"Dangerous" Colombia Part III

We witnessed a rare occurrence here in Bogotá the other day. It was certainly something far from uncommon for us but for this city, indeed Colombia in general, it was an event you don’t see everyday. 

Drunken Colombian fun without the fights - well until the Irish lad arrived that is.

No, don’t be silly now, it wasn’t one of the locals admitting he/she was at fault or being totally honest about something. We don’t expect to see such happenings anytime soon. 

What did catch our eye, though, was a good old-fashioned bar brawl amongst a number of natives. Somebody said something they shouldn’t have – or at least that’s what some of the people that heard it thought – and next we had about half a dozen lads exchanging blows. 

Fair enough, what transpired wasn’t of the highest calibre, but it was sufficient enough to make memories of home come flooding back. 

We have to admit, we got a strange warm feeling from being a live spectator. Growing up or, more pertinently, socialising in Ireland has seen us become accustomed to regular, drunken punch-ups. 

Instead of some salted peanuts or a similar style snack accompanying your beverage, as is the case in many countries, back in the homeland you get free, front-row seats to bare knuckle boxing. Indeed, if you’re lucky enough, you might even get to take part.

Alas, here in "Dangerous" Colombia, you’ll be hard pressed to find such riveting entertainment on a night out. 

Why fight when you can, er, 'dance' instead?

You see unlike the Irish, as well as the Brits and the Aussies (we can throw in a few more nations here, too, such as Poland and some other eastern European countries) the addition of alcohol into most Colombians' systems – and Latinos in general – doesn’t usually result in an overly aggressive streak developing. 

It’s not that they don’t get drunk, they certainly do, but alcohol tends to transform them less into ‘Incredible Hulks’ and more into ‘Snow Whites’. It’s probably because they’re too caught up in dancing than to think about engaging in a scuffle with the other half-wit at the next table.

The bottom line here is that you are more likely to find yourself in an A&E department with a brawl-related injury after a night out in Britain or Ireland than you are in these parts. But which place is seen as less safe? 

Of course, people will point to muggings and other such "petty" crime as being far more prevalent in Colombia compared to most Western countries. Yes, they happen. 

In fact, we were unlucky enough to be the victims of a knife attack in Bogotá recently – our first such experience in South America it must be added. 

Such things, though, come with the territory in most big cities across the globe, wherever they’re located. What’s more, a lot of the time here in Colombia, these unsavoury incidents are utter opportunism by the perpetrators, pure and simple. 

From our experiences, there lacks an in-built thuggish nature that you find in many of the lowlifes from the countries we were brought up in and know best. 

As a good Italian friend mused about his experience living in Manchester, many of the locals there just seemed to have a desire to fight all the time. No matter how much you keep yourself to yourself , you’ll invariably find trouble in such places – or trouble will find you, to be more accurate. 

For many of the boys from these more "developed" locations, a night out just wouldn’t be complete without a bit of a fisticuff. A lot of the time it’s a mentality that exists in sobriety, so throw in a cocktail of drink and drugs and you could be, quite literally, on a hiding to nothing. 

Oh Venezuela, how we miss you & your quirky ways.

Thankfully, we haven’t really encountered this kind of a threatening environment in these parts. Now maybe that’s just down to the fact that we’re usually slightly inebriated on our way home after a night out – you can’t beat a bit of Dutch courage, eh?

In any case as our "Dangerous" Colombia series has hopefully shown, how dodgy a place is depends very much on how you look at it. 

As with everything, it’s relative. Colombia’s negative reputation certainly precedes it, but there are worse places you could be. For one, it’s no Venezuela.
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For the related articles see: http://bit.ly/Je5pxC & http://bit.ly/K57gG5