Insulator searches on previous trips to Colombia proved fruitful to my friend and fellow insulator enthusiast, Vince Reh, and myself, so we decided to give it another try and took off once again for the intriguing and beautiful South American country better known for its illegal drug production and internal war against Marxist guerrilla insurgents than its uniquely shaped and colored glass insulators. Interest in insulators put aside, our concern for personal safety while in Colombia was always of utmost concern and satisfied by the accompaniment of our Colombian friend, artist and fellow insulator enthusiast, Hernando Hoyos. 

As with previous trips, we met Hernando in Bogota, the nation's capital of approximately four million people and made our base a less than luxurious but affordable hotel in La Candelaria, the oldest section of the city. From this base we had various insulator hunting excursions planned but the most interesting event happened by chance on a drive to Zipaquira to see the Salt Cathedral, a truly amazing sight consisting of cathedral several hundred feet below the ground carved completely out of salt deposits from an abandoned salt mine. On the road to Zipaquira, driving through the northern, industrial Bogota suburb of Fontibon, we noticed a sign with the Zicme logo on it and immediately stopped the car to investigate further. After Hernando spent several minutes of conversation with a lady at the gate, he discovered that this was indeed the location of the present day Zicme operations. There were another few minutes of intense negotiations, necessary mainly to convince the lady that we were legitimately interested in learning information about the company and not a group of criminals, before our entrance into the plant was secured. 

Then to our surprise we were greeted and welcomed inside by Liza Zundel de Farine, the daughter of the late Salomon Zundel, the founder of Zicme. Mrs. Zundel is the present owner and manager of the business and was very surprised that anybody would be interested in the company, let alone be interested in collecting the glass insulators which the company once produced. Nonetheless she showed us great hospitality by setting aside the business of the day, serving us some refreshments and giving us about an hour of her time to ask questions of her about the business. 

As we entered the front office of the plant, immediately noticeable mounted on the wall was a bronze plaque presented to Zicme by EEB, the Bogota electric power company, in thanks for service in the provision of insulators and other electrical products to EEB. The plaque reads: "To Zicme, Homage to Your Founders, Salomon Zundel & Sons and Your Workers". The years" 1956" and" 1961" appear in the top left and right corners representing the years of insulator production.

Mrs. Zundel was a stout but firm woman in her sixties who spoke English as well as she spoke Spanish. She was very determined to carry on the business her father built from scratch as a Lithuanian immigrant to Colombia and told us that, to her father, the most important principle was to keep the company name going, which she has done and continues to do. She related to us that the plant had survived two fires both of which required rebuilding from scratch. Although the company now operates as Pelicme (Productos Electricos Liza Industrio Colombiano Materiales Electricos), all the products including fuses, electrical switches, telephonic terminals, etc. carry the same Zicme logo as was embossed on the glass insulators years before. She also has a strong sense of loyalty to her workers who she avoids laying off and keeps employed through rough economic times as it has been for the past couple years in Colombia. 

When asked about the remnants of the insulator production, Mrs. Zundel had some of her employees mount an all-out search of the facility. Unfortunately they were not able to find anything. She then told us of her father's personal insulator collection, consisting of 30 or 40 pieces and how it was destroyed inadvertently during a recent move to the present plant facilities. We all cringed silently when we heard this. As if to soothe our pain, she showed us a beautiful glass vase that was an example of the products that the company made for a short while after it ceased insulator production in the 60's. 

On a television stand in the office I noticed a porcelain ashtray in the shape of a typical power insulator with a saddle top. Upon our inquiry, Mrs. Zundel told us that it was a gift of the Gamma insulator company which presently makes porcelain insulators in Colombia. Until this time we were not aware that a company named "Gamma" produced insulators. However a later perusal of the Bogota phone book produced a listing for Gamma. We also found a damaged Gamma insulator a couple days later but left it behind given its unknown value and the extra weight it would have added to our baggage. 

We proceeded to ask several questions about Zicme insulator production, most of which confirmed facts already known. However, we were surprised to learn from Mrs. Zundel that insulators marked "VI-BO" which have been found in Colombia were products of a Peruvian company and imported to Colombia. At the time of this writing I have not been able to confirm this but at the very least it provides a lead for further investigation.

After asking a few more questions about the company, we thanked Mrs. Zundel for her hospitality and generosity in spending time with us and departed for the planned part of the day. 

The next day we boarded the "Tren Turistico", a restored steam locomotive and the only operating passenger train remaining in Colombia, for an all day ride. As with most insulator buffs, our heads were constantly out the windows peering up at the glass on the communications lines paralleling the tracks. Of course being in Colombia our eyes were also taking in a lot of the beautiful scenery of the Andes Mountains on either side of the valley in which the rail line ran. As the train progressed along the route, a band moved from car to car playing Latin music to which people instantaneously jumped up and started dancing. It was quite a feat to take in the festive atmosphere and the beautiful scenery and still be able to keep an eye on the insulators. 

Nonetheless, the train's top speed of a brisk 12 kilometers per hour, due to the deteriorated condition of the tracks, made insulator watching fairly achievable. The line construction consisted of poles made of 30 to 40 feet long sections of steel railroad rails with one or two cross arms and some side pins. And as with most of these lines, this one had been abandoned and was mostly fallen down. Unlike the United States where insulators may lay on the ground for a hundred years until found by a collector, in Colombia "recyclers", Colombian scavengers, take just about anything they find on the ground as soon as it hits the ground. Needless to say, we saw very little on the ground. In the air however we did see some interesting pieces, including CD-154s in clear, light purple, CD-447s in dark olive green, CD-203s in straw and light purple and a European-looking insulator in dark olive green, possibly a CD-574.2. On the sides of stations along the way we spied some Brookfield CD-102s and Hemingray CD-122s, both in traditional Brookfield and Hemingray colors.

At one station stop we got off the train and, upon wandering around, we found several Zicme CD-154s, clear and purple lying in a pile on the ground between rails. After amusing the guards with our request to partake in a few glass souvenirs, we rummaged through the pile and found one clear Zicme CD-154 and one purple Zicme CD-154 in good enough shape to take home.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of our insulator hunting on this trip, other than peering through bus windows as we traveled from city to city. Due to the heightened violence surrounding presidential elections which included bombs found in two of the cities we visited and the heightened presence of police and military on every street corner, we deemed it impractical and unsafe to do any searching ourselves. We will have to leave the yet-to-be-found Colombian glass jewels to future trips. 

This trip was not a loss, however, as Hernando had several beautiful pieces waiting for us upon our arrival at his home in Pereira. Among the pieces were several medium-purple Zicme CD-154s, a couple Zicme CD-203s in purple and green and a couple clear top-embossed Zicme CD-154s. Our backs still feel the pain of lugging these gems through three international airports and numerous customs checks in an effort to get them home. However, as the memory of the pain subsides, the beauty of the glass and the memory of the adventure of the hunt lives on.

Vince, Hernando and I will be showing these insulators and many more Colombian pieces at the National Insulator Show in Williamsburg, Virginia in the end of July. We hope to see you there. Happy hunting.