I thought a lot about my first article for the Colombian Official Bloggers. Shall I talk about myself? Why I decided to settle down in Colombia? Maybe pick my favourite places? Surely after more than 2 years of extensive travelling in the country I can consider myself an expert. Those would be natural options, I could even make something interesting out of it. But no, not the first post. For this post, I would like to share an emotion, something unexpected that deeply touched me. After all, this is what Colombia is about.

Below us, the island came into view encircled by a brittle and protective ring of coral reefs made distinguishable by the white water ripping at the edges and creating a turquoise iris effect skirting the white sandy edges of the Caribbean island of Providencia. Our Russian-built aircraft bobbled in the turbulence kicked up by thermals and updrafts resulting from the gnarled volcanic peaks to our left.

Here in the districts of Saladaoblanco, Isnos and San Agustin, the topography is uneven; valleys, hill plateaus and mountainous clusters come together to form its exotic and varied landscape. It is in this geographically contradictory territory to the south of Huila that in 5300BC an advanced culture evolved existed and disappeared in this strategically important natural passage from the foothills of the Colombian Massif to the Amazon.

In what seems like an event from another lifetime, I decided, after staring too long at the ubiquitous railings that are so synonymous with New York’s fire escapes, to take an urban hike through that city. Donning my well-worn boots, I laced up and headed out of my tenement in Washington Heights and struck out south down the entire length of Broadway. It was 11 miles in total all the way to the Ferry Terminal and took me about 5 hours given the inevitable delays at street crossings, construction, stopping to take photos and well, soaking up all of what New York has in profundity, character.