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Colombia is a beautiful, happy and complete country, because of his different and delightful natural sceneries, his natural wealth, his particular costumes and his happy and joyfull people.

Colombia is a developing country with a classic and democratic state structure. It is an independent country since 1824. It contains 6 regions, 32 departaments and 1118 cities. Its capital city is Bogotá, a very cold city.

OUR PRESIDENT: 

Our president is named Juan Manuel Santos; he was born in Bogotá on August 10th 1951. He studied in Harvard University, London School of Economy and other important universities around the world. Since he was a child, he was influenced by political area; his great uncle Eduardo Santos was the 39th president of Colombia, his father was a columnist and editor of the newspaper "El Tiempo", one of the most important colombian newspapers. In general, Santos is a good president that wants to get peace for Colombia and wants to have a more calmed country.

Let´s visit his webpage: Juan Manuel Santos.

CULTURE AND COSTUMES:

Culture is the main characteristic in common of the population. Here we will see a little bit of Colombia´s culture:

GREETINGS:

In Colombia, greetings are according with the context:

- Informal Context:

If you are in an informal context like with friends, you take and shake their hands and you say something like hi friend, what's up?. After that, you talk with him about his family, his friends and other personal topics. Colombians have invented diferent informal greetings using their hands.

- Formal Context:

If you are in a formal context like in a business meeting, you should take the other person's hand (the right hand is more used for that) and use a greeting according with the day hour (example: if it's in the morning, good morning, if it's in the afternoon, good afternon, and like that).

When you don't know a person, someone like a friend of you has to introduce hin/her to you. Depending of the person's gender is the way you have to greet. If it's a man, just shake his hand, but if it's a woman, it's better to kiss her on the right cheek.

If you want to greet with your parents, first you say hello mom/dad, how are you today? and then you have to kiss him/her on the cheek.

It's not well seen that a man kisses another man even if it's on the cheek, but it's normally well seen that a man kiss a woman or a woman kiss another woman, but only on the cheek.

COMUNICATION STYLE:

Colombian speaking changes according to the context:

- Formal Context:

If a Colombian person is in a formal or elegant context, like a business meeting, they speak very well; they use elegant and dificult verbs and words. They also speaks in a very low voice volume.

- Informal context:

If a colombian person is in an informal context, they speak in a slang and louder speaking manner.

Colombians use bad words with other meaning to speak with friends.

Some Colombians use words like “cucho” and “cucha” to speak about their parents.

REGIONALISM:

Colombian people are very happy and exciting people.

Colombians are religious people because of the catholic influence in our country.

Colombian people love sports, more specifically soccer.

In general, Colombians are genial, exciting, ancestral and humorous people.

TYPICAL FOOD:

Each region of Colombia has a typical dish which represents them in the Colombian cuisine, some of them are:

Bandeja Paisa:

 It's considered the most representative Colombian typical dish. It represents Medellin in the Colombian cuisine and it contains: beans, rice, ground beef, pork cracklings, fried plantain, chorizo, salad, avocado pear and “aguapanela”, a Colombian typical drink made with water, brown sugarloaf and lemon juice. For me it is a delicious materialization of Colombian culture.

Tamal Tolimense:

It´s a combination of corn flour, potatoes, carrots, beef, chicken meat, pork, peas, all that wrapped in a plantain leaf. Tamal is served with rice, salad and fried banana. That typical dish represents Tolima in Colombian cuisine. I think Tamal tolimense is a delicious food that makes us feel the Colombian flavor.

Ajiaco:

It’s a delicious chicken soup that contains different kinds of potatoes, and sweet corn. It is served with capers, cream and shredded chicken like optional seasonings. In my opinion, Ajiaco is the most delicious Colombian soup and represent the combination between elegance and tradition, the essence of the Colombian spirit.

Sancoho de Gallina:

It is a chicken soup cooked in firewood that contains potatoes, cassavas, corn and plantains . It represents Cali and Valle del Cauca in Colombian cuisine. I think sancocho de gallina represents the happy and exotic Colombian personality.

Pargo Rojo Frito:

 It represents the Atlantic Colombian coast in the Colombian cuisine. It’s a delicious fried sea fish. It is served with fried green bnanas and “arroz con coco”, a typical Colombian combination of rice and coconut milk. It is the materialization of Colombian practicality and versatility.

Lechona:

It represents Tolima in Colombian cuisine too. It is a curious typical dish because is a fried pig stuffed with rice, peas and pork. It reflects Colombian inventiveness.

Ternera a la Llanera:

 It is a smoked veal meat and is served with boiled potato, salad and boiled cassava.  It represents east plains in Colombian cuisine and it materializes Colombian effort and capacities.