Vida Colombia

Colombia isn’t so much misunderstood, as missunderstood.

While everyone concerns themselves with cocaine, violence and the latest episode of Narcos, they risk missing how incredible this country is. 

Let’s start with its people. I’ve been shown nothing but kindness since I arrived, from taxi drivers, to guides, to bar staff, to the people I’ve met on the bus.

Whenever I’ve been in a sticky spot, someone has been there to help me out, not begrudgingly, but wholeheartedly. 

And it’s not just the kindness, it’s the steely resilience that lies underneath. They are fully aware of their country’s history, past and current problems, but they keep moving forward and looking to the future.

They know how to have a good time, to celebrate and to find joy in small things.

What really came across to me from the people I spoke with, is that they are hyper-aware of their international reputation and really want visitors to have a positive experience so they can share their stories back home. 

So consider these blogs an extended love letter to Colombia. 

Let’s talk about nature. After Brazil, it’s the second most biodiverse country on earth and home to about 10 per cent of the world’s species. Its native animals include the mighty jaguar, the awesome capybara and the fearsome poison dart frog. 

Its landscapes are incredible; from tropical beaches, to dense jungle and the snow-capped Andes mountains. Having explored some of that jungle myself I can say with certainty how beautiful this country is. 

And then there’s the history; sophisticated pre-colonial communities inspired and in tune with Mother Earth; colonial communities who built beautiful towns and cities but brought with them slavery and disease; and post-colonial times where the glory of independence gave way to the rancour of civil war. 

They say that the literary device, magical realism - writing about the fantastical alongside the mundane - could only have originated in Colombia. Stepping into the mystical lost city of Teyuna underlined this perfectly for me.

Not forgetting culture; the country’s most famous exports are artist Fernando Botero, writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and singer Shakira. 

If you raised an eyebrow at the latter, watch her Super Bowl halftime show with J-Lo on Youtube - the woman is a powerhouse! (And she brings Colombian culture into her work, even if our European ears and eyes miss it).

Every place I’ve visited had at least one museum, gallery or tour; I’ve learned about the Spanish Inquisition, the Colombian contemporary art scene, gold, indigenous communities and chocolate. 

I visited Medellin, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Cuidad Perdida, Mompos, Aracataca and Bogota - all completely different in character, but all with compelling reasons to visit. 

I’ve cruised down rivers, hiked up jungle paths, cycled down public highways, sauntered around quiet streets and peered at neighbourhoods from above in a cable car. 

Zig-zagging across this country I’ve found something to delight, entertain and inspire at every turn. 

But I’m not blinkered, I’d be a fool to not recognise that Colombia still has its problems. 

Cocaine production went up not down after Pablo Escobar’s death, people who speak out against the drug traffickers are being assassinated, in December there were mass protests in the streets against right-wing President Ivan Duque’s Government, and even while I was here, a left-wing guerrilla group staged an armed strike. 

Colombia knows more than most that you cannot take peace for granted, it has to be worked at every day, and it has to be the work of everyone, not just the few. 

At the moment, there are still some empty seats around the table and life is fractious for many communities living in the more remote areas.

But, people persist. And when I say people, it’s women who are taking the lead. Women are carrying the burden of protest, reconciliation and progress. They’re battling on despite losing loved ones, despite being raped and despite their lives being threatened. 

Take Cristina Bautista, leader of the Neewe people, who spoke out against the violence experienced by her community at the hands of guerrillas and drug cartels, only to be shot and killed herself in October last year.

“If we stay quiet they kill us and if we talk too. So, let’s talk,” she said before she died.

What Cristina, and women and men like her, are fighting for, is a new story for Colombia. 

The first pages of that book have already been written - Cartagena is a bustling tourist city, Medellin is on the up and Bogota is becoming home to people who want to find the middle ground.

There are so many places to discover and explore, so many new friends to meet and so much history to soak up.

Go to Colombia, not as a tourist, but as a visitor. Be curious, prepare to have your expectations confounded and make the time to dig a little deeper. 

I came here on the trail of my hero, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, wanting to discover the truth about his home country.

I’ve done my best.

But I have to leave the matter of the truth of Colombia to its most famous son. On accepting his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, he said:

“To oppression…we respond with life.”