoid staring.

The climate of Anolayma is "balanced", neither hot nor cold, quite similar to that of Medellin. The village is situated on a hill and there is a beautiful view toward a little part of the Andine mountains.

Dogs. As many other Latin American villages Anolayma has a lot of stray dogs wandering around, in all sizes and races. As the block where I live in Medellin also is literally full of dogs, I begin to wonder, is there a special love between Latin Americans and dogs? (I've made the same observation in a few Latin American countries).
Colombians also seem never to mind a dog barking. In my apartment in Medellin my patience has been tested as the neighbour dogs sometimes bark for hours without ceasing. But people seem not to be disturbed or even notice. Once I mentioned it to our building caretaker, a middle-aged lady who also has dog (which also barks a lot), and she just answered, "If I would live in a finca I would have fifteen dogs!"

Today we will apparantly spend some time out on the "real" countryside, in a finca outside of Anolaima, belonging to a friend of my friend. I don't mind.

Next week we start our film school in Medellin and there'll be lots of work. A few days off were needed as the Film Adventures continue.