Osvaldo Rios fan site

I believe all of you know that Mr. Osvaldo is shooting the TV drama (telenovela) “Zorro: The Sword and the Rose (Zorro: La espada y la rosa)” in Columbia in Latin America. In Columbia, masterpieces such as “La Viuda de Blanco” and “Rauzan” were made, and this new one must be a big hit again.

By the way, do you know what kind of county Columbia is? I assume you know a few good things about this country, in addition to much bad news such as guerrillas and drugs reported in Japan. I visited the Columbian Embassy in Japan the other day.

The officer I met was very nice and listened to me well, and supplied me good reference materials. I learned a lot about this country from these materials. It says, “Columbia is the entrance to North and South America. It is the center of the path connecting West and East. It has coasts facing both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans”.

The land area is 2,070,408 square kilometers (about 3.1 times that of Japan). The population is 43.03 million, and the average age of the citizens is 25. It attained independence from colonial status in 1819, and its political system is a parliamentary democracy and with a presidential government. The public language is Spanish, and the weather is tropical without four seasons, but it slightly changes according to the altitude, and the temperature generally decreases 6 degrees as the altitude increases by 1,000 meters.

The currency is the Columbian Peso, the national bird is the condor, and the national flower is the orchid (cattleya).

Regional specialties include, first of all, emeralds. They are of very high quality, and were used for the crown of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and necklace of Elizabeth Taylor. Japan is the second largest importer after the US. Next is coffee. It is known as the mildest coffee in the world, and again, Japan is the second largest importer after the US.

It is not known when coffee was brought to Japan, but we know that Dutch food importers in Dejima, Nagasaki imported coffee to Japan in 1690. Japan’s first coffee house the “Kohii Sakan” opened in Ueno, Tokyo in 1888.

Music: It said that Columbians love music and sing loudly. Shakira and Juanes are popular worldwide.
Flowers: It has been only 35 years since Columbia started the flower business, and it has become the second largest fresh flower exporter in the world and established an international position. The main flower imported in Japan is the carnation.

Last year, 73% of Japan’s imported carnations came from Colombia. Colombian carnations are well known for color variations and long life. In addition, there are many beautiful women, young Montoya is performing well in Formula one racing, Gabriel García Márquez, who received the Novel Prize in literature, sold 30 million copies of his book “One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años De Soledad)”, and many other famous people have come from Columbia, but I must stop here as the list is endless.

As noted above, Columbia is a beautiful country. It is a land of hope, just like a green emerald. The TV drama (telenovela) made me feel intimate with this country. I wish happiness for Columbia.

Kei