Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [30]
El Cantil, Guachalito
El Solar, Cali
Cali Viejo, Cali
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EAT YOUR WORDS
The following is a list of words and phrases you may find useful, along with their pronunciations and English translations. See the Language chapter Click here for more information on Colombian Spanish and its pronunciation.
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Useful Phrases
I want…, please.
kee·yeh ro… por·fa·vor Quiero…, por favor.
I’d like the set meal, please.
kee·yeh ro ra·la ko·mee·da ko·ryen·te·por·fa·vor Quiero la comida corriente, por favor.
What is today’s special?
kwal·es·el·pla·to·del·dee·a ¿Cuál es el plato del día?
What do you recommend?
ke·me·re·ko·myen·da ¿Qué me recomienda?
I’m a vegetarian.
soy·ve·khe·ta·rya·no/a Soy vegetariano/a (m/f).
Is service included in the bill?
la·kwen·ta·een·kloo·ye·el·ser·vee·syo ¿La cuenta incluye el servicio?
The menu/bill, please.
la·kar·ta/kwen·ta·por·fa·vor La carta/cuenta, por favor.
Thank you, that was delicious.
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Environment
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THE LAND
WILDLIFE
NATIONAL PARKS & RESERVES
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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One of Colombia’s most appealing attractions is the diversity of its environment. From snowcapped, craggy Andean mountains and the flat plains of Los Llanos, to the lush tropical forests of the Amazon basin and rolling green valleys throughout – it’s a total eye-candy experience. Nature lovers will be enamored with the abundance of flora and fauna. Despite its modest size, Colombia is the second most biodiverse country on earth.
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THE LAND
Colombia may not be the biggest country in the world, but it’s no lightweight. After you head south through the chain of Central American minicountries, it is the first South American behemoth. Colombia covers 1,141,748 sq km, roughly equivalent to the combined area of California and Texas (or France, Spain and Portugal). It is the 26th largest country in the world, and the fourth-largest in South America, after Brazil, Argentina and Peru.
While most people assume that Colombia is just a tropical land, the country’s physical geography is amazingly varied. The country’s environment is generally divided into five habitat categories: wet tropical forests, dry tropical forests, tropical grasslands, mountain grasslands, and deserts and scrublands.
The western part, almost half of the total territory, is mountainous, with three Andean chains – Cordillera Occidental, Cordillera Central and Cordillera Oriental – running roughly parallel north–south across most of the country. A number of the peaks are over 5000m, making them higher than anything in the United States. Two valleys, the Valle del Cauca and Valle del Magdalena, are sandwiched between the three cordilleras. Both valleys have their own eponymous rivers, which flow north, unite and eventually empty into the Caribbean near Barranquilla.
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The famous German geographer and botanist Alexander von Humboldt explored and studied regions of Colombia and described it all in amazing detail in Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804.
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Apart from the three Andean chains, Colombia features an independent and relatively small range, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which rises from the Caribbean coastline to soaring, snowcapped peaks. It is the world’s highest coastal mountain range, and its twin summits of Simón Bolívar and Cristóbal Colón (both 5775m) are the country’s highest.
More than half of the territory east of the Andes is vast lowland, which is generally divided into two regions: Los Llanos to the north and the Amazon River basin to the south. Los Llanos, roughly 250,000 sq km in area, is a huge open swath of grassland that constitutes the Orinoco River basin. The Amazon, stretching over some 400,000 sq km, occupies Colombia’s entire southeast and lies in the Amazon basin. Most of this land is covered by a thick rainforest crisscrossed by rivers.
Colombia also has a number