Enamorado de Colombia

Oh, how I love this country! It's been almost a month since I've returned to ''mi nueva tierra'' and I love every minute of it. It is so difficult to describe in words just as to how happy I feel here. I just remember for the first few nights, feeling a rush of boiling energy swirling around my chest like a whitewater river. I also remember slowly filling my chest with the Bogotá air; feeling like I could float to the top of Monserrate. It was almost the same sensation you feel when you fall in love with a new woman.

Never in my life had I felt so happy, so accomplished; I sometimes ask myself what I did to deserve so much euphoria? Only in Colombia have I ever felt this way. I must be one of the luckiest men in the world right now. Wow, I never thought I would ever say that.

There's a stretch of road in Bogotá the taxi drives through every morning. It's a bridge where I  get the most picturesque view of Colombia's capital city. I see the tall, rolling green mountains from the downtown area of Bogotá staring down upon me like a guardian; dwarfing Torre Colpatria, the tallest building in all of Colombia. The view lasts maybe 15 seconds before it's blocked by a stretch of stores, but it's the one thing I look forward to most on my commute to work.

Colombia has had a terrible reputation for a long time. There are still several out there thinking that Colombians constantly live in a war zone; that Colombia is only a place filled with drugs, violence, and sadness. I've had friends even ask me if people drive cars in Colombia. We all of course know better than that. Colombia may look like an old, scary haunted house on the outside due to its history, but if your mind is open enough to walk through the front door, you will find a beautifully decorated home full of warmth, comfort and happiness.

I sometimes wonder if I was a Colombian in a previous life. Ever since I could remember, I had always been looking for a place where the people were genuinly nice, where the weather was fine, where I would have not one but several close friends, and where the women were beautiful.

I found that place in Colombia. I honestly felt like I came not just home but to heaven and I really cannot imagine myself anywhere else in the world at this moment. I just can't wait until I have the opportunity to share this wonderful country with my family back in the United States. The only thing I'm missing in my life at the moment is a girlfriend, which I think can wait.

So far RCN has been abolutely fantastic. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better job nor a better place to work. RCN may be Colombia's largest television network covering the entire country but everybody is so relaxed, so polite, so content and so genuinly nice. You never see people slamming down phones or running around in a temper-tantrum rage. It's the big studio that's like a little family. Everybody is a friend here.

I don't consider myself a Colombian celebrity yet but I've already had my share of features and interivews already. Brian Andrews and I were interviewed by Estilo, which is like the Enterntainment Tonight of Colombia. It was my very first interview in Spanish but I basically told everybody my story as to how I fell in love with this country and how happy I feel here. I was very nervous but I think I pulled it off very well. To my knowledge, the interviews haven't aired yet but should be coming soon.

My second interview in Spanish was with the famous 'La Negra Candela,' a well-known gossip journalist here in Bogotá. Oliver Diglesias and I appeared on her radio show Picantísimo (See Part 1 and Part 2), and it was good thing Oliver came along, since I could't understand everything she said. Oliver, however, loves to talk a lot I noticed, but I think I said enough. You can see a link to the interviews in the right column.

I was curious one day and typed my name in Google and was surprised to find the website Farándula Criolla had featured an article on me. I couldn't help but smile and feel satisfied when it called me, ''El gringo más colombiano...'' (The most Colombian ''gringo'') Keep in mind that gringo, a nickname for Americans, does not have a derogatory meaning here in Colombia, as it does in some countries. Perhaps I really was a Colombian in a previous life, afterall. The same article was also printed in a Cartagena newspaper.

So there you have it, folks. I'm in love with this country and I don't plan on leaving for a while. Only in Colombia can you find a culture so rich, a land so beautiful, and a people so genuine. Oh yes, and how could I forget the food? Only the best you'll ever taste. Colombia: never, ever change, please. You have so much to be proud of. ¡Qué bonita es está vida!

Back in Bogotá!

Well folks, for those who pay attention to this blog, you were probably wondering what happened to me since I disappeared from the RCN News scene a while ago.

Before I start, I'm overly-joyed to say I'm back in Bogotá, and this time for good. I now have a contract with RCN Television, along with my Colombian work visa, so I'll happily be bringing Colombia to the world with Brian Andrews and the rest of the RCN News in English team.

So here's my story... Back in November, Brian sent me on special assignment in Nuquí, Chocó on Colombia's Pacific Coast. I stayed there for five days, made eight reports before the camera broke down from the extreme weather conditions, and then came back to Bogotá.

Upon arriving back, complications arose at RCN, and the News in English could no longer have contributors. So that meant none of my special reports from Chocó could air, and for a good two weeks, it didn't look like I was going to get my dream job. RCN would not even allow me to enter the building again until I was officially hired.

Brian began aggressively pushing for my contract. By the end of the month, it appeared that I was going to be approved very quickly... but little did I know the long waiting process Brian once had to go through was just about to begin for me.

On the day RCN was supposed to make the final approval, a dispute broke out between RCN, Caracol and the Colombian government over licensing fees. So, just by my luck, all new hires were put on freeze until negotiations started on January 1.

After the dispute ended, RCN began to start my paperwork process. In order to hire a foreigner in Colombia, RCN had to petition the government to hire me, so I had to wait for approval from the Ministry of Labor. That too took a while... I prayed and prayed every single night for the papers to come as quickly as they could. Sometimes it felt like I was fighting a negative force trying to stop me from achieving my dream.

During that time, knowing I had a while to wait for my contract, I spent my time freely enjoying Colombia. I made several new friends, met some girls and dramatically improved my Spanish. I even came into contact with some old Medellín friends and spent time there in my favorite Colombian city for Christmas and New Years. I also explored the nearby municipalities of Copacabana, Sabaneta, Envigado and Bello. It was my first Christmas in Colombia and by far the best one I've ever had. To be honest, I thought Christmas wouldn't be fun anymore after learning the truth about Santa Claus but I'm happy to say Colombia has proven me wrong once again.

It was also during this time I was given an answer to several personal questions deeply troubling me for over a year. Not all of them were answered; the ones that were, however, were ones I had expected but not ones I wanted. God works in mysterious ways and the reason why He made me so negligent in my possessions is so I could get an answer, due to an indirect cause of my tendency to break things. I will not go into full details but the one thing I will say is sometimes your personal flaws can end up saving your life.

After New Years, my paisa friends and I went to Arboletes, Antioquia and Coveñas, Sucre – two beautiful towns on the Caribbean coast. I bathed in Arboletes' famous Volcán de Lodo (the mud volcano), tanned in the hot sun, and swam in the gorgeous waters of the Caribbean. Guaro flowed like water, and we all stayed-up throughout the entire night. It was a blast but little did I know my joy was about to come to a quick crash.

I was told Tuesday the 13th's are considered the unluckiest days for Colombians (in the U.S. it's Friday the 13th). The day after returning from the Caribbean – Tuesday, January 13 – I discovered somebody had cloned my debit card and stole $682 U.S. from my American savings account (the equivalent of $1.5 million Colombian pesos at the time). I called my bank but could not freeze the account because it was the only account I had; plus I didn't own a credit card... In other words, if I froze the account, then I wouldn't have any available money to buy a return ticket to the United States or to Bogotá for that matter.

Acting quickly, I flew to Bogotá the next day, withdrawing the maximum amount of money from my account daily. It was the only option I had to prevent the criminal from stealing any more. Since my papers still were not ready and because of this identity theft situation, I had no choice: I had to leave Colombia.

Within a few days, I flew back to the United States and canceled my debit card. The bank, thankfully, returned the lost money and now I can only hope the criminal who did this will be caught, if not already.

Nobody was happier about my return, of course, than my parents. We bought a pizza on my night back and spent as much time as we could together onwards. We had a Nintendo Wii in the house and my dad and I would play Mario Kart against each other almost every night.

It was very difficult adjusting to the harsh Connecticut winter. Just a week before, I was walking around shirtless on Colombia's Caribbean coast; and now it seemed like I couldn't find enough clothes to keep warm. My body was so accustomed to the Colombian climate that even Bogotá felt cold for me; when in reality it feels like a Connecticut spring or early summer everyday.

I used my seemingly endless amount of free time at home saying hello and goodbye to my friends and relatives. I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to return to Bogotá.

My mother is a middle school Spanish teacher and I made a big presentation on Colombia for all of her classes. I showed her students pictures from all of my experiences – from Bogotá, Medellín, Nuquí, Chocó to Copacabana, Arboletes and Coveñas. I also played vallenato and showed video clips from Medellín's soccer games and enormous Christmas lights. By the end of the presentation, every student wanted to visit Colombia. I felt so proud I was able to convince a tiny part of the world that Colombia was "cool." I couldn't wait, however, to finally do it as a profession.

Impatience is my biggest weakness, so the wait was a terrible experience. For four months the only news I would receive from RCN was I either had to wait "two more weeks" or "at least a month" for my papers. My biggest fear was receiving a call saying I could no longer be hired, and I prayed every night this would not happen. My Colombian friends, however, constantly reassured me how long things took to get done in Colombia. All I had to do was relax and be patient.

Finally, over a month after returning to the U.S., Brian called me from Bogotá with the best news: my papers were done and were going to be sent out that day.

So there you have it... Four months and four days after I made my debut as an RCN News contributor, I took a train to New York City and received my work visa at the Colombian Consulate... and – lucky for me – got it within an hour. That night I bought my return ticket to Bogotá for a Sunday flight.

The day before my arrival into Bogotá my family held a goodbye pizza party for me at my cousin's place. That night my dad and I watched 'The Dark Knight' – our favorite movie – on our new HDTV. My mother jokingly kept asking me, "Are you sure you want to go back to Colombia when you have this great TV here?"

After watching, my dad came into my room to say goodnight. I couldn't help but notice his eyes watering, and it was very difficult to look into them. My dad has always been my best friend, so it always pains me to see him when he's sad. As much as I love him, however, I had to leave for this job. When my dad was 23 years old he moved to Puerto Rico and lived there for over two years. Now, here I am, also 23 years old and – like my father – moving to a Latin American country for an undetermined period of time.

My father brought me to the airport the next day and just before I went through security, I looked at him from across the room, knowing it was going to be one last time before I would see him in person for a while. I could feel his pain project itself inside of me. At the same time, I think he understood the place where I was going since he had a very similar experience himself in Puerto Rico.

There was no turning back, however. I got my contract and my work visa and I was now going to work for Colombia's largest TV network. How many recent college broadcast journalism graduates can say they achieved this sort of thing? Not many. I think the reason why I was such an unlucky person for the majority of my life was because God was saving all that luck for this year.

So here we are... After almost two years of dreaming; ten months after graduating from the University of Connecticut; and four months after taking my plunge into Colombia, I'm back in Bogotá living my life's dream and am now a proud Colombian. God bless this wonderful country!