Columbian dialects?

[Fazor]

First off, jeeze has it been a while since I've been here! Time sure flies.

Anyway, I was watching an ESPN special the other day on the Columbian National Fútbol club and it's rise and subsequent fall, as it was tied into the narco-terrorism culture and, more specifically, financial influence from Pedro Escobar.

More to the point; much of the show consisted of interviews, most of which were Columbians and in Spanish with English sub-titles. But I couldn't make out anything they were saying . . . not that I can typically comprehend Spanish as spoken by a fluent speaker that well anyway. But with the subtitles, I'd see words that I should know, but didn't hear spoken anywhere. While I was watching, I though that Columbia must have their own language that's related to Spanish but different; but after watching the show and checking the 'net, I see that the official language is Spanish, but that there's some 75 different dialects spoken.

Are these just that different from Mexican-Spanish (which is what was taught mostly in school)? Or must I have just missed that much of it (it wasn't exactly a happy subject, and a lot of the interviewees were speaking sorta softly . . . and it's already hard to hear over all the fans we have running since it's the middle of summer and very hot in our house).