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Trying to pick out my favourite moment in Colombia is, well, it’s simply not possible. There are just too many memorable and incredible things that I have seen and experienced in this country of wonders that it would almost be rude to choose only one.
Living and travelling in Colombia is an experience that constantly throws up surprises and never fails to keep you busy and entertained. I could go on for hours here about the weekend finca trips with friends (although I’d have to remember what happened first), the endless people who go out of their way to make you feel welcome and safe, the Lebanese bakery in Maicao where I was treated like a long-lost son, the time I played football with some wayuu kids at the end of the world or with a bunch of ripped Afro-Colombians on the Pacific coast, the moment I thought to myself “hey, this aguardiente stuff isn’t quite as bad as I always make out”, showing my family around my adopted home. Colombia’s quirks and oddities have also given me some amusing, interesting and downright hilarious moments, but perhaps most surprising to me is that these have become a part of me and are no longer seen as strange, rather they are the norm.
Furthermore, Colombia has some phenomenal landscapes and incredible sights that leave me with startlingly vivid memories – canoeing down a river in the middle of the Chocó jungle, abseiling down a waterfall in Villeta, losing myself in history in the time-warp town of Mompox, enduring a bunch of monkeys on my head in the Amazon, paragliding in the Chicamocha Canyon, being blown away time after time by Medellin, eating ants in Santander, horse-riding in the Cocora Valley, getting my salsa on in Cali’s bars, eerily apocalyptic winds in La Guajira. I could seriously go on all day, but I know you all have things to do.
The point is that Colombia has given me so many of the greatest moments of my life, all of which are great for different reasons, whether it’s for the sheer beauty of the scenery, the richness and intrigue of the culture and history, the friends I’ve made or simply the outrageous amount of fun that I’ve had.
But if I had to pick out just one moment, my greatest moment in Colombia, it would have to be the moment I decided to stay in Bogotá to live, almost two years ago. Without that moment, none of the other phenomenal things would ever have happened to me. And if I’ve learnt anything from Colombia, it’s that each moment has the potential to be the best ever, so hopefully I’ll live many more ‘greatest moments’ in the years to come.
Azzam
