El Prado Museum on Plaza Bolívar

Until Sept. 19th Madrid´s famed El Prado Museum is displaying life-size reproductions of some of its most famous works on Plaza Bolivar. After that, they'll be in Parque de la 93 and then in Parque El Tunal. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Buying a Wayuu Bride - Sort Of

A column decorated with goat hides represents the dowries paid by young Wayuu men to their brides' families.

Before he can get married, a young man of the Wayuu indigenous people must give his bride's family a big dowry: Often 50 goats, necklaces, cattle, money and jewels.

In this matrilineal society, the valuables are supposed to go primarily to the family of the bride's mother, according to Bogotá's Museum of Regional Dress, which has a small exhibition on now about the practice.

The Museo de Trajes Regionales, located on Calle 10 
just above Plaza Bolivar, is one of 
La Candelaria's lesser-known museums.

The exhibition consists primarily of a column covered with goatskins representing the animals given by the groom. The young man generally must collect gifts from relatives and friends to amass a sufficient dowry. It's a controversial practice which persists mostly in rural areas of La Guajira.

Despite appearances, the museum's website denies that this represents a bride price, calling the payment rather the groom's 'appreciation of the prestige of the bride and her family.

"In no case is this a sale or trade of a human being," says the website.

Wayuu traditional dress.

Nevertheless, when I visited La Guajira years ago, Wayuu women told me they felt humiliated by the dowry, as tho they were being traded for livestock.

But the dowry is perpetuated across generations, since fathers insist that they be paid, to compensate them for the dowry they themselves paid their own wives' families.

The Wayuus' traditional territory was divided in two by the Colombian-Venezuelan border. While this certainly separated families, it also created a privilege for the Wayuu people, who usually can cross the border freely. Many Wayuu, particularly women, have become wealthy traders - and contrabanders.

The Guajira peninsula has a history of lawlessness, from contraband and pirates. Henri Charrière, the protagonist and author of Papillon, cohabited with Wayuu women while hiding out after escaping from Devil's Island.

The Wayuu divide themselves into clans, based on maternal descent, and these clans have historically

carried out murderous feuds. When paramilitary groups wrested control of the region from guerrillas in the mid-2000s, they sided with some clans against others, committing massacres and forcing people to flee to Venezuela.

The last few years, the Wayuu's always-dry territory has suffered a severe drought, killing many children. The situation has likely been worsened by coal mines, which have diverted streams and consume huge amounts of the region's scarce water.

And altho the Wayuu exhibition is small, the dress museum is worth visiting to see the regional and historical clothing worn by different groups of afro, indigenous and white Colombians.

Campesinos from Huila Department.

Guambiano Indigenous people from Huila Department.

A mask from an Amazonian indigenous tribe.

A view from the museum's interior.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Frenchman's View of Old Colombia

A riverboat at a coffee plantation.

Bourgarel on horseback.

A lifelong diplomat, Ernest Bourgarel was France's consul general and chief minister in Colombia at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century. Between 1890 and 1902, Bourgarel traveled widely across Colombia, particularly along the Magdalena River, documenting in his notebooks and with his camera a nation which was growing economically and developing its coffee industry - but also suffering from repeated civil wars.

Bourgarel's are some of the earliest documentary photographs of Colombia.

A selection of Bourgarel's photos and notes are on display this month in the Museum of Bogotá, in its new building on Calle 10 between carreras 3 and 4.

A cargo train.

La Candelaria Church in Medellin.

Working on the Panama Canal.

A steam train crosses a bridge.

Mules and men cross a wood plank bridge.

Bolivar street in Medellin.

The exhibition in the Museo de Bogota.

An old map of the Magdalena River.

Interior patio of the Museo de Bogotá.

Ernest Bourgarel, a self-portrait.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Adoption Dog Days in Bogotá

United States photographer Alec Soth was evidently enchanted by Bogotá while he lived here during the adoption process of his daughter a few years ago. And he recorded his impressions, many of them of dogs, and now has them on display in the Museo de Bogotá in La Candelaria.

I'm no judge of photography, but that has never stopped me from expressing opinions. I'm not exactly sure what gives these photos more artistic value than photos of dogs which most people could take. For a Bogotá resident, who sees these same sorts of dogs and bogotanos every day, the photos seem routine. But they might be interesting for someone who's never visited here, particularly if the only images of Colombia they've seen involve drugs, bombings and kidnappings.

But art is all subjective, and Colombian adoption is more interesting to talk about.

This happens to be the street I live on in La Candelaria.
The Santa painting has since disappeared.

Historically, Colombia seems to have been a fairly popular source for adoption, particularly for Scandinavian families - in any case, a good number of Scandinavian families with children, as well as Scandinavian young people who were adopted from here have come to do bike tours as a way to get to know their birth country. Not all adoptions have been completely aboveboard: One young woman who did the bike tour told me she'd tried locating her birth family only to discover that her adoption papers had been falsified.

But in recent years, following scandals, Colombia has made the adoption process longer and more demanding and given priority to Colombian families over foreign ones. In mid-2012, Colombia put a hold on new applications from foreigners for children under six years old who don't have either physical or mental problems.

Despite these new restrictions, as well as long waiting times, Colombia seems to be receiving lots of attention from adoption agencies because many other countries have restricted foreign adoptions even more.

Adoption can be a wonderful thing, and the adoptees from Colombia I've met have seemed generally healthy, happy and satisfied with their lives (altho those who were not probably wouldn't have come to visit in the first place). But adoption can go wrong, and adoptees are sometimes exploited. Read this jarring Reuters investigation about how U.S. families 're-home' adopted children they don't like using online networks.

And, disturbingly, I found at least one adoption site with this glib pitch which focuses on the adoptive families' convenience, not so differently from selling any sort of inanmate product.

Medical and psychological evaluations are provided with all referrals, providing a complete overview of the child a family is adopting. These wonderful children are often home in as little as six months. For families who want to provide a home to an older child, Colombia is a perfect adoption option....

Why Adopt From Colombia

Healthy, well-adjusted older children and sibling groups available

Sibling groups are available of all ages

One of the most affordable adoption programs available anywhere
Short waiting time


Previous divorce acceptable

It makes me wonder whether, pitching children this way, however positive the intentions may be, only sets families up for disappointment and rejection when parenting turns difficult.

 The best-known adoption of Colombia children in recent times was that of two young boys by a New York Times reporter who is gay. Predictably, conservatives tried to block the adoption. I haven't seen anything since about how the boys are doing. According to adoption websites, Colombia now frowns on gay couples and single men adopting from here.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Immigrant Art in La Candelaria

The Fundacion Gilberto Alzate Avendaño has this exhibit of works by immigrant artists in Colombia. I'm no great fan of modern art, but I found many of these works interesting. They made me think a bit. Others are just entertaining.



A double doll by Jan Bartelsman,
born in Holland in 1916.



Why don't today's modern artists make art the way they used to?



The artists in the exhibition include:

Nijole Sivickas, born in 1930 in Lithuania.
Jim Amaral, born in 1933 in the United States.
Arthur Tashko, born in 1901 in Albania.
Maria Thereza Negreiros, born in Brazil in 1930.

Jan Bartelsman, born in Holland in 1916.

Umberto Giangrandi, born in Italy in 1943.
Ned Truss, born in the United States in 1939.
Juan Antonio Roda, born in Spain in 1921.


A nice colorful painting by Arthur Tashko of Albania.



Armando Villegas, born in Peru in 1928.

Freda Sargent, born in England in 1928.

Ramon Barba, born in Spain in 1892.

Hand and breast merge in a work by Jim Amaral of the United States.

A dark and stormy night at sea, perhaps by Jan Bartelsman, from Holland.

A female doll in space Umberto Giangrandi, born in Italy in 1943.

By Italian Umberto Giangrandi.





'Homage to the Fallen Student,' by Umberto Giangrandi, born in Italy in 1943.







By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours