Avoiding Cultural Faux Pas in Colombia

Colombia is a Friendly Country And the Culture is Easy-Going

Many of the cultural norms in Colombia are identical or quite similar to polite behavior in other countries. If you’re traveling from the United States to Colombia for the first time, it’s doubtful you’ll accidentally do anything that would utterly shock a Colombian. Truthfully, things that would shock a Colombian would probably appear just a shocking in other countries.

Yelling obscenities, wearing super-skimpy clothing (when you’re not at the beach, obviously), and making a general ruckus will get you some stares in Colombia as easily as it would anywhere else, from England to Vietnam. If you’re naturally boisterous, that’s not a bad thing, but it’s usually best to keep it down unless you’re at a sporting event or a loud club or bar while traveling through Colombia.

As an American, I write this as someone used to the open and overly friendly culture in the United States. From my experience, the Colombians are a little more reserved (perhaps just with foreigners) than Americans, but they’re still some of the most friendly and personable people I’ve interacted with around the planet.

Each of the tours we took, from Bogota to Medellin to Cartagena, featured a tour guide who was always quite chatty and interested in sharing everything they could about their country. Obviously, you’re supposed to share a lot as a tour guide, but our Colombian tour guides always made quite easy conversation.

Is there anything you should completely avoid as far as behavior goes in Colombia? Is there anything that can get you in actual trouble?

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What Can Get You Into Trouble in Colombia?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in Colombia is to get involved with any illegal drugs. The country’s notorious reputation has led to some serious penalties associated with carrying and trafficking anything illegal. If you visit Cartagena, it’s likely that you’ll have people approach you and ask you if you want to “party.”

Do your best to avoid interacting with these folks. Cartagena in particular has a significant population of tourists from cruise ships, and these drug peddlers just ask every foreigner they see if they want drugs. Don’t worry, they won’t pester you too much, but if you engage them in conversation, they might annoy you for a bit.

They’ll usually have a piece of paper with information about restaurants on it, but their true purpose isn’t to share information about restaurants. Rather, they’d like to encourage you to buy some of their illegal product. Just don’t engage them. Many citizens in Colombia remember when the country was one of the most dangerous in the world, and they want to leave that era behind.

Although Colombia is quite modern and metropolitan in its big cities with loads of traffic and cars everywhere, it’s very doubtful that you would find the prisons in Colombia a safe and satisfying place to spend your time. You probably won’t have any issues getting into trouble in Colombia as long as you avoid illegal drugs, and avoiding them is actually pretty easy as long as you don’t engage anyone trying to sell you something illegal.

Do You Really Need to Shake Forearms in Colombia?

If you do a search for cultural norms in Colombia, you’ll find a slew of websites explaining that Colombians grasp one another’s forearms in greeting. While this might be true in certain circumstances, you certainly don’t need to greet anyone with such a vigorous shake, even when meeting them for the first time.

There is the suggestion, too, that it is only the men who shake hands this way and that women should just shake hands, but truthfully, it’s not a big to forgo the forearm shake and simply shake someone’s hand. You don’t even really need to shake everyone’s hand anyway. Just a smile and a nod of greeting is enough when you’re trying to fit in with the locals.

I think I shook the hands of a few of our Colombian tour guides, but it wasn’t something I did every time I met someone new. I didn’t shake the hands of the people across the desk when checking into our hotels, and I didn’t shake hands with people I only saw for a few minutes. You can even get away with an aloof head nod or a simple wave, and no one is going to think less of you.

Remember that everyone you meet in Colombia will know you’re a tourist or visiting. Even if you speak fluent Spanish, there’s a good chance you’ll speak it with a different accent anyway, which will give away your tourist status pretty quickly. Colombians are definitely a friendly group of people, and you could easily mistake them for an American with their ease of interacting with others.

Don’t Assume Mexicans and Colombians are the Same People

As someone who lives in Southern California, I’m quite familiar with Mexican culture, especially the traditions that have made it over the border into the United States, but I’m well versed enough to understand that all Spanish-speaking people aren’t the same and don’t have the same cultural norms. Not only are Spanish dialects different between all Spanish-speaking countries, but it’s just beyond-the-pale to assume you know something about Colombia because you’ve been to Cancun on Spring Break.

Colombia’s history is quite fascinating, and I encourage you to take a historical tour in at least one of the cities you visit, just to learn about Colombia prior to the modern era. There are some historical connections between Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela (they were once the same country but were split a little less than two hundred years ago), but a lot has happened in these diverse countries since then.

If you know a bit of Spanish, that’s great! The Colombians will appreciate your efforts in trying to learn their language during your trip to Colombia. Even if you speak Mexican-accented Spanish (which you might, if you learned Spanish in the United States), you won’t get corrected too much. You might hear some different pronunciations for certain words, but at most you might get a smile and a pat on the shoulder for your efforts, should you try to communicate in the Spanish you learned in high school.

One interesting note on the culture and language of Colombia though: they don’t have the highest opinion of the Spanish spoken in Spain. You might find it entertaining how the Colombians believe their version of Spanish is best while the Spanish spoken across the Atlantic is wholly inferior. As an English speaker, it was very reminiscent of how people from the UK view American English. A friendly rivalry, if you would.

Colombian Time Means Sometimes You’re Not Punctual

If you were to think about one country on the planet where tardiness was frowned upon, it wouldn’t be Colombia. For social engagements, it’s fine to arrive a little late, and no one will shake their finger at you in annoyance. However, if you do arrive at a gathering or for an appointment in a punctual manner, no one will tell you to come back and make sure you’re tardy, either.

When I read this about Colombia before I traveled there, I was actually a littler nervous because I’d booked several taxis and tours throughout our stay. I wasn’t sure whether this social custom meant I needed to book my taxis extra early, just in case they were late. As it happens, none of our taxis was late, and many of our tour guides were actually early or exactly on time.

If your stay in Colombia will span more than a few weeks, or you expect to meet up with people for occasions like dinner at restaurants, you can probably expect to see people arrive when they arrive, but it’s doubtful you’ll see anyone arrive seriously like, like hours after an event has started. You might consider Colombia to be on “island time” like you’d experience in Hawaii. There’s no serious rush to get somewhere, and definitely no stress get there early.

However, just because Colombians don’t always have punctuality first on their minds, that doesn’t mean you should adopt the same habits. If you’ve booked a tour or you’ve arranged to check in somewhere at a certain time, do your best to get there on time. Not only will this behavior be appreciated by anyone in the service or hotel & hospitality industry, but it’s just basic politeness, which goes a long way in any country.

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