When in Colombia… Go Camping in Suesca!

This weekend was our first of many Festivos. These are long weekends that come for a variety of reasons and are about once or twice a month in Colombia. This Festivo was for San Jose (Saint Joseph) and many of us volunteers decided to travel outside the big city to different Pueblos (little towns) for some R&R. My fellow teachers invited me out to Suesca, about two hours from Bogota and known for its rock climbing, adventure sports, and camping. 

We went the camping route. There were nine of us total—three English teachers, two technology guys, and four administrative workers from the Minuto office. It was great to get to know these other members of my Minuto family and especially practice my Spanish! So off we went with camping gear in tow to a giant field for the night. 

Setting up camp.

Like many things in Colombia, it was a little more of a free-for-all than camping in the States, but I actually saw this more of an asset than not. We camped in a large field with maybe 50 other tents. There was a “Base Camp” with regular bathrooms, showers, and even a little snack bar, but there weren’t designated camp sites like those I’ve been to in the White Mountains. I enjoyed having our circle of four tents close enough to our neighbors that we could ask them for help with our fire or to share some extra food. 

Speaking of food, let me tell you what Colombian camp food is all about. As soon as we got the fire blazing we made Canelazo. This drink is a concoction of panella- a brown sugar/molasses solid used in everything here, cinnamon, and aguardiente (the Colombian alcohol of choice). I normally don’t care for any of these three things separately but they worked together nicely. At night, we roasted marshmallows! We went sans chocolate and grahams, and the mallows were more like sugary peeps than Jet-Puffed, but they were still delicious and a wonderful comfort of normalcy. In the morning we made Hot Chocolate in the traditional “Batir” stirring way with cheese sandwiches. Cheese and bread are always paired with hot chocolate here.  It’s something I could certainly get used to. 

Canelazo (The beginning stage)

Luisa making chocolate caliente de batir

If you sense a theme of hot beverages it’s because Suesca is cold and wet. I meant really wet. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there. This led to some flooded tents which led to sleeping seven in a tent made for four. But the cold is another story—or I should say lack thereof. It was maybe a few degrees colder than Bogota, but compared to the VT lakehouse in a rainstorm… or really Vermont any month but August… I could handle it just fine. I even rocked flip flops in the morning rather than attempting to squish my feet in soggy Merrils and the Bogotanos were shocked I wasn’t freezing. And this is coming from someone typically with popsicle toes. Moral of the story is we were wet but the cold I could handle. 

By mid-morning the rain lightened up and we explored “Rocas de Suesca” a little more. I hiked up this cliff (to reach the Virgin Mary on top of course) and some of the others rock climbed. It was great to be out of the big city and to enjoy a typical Colombian vacation. 

Ana Melina and I hiking up the cliff.

Throughout the weekend, and throughout my life here, I have little moments when I think to myself “hm, that’s kind of weird” or I think “hm, that’s really not that weird at all. Some things are different—from hand and body gestures to making hot chocolate, and some things are really quite normal—like pitching tents with friends and sharing stories by the fire.  Life is different, but “normal” is actually quite flexible. You can find normal wherever you go, and you may be surprised by how normal things become in such a short amount of time.