Hola, Buenos Dias! 

Welcome to Colombia! Charlie’s first country in South America, it is also one of the friendliest places Charlie has had the pleasure of visiting. The Spanish phrase above is one that Charlie has got used to hearing and saying. Colombians will happily greet tourists, or as they call us ‘Gringos’ to their country. They are very proud of their land and they should be, Charlie thinks it’s the most beautiful country he has ever visited.

Hola means Hello.

Buenos Dias – Good day.

Como estas? How are you?

Bueno – Good

Gracias – Thank you

Adios – bye

Now you know a little bit of Spanish, you should try practicing with some friends and family.

 

Colombia is in the north of South America, this continent is the forth largest in terms of size. This continent is made up of 12 countries and is home to seven different languages. The Largest country is Brazil, if you look on the map, you can see it nearly takes up half of the South American continent. South America is famous for the Amazon Jungle, Atacama desert in Chile, Macchu Picchu in Peru, Rio de Janeiro and its Carnival in Brazil.

Colombia is known as the gateway country to South America. It has a huge mountain range called the Andes running through the country, making the journey on the motorbike full of twist and turns.

The city of Cartagena is famous for its street art. Charlie decided to go on a walking tour of the city to learn about the city’s history and to see the artwork. The city and country of Colombia have a sad history. In the past, there has been lots of fighting and many people have died. But that is all changing, the country now has a strong government who are making lots of improvements to Colombia. A lot of the artwork Charlie saw on the streets tells the story of Colombia’s history.

His favourite place was the cowboy town of Jardin, a tiny town hidden in the mountains. All the houses are painted in bright colours and instead of driving cars, a lot of the people living there choose to ride their horses around the town.

Colombia is famous for exporting coffee. So Charlie decided to work on a coffee farm for the day. He was sent into the mountains to collect coffee beans, he was told to only pick the red beans because they are ripe and ready to be collected. Once he had filled a basket of beans, he had to take them to a machine to have the skin peeled off. Next the beans were washed, finally they were placed out in the sun to dry. Charlie worked all day and was paid the same pay as all the other pickers, 15p a basket! He was not very happy with his pay, as he had worked hard all day. But the pickers he worked alongside explained that, this was a Fairtrade farm and they actually got more money than workers on other farms!

Charlie also enjoyed strolling through some jungle paths and climbing up some hills. They reminded him of climbing in Wales, but there was one big difference. Can you spot what it is?

To learn more about Colombia look at the website below…

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/countries/colombia/#colombia