La Noche de las Velitas
On this night in Colombia, people spill into the streets and light candles along windowsills, on balconies, along the streets, and each city and town turns on their Christmas lights. It truly is a night of lights!
Colombia is rich in unexplored terrain
Colombia is an enticing adventure destination. It is the only South American country with two coastlines, Pacific and Caribbean, 3000km of coastlines with excellent diving. More than 10% of the land is protected in national parks. The Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta is the highest mountain range which runs to the coast at 5700m. In the east are the low plains filled with wild rich rivers, Los Llanos and the wild jungles of the Amazon.
Vegan Ivory
Cartagena de Indias
The city of Cartagena, known in the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias, is a major port founded in 1533, located on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region.
The Black and White Festival
El Carnaval de Negros y Blancos or the Blacks and Whites Carnival is the largest carnival in Colombia and is held in the southern city of Pasto. In 2009, the Carnival was proclaimed by UNESCO to be a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Parque Arqueologico de San Agustin
The San Agustín Archaeological Park (Spanish: Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín) is an archaeological site located near the town of San Agustín in Huila Department in Colombia. The site contains the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America and is considered the world's largest necropolis. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
The Coffee Zone
Colombia is famous for its smooth coffee and it is the third largest coffee growing country in the world.
Volcanoes meet snowfields
The Nevado del Ruiz, or Kumanday in the language of the local pre-Columbian indigenous people, is a volcano located on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about 129 kilometres west of the capital city Bogotá.
The Ultimate Caribbean National Park
The Tayrona National Natural Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona) is a protected area in the Colombian northern Caribbean region.
Ciudad Perdida
Ciudad Perdida (Spanish for "Lost City") is the archaeological site of an ancient city in Colombia's Sierra Nevada.
On the Plains of Bacata
Bogota is the capital of Colombia and currently has 10 million residents.
Dance, dance
The Joropo is a musical style resembling the fandango, and an accompanying dance.
Dance, dance!
Colombia's dance culture is impressively varied and vibrant, and very much part of Colombians' daily lives.
The Gold Museum
The Museum of Gold or El Museo del Oro is a museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the most visited touristic highlights in the country. The museum receives around 500,000 tourists per year.
Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Medellín
Medellín is the second-largest city in Colombia and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central region of the Andes Mountains in South America.
Colombia sangra
Colombia is not about drugs. Let's fight the stereotypes and learn together! Colombia has suffered 40+ years of internal conflict because westerners want to take cocaine. You will not meet a Colombian who has not suffered as a result.
A little background
After six years in hospitality, I can only admire all small business hospitality owners. Their grit, their resilience, and energy in the face of considerable hardship. Hospitality is not for the faint of heart - it is hard work with small gain but the magic moments make it all worthwhile. After 18 months paying piles of money to the Brisbane City Council and going to endless meetings, we gained a material change of use on our property to have a restaurant & hospitality on-site in a light industrial zone. We built our beautiful Macondo from scratch. The hoops small business have to jump through are inordinately higher than for large business which can afford lobbyists to smooth their way. Running the restaurant was a delight. However, the trials of finding and training staff only to lose them quickly or discover they are thieves can sink the best of people. It is a story I have heard time and time again from other small business people. This isn't to say we haven't had some wonderful staff, we have. Hats off to the local high schools for helping us find such lovely staff in our final two years! Over the years, our suppliers have suffered supply chain problems, especially after natural disasters or due to poor diplomacy by our federal politicians causing trade disasters. Our suppliers, all local, were just brilliant and so resilient! The 95% of customers who are completely gorgeous were the main reason to continue during tricky times like the lockdowns for the pandemic. However, that 5% of awful clients can ruin entire weeks and leave you with a sour taste for continuing the business. Then there was the amazing support from our local communities who visited and kept coming back and put great reviews up on social media. We were happy at the end to be able to donate all of our food and drink to OzHarvest to continue their excellent work. Why did we close? Six years was enough, and the hard hard work was taking a toll on both of us, especially given that our main jobs are in road transport. We have other projects on the boil so our innovative sides can still be happy. Who knows what is next!
