Indian basketware, weaving and pottery date back to pre-Columbian times but now fuse modern techniques with traditional designs. Colombian music incorporates both the African rhythms of the Caribbean, Cuban salsa, and heavily Spanish-influenced Andean music. Spanish is Colombia's official language and, except for some remote Indian tribes, all Colombians speak it. There are also about 75 Indian languages still used in the country. While the education system includes English in its curriculum, it remains little known and rarely spoken.
Colombian cuisine consists largely of chicken, pork, potato, rice, beans and soup.
The variety of fruit is astounding, the coffee and beer more than adequate and the wine execrable. History Pre-Columbian cultures existed in scattered pockets in the Andean region and on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Many of the tribes produced accomplished goldwork and pottery, and some left behind burial chambers and rock paintings which have helped anthropologists piece together their cultures. Alonso de Ojeda, a companion of Christopher Columbus, landed on the Guajira Peninsula in 1499. The wealth of the local Indians promulgated the myth of El Dorado, and the shores of present-day Colombia became the target of numerous expeditions.