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Colombia, a true wonder

By: Isabella Solano 9B

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4,500 million years ago the Earth was formed. It had the perfect distance from the sun and therefore had the perfect temperature and the essential elements to create something extremely rare and wonderful: life. Throughout the years, our planet has gone through dinosaurs, ice ages, massive extinctions, meteor collisions, but nothing has caused more damage to it than the actions of the human race. Since our early ages, we have caused wars which have brought the destruction of the environment. Unfortunately, with the evolution of technology and the creation of new things that may help life get easier for us humans, we have created a lot of consequences that are gravely affecting our planet, such as pollution, deforestation, incidents with nuclear power that released great amounts of radiation (like Chernobyl and Hiroshima), among other things. But why stay so negative? Even though we have caused great pain to our planet, we have also brought many positive things. Mankind has shown to have a dark side, but its bright side is just marvelous. We humans are full of culture, music, art, love, food, science, dances, fun, and the list continues. I think we can all agree that  one thing that makes the world so wonderful is the diversity of cultures, territory and people among different places. While in South America we can find tropical rainforests and food like “empanadas”, “arepas”, and “buñuelos”, in Africa we can find savannas and food like “fufu”, “Nshima”, or “Couscous”. I think we can all agree that what makes a place so special is that it is or it has something different from others that makes it unique, and even though all places on Earth have one thing of their own, in my opinion Colombia is one of the most beautiful and unique locations in the world, and in the following paragraphs I will show you why I think this way. 

First, let’s talk about Colombia’s cultural diversity. In one single country we can find all kinds of cultures with different food, traditions, dances, clothes, and accents. For example, in the northern part of our country, in the Caribbean region (conformed by the departments of Guajira, Cesar, Magdalena, Atlántico, Sucre, Bolivar and Córdoba ) we can find what we know as “Costeños”. These people are known for their parties and celebrations, such as “El Carnaval de Barranquilla” which is one of the most representative carnivals in all Colombia. Also, the music which represents this region of the country is (to set the most common examples) “la Cumbia”, “el porro”, “el mapalé”, “el bullerengue” and “la champeta”. These people are also known for their cooking, which is known for being tasty. Some of the most common dishes in this region are of course fish because their proximity to the sea, like “la cazuela de mariscos” and  “la viuda de bocachico”, however, here we can also find “el arroz con coco” and “el mote de queso” which is a soup. If we go a little to the south we will encounter the Andean region (conformed by the departments of Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Tolima, Huila, Santander, Quindio, Risaralda, Caldas, Antioquia, and Norte de Santander) in which we can find “Los Cachacos” and in the capital of the city “Los rolos'' or “Los gomelos”. A fun fact here: It is easy to distinguish a Costeño from a Cachaco because of the accent. You can even tell a cachaco from a gomelo due to this! Back to the Cachacos, they don’t have a carnival, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to party. Some examples of the music that represents this region are “el bambuco”, “la Carranga” and  “la música popular colombiana”, though not everyone parties with this kind of music though. Some of the main dishes of this country are “La Changua”, “El Caldo de Costilla”, “La bandeja paisa” or my favorite “El ajiaco antioqueño”. Things don't stop here though. We also have “Los llaneros” which come from the Orinoco region, or “Los paisas” who come from Medellín or even “Los Pastusos” who come from Pasto, but what I am trying to demonstrate here is the fact that even though we do not have the biggest country, it isn’t a hindrance to have a variation of cultures, food, music and people than most of the countries don’t have. 

Finally, let’s talk about the rich territory Colombia has. Our country is the sixth containing more water globally. We have two oceans, The Atlantic and The Pacific, we have thermal flats from glacial to warm, we don’t have seasons but we can have a sunny day and five minutes later a downpour of rain. We  have all kinds of animals and plants, but what really makes our country special is the people. Of course, crimes and robbery are very common; however, people are usually very nice and making friends or feeling comfortable with a stranger are things that happen quite often. Maybe we are not perfect, and have a lot of internal problems, but still we can’t deny the beauty that is Colombia, we can’t deny it is a true wonder. 

 

Sources:

Martinez, N. (n.d.). Thermal floors. Slideshare.Net. https://www.slideshare.net/JENNIFERAPONTE3/thermal-floors

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