Where are we off to?
Suddenly it was 2 days before our flight to Colombia.
Myself and my partner had decided to go 10 days earlier than the rest of the crew to take some time to experience a new country but life had been so hectic that we’d barely had a chance to plan the holiday part of our trip.
Now we were down the digital rabbit hole of travel guides and youtube videos.
“Ohhhhh thats where Colombia is!”
“Jaysus look at the size of it!”
“Ah would you look at that, its the connection point between Central and South America….”
I roughly knew where Colombia was but had never thoroughly examined it with the eye of actually going there.
Then came the weather revelation…
“Rainy season!?! What do you mean rainy season?”
We had pictured shorts and t-shirts, not rain gear for one of the wettest places on the planet! Colombia tops the list of nations with the highest average precipitation at 3,240 millimeters (128 inches) in a year. (Thats double the average rainfall of Ireland!)
We started to wonder if we had made a mistake to arrive early…
Soon enough we had reached information saturation and if I had to listen to one more travel influencer I was gonna throw my computer off a cliff. Overloaded with information but very little clarity of what we were gonna do for our little holiday we decided we would just get there and figure it out along the way.
Our company, ROGU Fire Arts, was honoured to have been invited to perform at FIAV (Festival Internacional de Artes Vivas), a renowned performing arts festival in Bogotá, Colombia. The crew consisted of Niall Tuohy, Aidan Ring, and myself (Rónan McLoughlin) as fire performers, accompanied by my partner Cristina as photo and videographer. Behind the scenes, Guillaume Cousson had worked tirelessly to organise the project, though he wouldn’t be joining us on the trip. ISACS initiated the connection with the tour manager, David Berga, who arranged our participation. Thanks to the support of Culture Ireland and FIAV, the project was fully funded.
Our journey to FIAV
Travelling to Colombia carries the excitement of changing continents. That wonderful limbo of long haul flights where you leave behind the accumulation of daily life (that to-do list will have to wait!) and the reality of a fresh adventure begins to sink in.
And then you arrive, and any imagining you had goes out the window as the visceral experience of another dimension hits you. A beautiful shock to the nervous system of a world that doesn’t fit neatly into your construct of reality.
You’re not in Cork anymore boiiii!
In our first days exploring Bogotá, we felt a mix of excitement and edginess. The unfamiliar streets kept us on high alert, trying to play it cool while adjusting to the rhythm of an unknown land. We stayed in the famous Candelaria district, a neighbourhood brimming with amazing street art. As we took a taxi from the airport, the festival chaperone who greeted us pointed out how the city transforms into an art gallery after dark, with graffiti covered shutters down and on full display.
Colombia carries the lingering stigma of a turbulent past: civil war, guerrilla factions, violence, kidnappings, drugs, and as much of Latin America the shadow of US imperialist interference. Yet, the Colombia of today has largely moved beyond those dark decades. It has become a welcoming destination for travellers, with warm hearted people that are sick of cocaine and Pablo Escobar being the first thing that comes to mind when people think of the country.
An old friend
I had reached out to Sergio, a Colombian juggler friend who many of the old school Irish Circus heads might remember. We used to live together along with a bunch of other circus freaks back in the Galway days, around 20 years ago, when I was just beginning my journey into juggling and fire arts.
Sergio brought us immediately to a famous Irish pub for a surreal pint on the other side of the planet. He still has the best Irish Colombian accent on the planet, a beautiful 7 year old son Sue (pronouncer “Sway”) and a funky little shop in the heart of Candelaria where he sells the jewelry that he once made on the streets of Galway. It was heartwarming to reconnect and he sends his best to all the Irish jugglers he knows. Reach out to him if you are ever passing that way, or just to say hello. (@buenaondaartesanias)
We had arrived but still had to figure out what to do for our week before our shows began but the menu of possibility was rather immense. Salsa dancing in the salsa capital of the world Cali? Adventuring into the Amazon jungle? Tatacoa Desert? Pacific coast whale watching? Caribbean islands?
What are we looking for?
What’s actually important?
What am I doing with my life!?!
In the end we decided that we were looking for somewhere to take it easy rather than to go on any big adventure… and then proceeded to do exactly the opposite!
Just take it easy we said
We flew north to Santa Marta, escaping Bogotá’s chilly altitude for the tropical warmth of the Caribbean. The next day, we were
trekking through Tayrona National Park rainforest. A few hours later we arrived at a beach where, immersed in my book, I unwittingly became lunch for sandflies.
After escaping on horseback (a story for another day), we checked into a relatively fancy beachside hotel where it became apparent that I was fecked.
232 sandfly bites.
Cristina counted them as she applied ointment to my sorry ass – well mostly my legs and back.
A new personal record.
And here we were in some fecking resort hotel, disconnected from the land, just another punter to the people working there and the only substitute for meaning to consume from an overexpensive menu.
Things were not looking good for our intrepid adventurers.
Things took a turn for the better when Cristina’s intuition led us to Sol de Minca, a natural reserve eco-hostel in the highland forest. A family-run haven, created in partnership with the area’s indigenous people, aimed at caring for the land.
Ahhh, meaning.
Gone were the sterile comforts of the resort; instead, we found connection—to the land, to purpose, to simplicity. Not just paying into the coffers of the capitalistic monster but knowing that we were supporting something of true value. A place where I could give up trousers for 4 days as I nursed my sandfly chewed legs back to functionality.
The time in the forest was powerful. That deep cellular remembering of connection to something greater.
I was ready for the return to Bogotá and the shows that awaited.
The Festival Begins
When Aidan and Niall arrived in Bogotá, we finally sat down to review the programme and realised that FIAV was no small affair. It featured some of the world’s biggest dance and theatre companies. We were called on to make lots of interviews with the press. Suddenly the pressure intensified.
I scheduled bonus rehearsals.
Not sure if we should have followed that “act natural” tip….
During the festival, we met up with the Irish company Hands Down Circus and shared a delightful lunch with ambassadors from the Irish Embassy. They were wonderfully down to earth, open, and supportive. I’d highly recommend any Irish artist performing abroad to reach out to the embassy and invite them to your shows.
Its always great to connect with the tech crews, learning their names, sharing some banter and including them in decisions, while reminding each other that we are here together to create a magical experience for our audiences. This collaboration helps create a meaningful experience for everyone involved, culminating in a shared celebration of our accomplishments or a rag tag team of runaways from a flaming inferno left behind!
Our stage was set in Parque de la Independencia, a funky amphitheater covered in graffiti. Fuel had been sourced. My rusty Spanish had come back and I was able to communicate with the tech crew. I could wear trousers again. We were ready to rock.
We weren’t prepared for the response. On the first night, the amphitheatre filled, and the cheers as we bowed were among the loudest I’d ever heard.
And then word spread.
More and more people came each night. By the final show, the audience overflowed far beyond the amphitheatre, up the hills and into the trees. An ocean of spectators stretched before us, every possible viewpoint taken, with queues still snaking through the park. It was a wonderful experience to perform to such receptive and enthusiastic audiences.
Over four nights, we performed for around 15,000 people.
We felt like quite the rockstars!
Meeting the audience after each show was a joy—high-fiving kids, taking selfies with teens, exchanging words of gratitude. A surprising number came back to see the show multiple times. And somehow, during the rainiest time of year, we were blessed with clear skies for all four performances. Blessed by the weather gods!
A Sobering Moment
On the last night we arranged to meet at a Salsa bar for a final boogie. I went to say goodbye to Sergio and wandered over to meet the others. When I arrived I learned that Cristina and Niall had gotten mugged at knife point on the way. They’d missed a turn and followed Google Maps down the wrong street at the wrong time. Thankfully, they kept their cool, and all they lost was around €20 in cash which they handed over. No one was hurt, and we realised that we had probably gotten a little too comfortable and should have been more careful at night in areas we weren’t familiar with. As privileged Westerners, it can be easy to forget the desperate realities faced by others. One of the many prices of our systems which value profit over service.
Day-to-day life in Colombia generally felt safe, and with a bit more care such situations should be easy to avoid but this experience brought us back to reality. The streets, bustling with life and creativity, remain a fascinating mix of order and chaos. Too much chaos leads to danger, but too much order stifles life. In Colombia, the balance leans toward the former – alive, vibrant, unpredictable. Very refreshing when one comes from a more orderly world. As always the secret sauce is balance. Too much order and we need some chaos to bring things back to life, too much chaos and we need some order for our nervous systems to relax.
Reflecting on the Journey
Returning home, all was brought back down to earth as we performed in the rain and mud for the almost 100 people who were brave enough to face the weather at a local Halloween festival. Yet as the Halloween tour progressed we were once again reminded of the universal appeal of the Fire Arts and the power of bringing people together. I always say that fire is in our DNA. We have gathered together around the flames for thousands of years and there is an infinitely entrancing and fascinating quality to this element that is in our bones. Generally performed for free in public spaces, they offer an accessibility that is hard to match.
Colombia feels like a dream now. Its diversity—of people, landscapes, climates, and cultures just a story to reimagine.
One thing that stood out from our trip was our need for meaning. Without it, whether at home in Ireland or on the other side of the planet, life seems soulless. We can find small meaning in the pleasures of life but they tend to be shallow and fleeting, an endless chase of the dragon (I’ll catch him one of these days!). When the meaning I find, or create, extends beyond myself and becomes service to something more than my petty self centeredness my experience changes. I’ve heard it said that if you are struggling go and give a hand to someone else, volunteer or be of service to a cause – it shouldn’t really surprise me that when I get my head out of my arse things don’t smell like shite – that’s science!
The transition from the soulless hotel resort to the nature reserve eco hostel provided a palpable relief to a part of myself that is hard to point to, from a disconnected reality to an interconnected one. In a state of disconnection things struggle for meaning, in interconnection everything has meaning. Remembering that our arts can be a great service to this world, reflecting on the life changing experience they have been in our own lives as we share them with the world can transform the quality in which they are shared, offering inspiration, possibility, connection and hope.
Happy travels and meaning making.
