Dogs in Colombia can be very peculiar, they roam freely on the streets and decide to adopt you in a whim. In some small towns we visited, dogs just started to follow us around as if we had been buddies for years. In Salento for example, we had at one point a pack of four dogs following us back to the hostel.
Sleeping dog on the streets of Salento
First, there was a couple of females (mother and daughter, apparently) they were tagging along happily, when out of nowhere came this stud that was determined to mount the younger female. He spent the whole way chasing after her, she was very young and had lots of energy to burn and was relentless; he was older and had to catch his breath. At times he would throw half-hearted attempts to the older female, who would just get away and give him an unconcerned side stare. Then a fourth character appeared, but he stayed in the background just following along.
Chilling out in Suesca, with the stinky little dog.
During our time in Suesca, we were adopted by dogs several times so there was usually a dog or two wherever we were staying. When we stayed in Casa de Floro, there was Camila, my favourite mutt, with beautiful and shinny black coat. There was also the stinky little dog pictured above, with his strong short little legs, who was starved for affection.
One of my favorite dogs in Colombia
In Suesca, there was also a beautiful creamy Labrador who liked to hang out at the house sometimes; and we got occasional visits from a Rastafarian Chow Chow, looking for any food we might have thrown out.
Ups, caught him in the act!
However, not all dogs were cool around there. One morning, I was jogging down the road when I start to hear loud barking through my techno music. When I looked around, I saw a pack of four dogs running towards me lead by the meanest looking dog, all baring their teeth at me. Adrenaline started rushing through my body and I got on high alert mode, trying to get away as fast as possible while screaming at them; however the mean looking dog was relentless and got close enough to throw a bite at me. Fortunately, he only managed to inflict a light scrape just above my calf.
Dogs have a thing for motorbikes in Colombia. This angry mutt chased us for quite a while!
After this first encounter, I saw that evil dog twice again and each time he would just try to attack me; but I managed to keep him far away by picking up stones and threatening him. It is a real shame that people let their dogs get to that state; that mean dog seemed to be of some sort of hunter breed, the kind that English lords take on hunting expeditions. But he looked as if he had been neglected to the end; his eyes were full of resentment. Unfortunately, I couldn’t snap a photo of this dog, as I was too afraid for my safety to even dare taking my eyes off him.
Another two cool dogs we met in La Mojarra
Incidentally, Alain also got attack by some random dog when we where walking around the streets of Suesca. A dog came charging at his leg, just out of the blue, and bit him for no apparent reason. But overall, the experiences were definitvely more good than these two bad apples.
Share and Enjoy
