COVER N. 208 - COLOMBIA

Postmark: Cuatro Setenta y Dos - El Servicio de Envios de Colombia - PV El Poblado -17.01.2023

Posted on the 17th January; Received on the 7th February 2023
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Travelling is reading the world by the light of discovery, 

In fact, no travel chronicle, book of voyages, TV documentary, as good as they might be, can replace the infinite pleasure of sensorial acquisition that only actually "getting there" permits. 

Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, all generating a differing signature, an entity, a being, both physical and abstract...  minimal units of signification that bound together pulsate into that most intangible but self-imposing and easily perceivable dimension we call culture.  

Oh Lucky the ones who travel for leisure, for knowledge, for pleasure, for theirs is a different world from that of those who travel for need... and yet, being the former is of utmost importance so as to ensure that the latter need not be...

Travelling with open senses, and soul, constantly absorbing novelty, difference, equating it against our own backdrop of dos and don'ts; perceiving the difference, respecting it and trying to understand it... an holistic exercise of empathy... that's the foundation on which travelling should be exerted by the traveller, the lucky traveller who goes out to see the world for his/her own enrichment and pleasure.

At least that's the way I see it and that's what i tried to transmit to my daughters who from tender age would accompany mum and dad in their summer holidays tours across Europe...

Almost 30 years past and I still can hear my youngest daughter saying "no, no, churches and castles, no. I don't want to see more churches and castles..."

and yet the seed was sown.... and now I am always tremendously happy when I learn that one of my daughters is going away to visit churches and castles on her own...

Thank you Marta for having had the patience and care to go to the post office and send father this cover fully laden with great stamps... 

In fact, upon learning that Marta was to go to Colombia on holidays, I immediately prepared a bunch of envelopes to send to friends. Unfortunately, due to the price of postage being a bit steep, she did not post all the letters but those she didn't send, she was kind enough to send a postcard to the name and address on the envelope, since she tells me postcard tariffs were much lower than to send a letter... probably a matter of registration, I presume, because I cannot understand why posting a postcard could much cheaper that posting a normal letter...

Anyway, my letter arrived 20 days after posting in perfect shape and I can only thank my daughter again for her help. I hope the churches were great (at least she hadn't any castles to visit in Colombia, I presume :-))

Stamps

- Covid-19, no need to tell anyone about it. all over the world, public health structures and all the vast plethora of professionals that keep them alive fought a merciless battle against a new foe, so small it could not be seen, but deadly none the less, as the 142 thousand deaths registered in Colombia up to now, so clearly illustrate.

Many were the postal administrations all over the world that issued stamps as a way of honouring all that were directly involved in the fight against the new Corona Vírus, or raising awareness on public health measures, or other public concerns, such as the tremendous effort that had to be made so that students could still have access to education when confined at home. The  10,000 Colombian Pesos stamp issued on 26AUG2020, honours this effort,  while also trying to raise funds to support the "Computers in education" programme, under the legend- “Colombia reescribe su historia - Colombia rewrites its history.

- The 74th anniversary of the Military Communications Unit is the subject of the 20,000 Pesos stamp issued on 31AUG2018

- On 01DEC2021 4+72, the Postal operator of Colombia issued a minisheet - comprising eight 5,000 pesos stamps themed on numismatics, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the country's independence. The stamp on my cover features a one peso banknote that I presume would have been one of the first  such notes issued in the country.

Colombia has many natural parks and sites and since 2019 its postal administration has been issuing sets dedicated to them.  On the is cover there are four such stamps: two 2,000 Pesos stamps from the 12th issue that began to circulate on 09NOV2022, dedicated to Districto Nacional  de Manejo Cinaruco and Parque Nacional Natural Cordillera de los Picachos and two 200 Pesos stamps from the 7th series, issued on 20JAN2021, featuring a Begonia and an image from Parque Nacional Natural Munchique.

The postmark tells us hat the letter was posted from the community of El Poblado, in the city of Medellin.