Hoyo del Aire, La Paz, Santander: Colombia's big hole!

@wwaycorrigan

The sign at the entrance to Hoyo del Aire (literally 'Air Hole' in English) near the small town of La Paz in Colombia's Santander department, says that it is the second-biggest hole in the world.

Hoyo del Aire: Some hole for one hole!

One assumes this means naturally formed and on land as opposed to underwater. Whatever the case, do an online search for the world's biggest/deepest holes and this Colombian wonder doesn't tend to feature on any list.

For the record, from its base to the highest point above, the depth is 220 metres (almost 722 feet for the imperialists amongst us).

Locals seem to be in agreement that it was formed by a meteorite. That may be so; I'm certainly no expert on the subject. One thing that appears undisputed is that the hole was a convenient place to dump bodies — both dead and alive — during Colombia's more violent days. (I heard similar stories during my 2014 visit to the town of Pandi where there's another "convenient" natural hole for such macabre undertakings. See https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2014/11/fine-and-pandi.html.)

That aside, why it's not more internationally known is somewhat beyond me, especially considering the rapid rise in foreign visitors of all kinds to Colombia in the last decade as the country has left those more violent times behind it.

Plus, there are a number of other attractions around La Paz itself, 30 km north of the bigger and easier-to-reach Vélez, capital of the eponymous province in which both towns are situated and one I visited back in 2018 (see https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-rewarding-velez-view.html).

The fact that it's mostly a dirt track from Vélez to La Paz, meaning that the aforementioned 30-kilometre trip takes about an hour to cover by car, is probably one reason why Hoyo del Aire and its surrounds remain something of a hidden gem, internationally speaking at least.

As is usually the case with such sights, photos don't tend to do Hoyo del Aire justice, hence the video below (or watch it at https://youtu.be/OrSHRKhYvuw) for a somewhat better idea of its impressiveness. The aerial shot on the official sign, see photo above, does give some decent perspective, too.

Apparently, rappelling was available as a tourist activity in the past but it's no longer carried out after an "incident". I was told nobody died but the local authority decided to discontinue the practice.

One senses a business opportunity. You read it here first!

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A rewarding Vélez view

Regular readers of this blog (stop it, there are some) will know I'm generally happiest when on the move.

That tends to mean travelling, but it can also refer to feeling busy, having lots to do from a 'fulfilling' work point of view.

Vélez from a high.

On that latter front, however, and not really by design, it has been quieter than usual. It's been a bit like the old Irish back-to-work scheme, Fás; one week on, one week off (although with less money coming in to the coffers in this case).

Nonetheless, after over six years of this come-day, go-day employment whilst looking for something more serious — it's Latin America, things move slowly here do remember — one learns to budget for the lean times, ensuring there's money available for the things that matter most.

In this regard, when there's no pressing need to be in Bogotá, that means getting out of the place. Plus, a little getaway from the capital doesn't have to cost an awful lot, doing it the 'Wrong Way' way, in any case. (Choosing locations that aren't on the main tourist trail usually means you'll find plenty of value, in terms of accommodation if nothing else.)

So following on from the recent trip to Guaviare, this time the town of Vélez — the unofficial bocadillo (guava jelly) capital of Colombia — in the Santander department was on the radar. The only reason I knew of it was because a rather crazy (aren't all Santandereanas that way?) ex-fling is from there.

That might be reason enough for some to stay away from the place, but that particular bridge has seen plenty of water pass under it. What's more, buses to Vélez go via Bogotá's northern terminal, a very convenient 15-minute walk from my current abode.

Being a four-hour drive or so away, it doesn't really fall into the backpacker favourite 'leave at night, arrive in the morning' category. Those journeys are great in terms of 'saving' on a night's accommodation for a traveller, but when you're already living in the country and paying monthly rent, the benefits of them are significantly reduced.

In any case, at 28,000 COP (about eight euros) one-way, the daytime trip doubles up as a sightseeing tour, without the regular stops. Some of the views along the way in this mountainous terrain, especially after the city of Tunja, are pretty impressive.

Vélez itself, or more precisely its setting, is impressive as well. The thing is, we're spoilt for choice in these parts as regards quaint, colonial-style towns in hilly surrounds, replete with stand-out cathedrals/churches. On top of this, other similar places might be more 'tourist ready', so to put it.

Notwithstanding that, I for one don't get tired of checking out a different location on a regular basis — a change and a break from Bogotá life all in one.

Indeed, Vélez isn't really a tourist hub for the very reason that it doesn't seem to be set up that way. For some, this can be a frustration. "Tell us what's there to do and see here, please."

More impressive views.

From a personal point of view, if there are a few adjacent hills to wander up in peace and quiet, I'm happy out. Get the obligatory panoramic view of the place in question. On this score, Vélez came good.

Now, it wasn't clear if the trail I went on is meant for public use. It looked more trodden by cattle than trekkers and there are gates and fences to cross, but of the few people I encountered at the start, no one told me I shouldn't be doing it.

In fact, in general, the good folk of Vélez, Veleños as they're called, tend to leave you to your own devices. From what I experienced, they'll only engage if you do firstly; suits me down to the ground that.

Public trail or not, those hills to the south-west of Vélez offer some nice views over the town and surrounding countryside — if and when the clouds go away, that is. Plus, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary in the vicinity of where I walked, so I'm guessing it is an attraction of sorts.

The route I took, though, didn't appear to be the correct one to get to that; I approached the Virgin from, um, behind. In defence, when I got there, I couldn't find a clearer alternative approach, honestly.

Thankfully, the clouds largely cleared around midday and I found myself a nice little isolated spot to take in the sun and simply enjoy the scenery and tranquillity. Simple pleasures.

That probably best sums up Vélez: simple pleasures. Ignorance might have resulted in my missing out on a host of attractions around the place. Yet the whole idea of this mini-break from Bogotá was to do my own thing, annoyed by nobody. Vélez satisfied that want. Pity I can't say that about the ex from there.

*Hotel Agatá has comfortable en suite rooms with a TV & WiFi from 15,000 COP per night.
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Love fool

The default mode for most Irishmen has traditionally been to show a cold, hard exterior, especially in matters of the heart. Or more specifically, issues surrounding romance.

Things are a little hazy right now.

It’s generally something we’ve subscribed to over the years. 

Now this is not to say that we suppress emotions – not a healthy thing to do that, obviously. No, we just tend to deal with them internally. A '‘tis our business and ours only' kind of approach; and the majority of time we feel this is not a bad way to go. Heck, we’ve made it this far, just about.

However, considering we’re in a place that’s a bit more, let’s say, "emotionally liberal", we’re going to deal with some personal romantic issues here.

You could perhaps blame this softened approach on the Colombian air we’re once again breathing – well, that and the local chicas, or ladies if you will. 

That withstanding, this could be seen as an advisory tale and we always like to help where we can; we’re just not sure what the advice actually is.

As regular readers will be aware (cue long, awkward silence), we were back in the homeland between August and early November this year. A family wedding drew us back while visa issues coupled with doubts as to our next move kept us there a bit longer than we had initially expected; well, that and Mammy’s cooking, of course.

Before we left, we had met a girl here in Bogotá who seemed to tick a lot of the right boxes for us. Indeed, we thought she was so cool that we were happy not to let her Santander background bias our thoughts; we like to live dangerously from time to time.*

While we seemed to be getting on well, we were never anything other than casual partners; the fact that our departure date for Ireland was looming together with uncertainty as to whether we would be returning to Colombia or not played a big part in this.

So when we did leave, it was a case of let’s see what happens. We did keep in regular, practically daily contact via Facebook and the occasional Skype call. Thus, we stayed on each other’s radar in a sense.

A quite significant spanner was thrown into the works at the end of September when our friend (we’ll call her Colombiana from here on) told us she had met someone else. On further examination, Colombiana told us that it wasn’t that serious, and we continued to stay in friendly contact.

Once we finally sorted out our next move, that being the default option of a return to Bogotá, we were quick to let Colombiana know our news. 

This was greeted with the extremely generous offer of picking us up from the airport (we’d never had anyone specifically come to a South American airport to collect us) along with the suggestion that we stay at her apartment for the first few days. Nice.

This left us under the impression that perhaps we could pick things up from where we had left them in August, maybe bring them a bit further.

However, we were left in the dark, until we arrived, about one rather important piece of information. Namely that the relationship with the guy Colombiana had met in September, who for the record is Spanish and not Colombian, had now advanced into a more serious stage. 

Well, put it this way, when a man decides he’s going to divorce his wife on the strength of meeting another woman, it does take on an element of seriousness, right?

Cheryl — worth fighting for? Probably.

Now, contrast that bold statement of intent with our heretofore laissez-faire attitude and you can, perhaps, understand why Colombiana went for the, what might be seen as, "steadier" option (we’ll put the divorce issue to one side for now – sure marriage these days isn’t what it used to be).

Needless to say our presence in her apartment for those first few days on our return – as generous as the offer was – wasn’t the most comfortable. Although, it must be pointed out that we’re still very much on friendly terms and we have met up since finding alternative accommodation.

So where does this leave us? Any serious analysis can’t ignore the fact that we were quite relaxed about our relationship before leaving. Or at least we thought we were; a first hearing of Passenger’s Let her go song on the flight back to Europe did resonate and left us pondering things somewhat.**

There is, though, the argument that we’re just lusting more for Colombiana now for the simple fact that she’s currently out of reach, in a romantic sense anyway. Verifying that, given the current circumstances, is not easy however.

There are generally two schools of thought as to what to do. Follow the Cheryl Cole (or should that be Tweedy once again?) lead and ‘fight for this love, for if it’s worth having it’s worth fighting for’.** Or we go with our tried, but not altogether trusted, laissez-faire attitude – whatever will be, will be.

The phrase ‘time will tell’ lets you know, perhaps, which one we’re leaning towards. 

Right, we’ve said enough. We’re reverting to type now and putting those emotions firmly back on the inside.
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*For a, um, light-hearted look at Colombian women's personality traits broken down by regions, see Colombia's locas http://bit.ly/XzHltA.

**You can check out Let Her Go by Passenger here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBumgq5yVrA; and for Cheryl Cole's Fight For This Love see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4umc87T5UMs.

San Gil: Taming Suárez

Our first visit, over two years ago, to what's seen as Colombia's adventure capital, San Gil, was very much a relaxed affair. On that occasion we had a thoroughly enjoyable time wandering about the rolling Santander countryside, which included taking in the quaint, period village of Barichara.

San Gil from the hilltops.

This time around, with the help of a good Dutch mate, we cranked up the adrenaline levels a few notches and sampled some of the reasons why the place is renowned for its extreme side. 

This started with an afternoon of getting a brief taste of varied activities including canopying and rappel, amongst others. For the price we paid (45,000 COP, roughly €20), it wasn't a bad deal.

The main event, however, was a rafting 'sojourn' down the famed Río Suárez; rated by many as second only in South America to Chile’s Río Futaleufú for its wild rapids. 

We had been forewarned not to over-estimate our talents mastering this waterway and that perhaps the gentler Río Fonce would be safer, less taxing and thus more enjoyable for all concerned. 

We’d also been told that those selling the excursion mightn’t be too bothered about our abilities, or lack thereof, in such an activity – Suárez costs more to do, so why scare people off and miss out on more plata (cash that is)?

Added to this, the day we tackled Suárez coincided with it being, according to our guides, in one of its roughest moods so to speak.

Now, as oft mentioned here, our ability in water is about as good as a handicapped cat. Yet, this doesn’t translate into any big fear of doing various aqua sports, especially when we have the safety of a life-jacket tied tightly around us. 

So we approached this undertaking with relative calm. Throw in the fact that our four on-raft guides and accompanying canoeist where putting their minds/senses at ease with a particular substance before we even started – something they also did mid-way through and at the end – made us feel that this wasn’t anything to get too worked up about. Perhaps that was all part of their plan.

'This will be easy.'

We did, though, do some head-scratching when a luminous wristband containing an emergency services phone number was put around us before the off. We wager this was to be of help to some passerby in case they found our unconscious, battered body – ‘a one-step guide on what to do if you find human remains’, in a sense. 

It was, however, valid for just one day. Sure you can’t be bothering emergency services with cases more than a day old, can you?

That aside, after a brief dry-run through the various call instructions by our skipper, the real action got off to a steady start. Although, the lads’ persistent criticism of our rowing ability was a little annoying at times – they were lucky they didn’t get an oar in the head at a few stages.

In any case, a little further on we all had greater things to concern ourselves with than getting hit in the head by somebody, accidentally or on purpose. That’s because Suárez began to show its teeth. And that meant us taking a dip – well, it was more like being in a washing machine on its final spin, we imagine – on more than one occasion. 

It certainly got the heart racing – the key being just to go with the flow and hope you don’t smash your body on a rock.

Having gone over a number of times, it was with a little trepidation that we approached the infamous La Fantasma*, The Ghost, section of the river. 

This is a decent sized stretch with powerful rapids where if you were to fall out early on, you’d be waiting some time and would have encountered a few hefty rocks before you floated to calmer waters.

Steady as she goes...

That our guides stopped to assess it before we went through and had the canoeist do a solo run also got us thinking: Should we pass on this one? 

We’d already had a good thrill, so why, quite literally, push the boat out further for something that looked like it could dangerously get the better of us? Heck, though, we’d gone this far, we might as well make the final push – get our money’s worth (you know how important that is to us).

If there was any doubt in our minds about how rough this part was, the sight of one of the guides blessing himself before we got going put it firmly into focus. His plea to the gods worked anyway. Well, maybe it was more a case of lots of luck mixed in with us working a bit better as a team that saw us through in one, whole piece.

So a few minor bumps and bruises apart and conveniently overlooking our earlier mishaps, we like to think we ‘tamed’ Suárez.

We certainly survived it anyway. Alas, there’s a lack of a T-shirt proudly proclaiming so.

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*For a look of us in action on 'La Fantasma', see http://youtu.be/J6T_BDVucJk. And for one of our 'overboard' moments, see http://youtu.be/pTBK0qqCa_g.

**More information on rafting and other activities in San Gil can be found from ‘Adrenalina’ at www.adrenalinasangil.com or by emailing adrenalina.sangil@hotmail.com.

***One pleasant budget accommodation option in San Gil is Hostal Le Papillon, hostallepapillon@hotmail.com. They also organise tours and various adventure sports.

Colombia's locas

Of the many strange and wonderful things visitors and expats discover about Colombia, one of those is the various regional traits – quasi-subcultures if you will – that exist here. 

It’s not something you have to find out for yourself – although, spend enough time here and you undoubtedly will – as the locals are usually quick to fill you in.

'Rolo land' - twilight in Bogotá.

These subcultures are generally city or department confined (for the record, Colombia consists of 32 departments or departamentos in Spanish) and, at the risk of over-generalising, we tend to find that the characteristics associated with each region more or less hold true. 

Of course, you will find that the chief traits of one area are in existence in other locations, but perhaps just not to the same degree. 

A Colombian acquaintance summed up the most common of these regional behaviours thus:

Starting with the capital Bogotá, if you have three Bogotanos or rolos (rolas for women) as they are referred to, with you in a room, what happens? Well, they probably won’t talk to you and when you leave their company you’ll discover your mobile phone and other personal belongings have gone ‘missing’. 

As for the people from the country’s second city, Medellín, in the Antioquía department, find yourself surrounded by three paisas as they’re known and you’re in good business company. 

From the female point of view, they’ll also be fiercely attractive – now that’s saying something, considering this is Colombia – but, as we’ve found out to our cost, they might struggle to find their purse (see both ‘The wages of love’ http://bit.ly/MtWh7T & ‘Bienvenidos a Medellín – Bangkok Light’ http://bit.ly/N83NbB for related stories).  You don't get ahead in business by spending lots of money now, do you?

Get a trio of inhabitants from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, costeños, together and you’ll be partying and dancing non-stop, with the ladies suggestively rubbing their considerable posteriors in your crotch area. 

Apparently, even the region’s donkeys get to sample these erotic dances – even a bit more if they’re ‘lucky’.

There's much more to Santander than just the chicas.

The city of Cali’s good people (caleña(o)s) are best known for their sultry salsa skills – well they have to be good at something, right?

Then you have the santandereanas – that is the women who come from the department of Santander. 

In the words of our Colombian acquaintance – himself, we must point out, a santandereano – if you’re in the company of three of these ladies then you’ve got problems, big problems. In fairness, it only takes one to give you trouble, three is akin to a death sentence.

These are Colombia’s quintessential crazy ladies, locas. Again, that’s a big statement to make – it’s not like they don’t have much competition in this regard here. 

Now, being fiery and passionate as these santandereanas are doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. But these chicas have taken it to a degree that would see Jesus Christ himself reach for the shotgun after only a couple of days, if he survived that long.

If you’re contemplating dating one get ready for one of the most dramatic emotional roller coasters you’ll ever experience. OK, you might say that this is the case with women in general, but we’re referring to heretofore unprecedented levels of craziness here.

Personal experience of all this – not even in a dating sense at that – and the streams of anecdotal evidence from both Colombians and foreigners alike cannot be merely brushed aside as coincidence. So it is, Santander – the home of human ‘Black Widows’.

A Santand... ...er, sorry, a Black Widow spider.

Of course, as we always like to point out after making sweeping generalisations, there are, fortunately, exceptions. 

We have a small number of Santandereanas that we rate as good friends – trustworthy even. The fact that most of these spent some time outside of Colombia has obviously played a significant part in ‘normalising’ them – whatever that actually means. You know who you are.

So what about the perfect Colombian woman, based on the above? 

For us, it would be a paisa’s looks, the soundness of a caleña, a smidgen of santandereana passion and initial friendliness, a costeña's eroticism and rola, erm, daring.

We can dream, can’t we?