Colombia, the only risk is to want to stay more

My trip to Colombia started a year ago, in Koh Tao (Thailand) hwne Erika my diving buddy told me I should go to Colombia because it was one amazing country.

What did I know about Colombia? The FARC, Pablo Escobar, Valderama, bananas and 100 years of loneliness. Hummm...it does not really sound exciting and with less than 3 months in SOuth America, flying to Santiago and out of Buenos Aires, I had no time to go. Moreover the overall reputation of the country is bad: the French governement has a map of the country with the usual color schemes to tell you where it is safe or not. I reproduce it below and believe me a few months ago there was just one green stain on it. I read also on a forum that two girls who went to Colombia and who got robbed got a lecture from the embassy when they asked for help instead of getting help. Once again bravo to the French diplomatic personel!!!

Throughout the following months the people I mewt who had been to Colombia usualy found Colombia the country they had preferred in South America. So, when I decided not to fly back to Europe and after checking several sources about safety in Colombia I decided it would be my next adventure after Patagonia.

2 months later, when I crossed the bridge from Ecuador into Colombia I remmeber I has a bit of anxiety but it all vanished really quickly because COLOMBIA IS SAFE. To me it is much safer than Peru or Ecuador. 7 weeks and not at any moment I felt threathened . I walked in the streets (incl late at night), I took taxis, went to markets, it was all fine. I had locals helping me many times, advising me on where to get and where not to go. There are still places where tourists should not go but they are remote. Colombians are great they love their country and want to share it with you. They are also aware of the bad reputation their country has (8 years ago they could not get our ot fthe cities irt was too dangerous) and they are eager to show thsi is undue. For instance all the taxis we took in Medellin where really helpful and probably among the nicest I have taken in my life and they all said please tell the people around you Medellin is not the bad city everyone thinks it is.

So it´s my turn to relay to you that the idea that Colombia is too dangerous is one the myths from the medias
Next time you meet a Colombia instead of talking about the FARC or drugs ask him/her about la ciudad perdida, la vallee de Cocora or el rio de la 5 colores, I am sure he/she wiull be delighted to tell you more about that.

Rio de las 5 colores and the vallee del Cocora

Colombia como te quierro

It happened again it almost strats to be boring: I fell in love with a country I visited. 7 weeks in Colombia 3 more than the 4 I was planning first to spend in this country. And it´s gone really fast. Why? Mostly because Colombian people are so nice.

The best instances are Bogota and Medellin. These two big cities are nice but do not have incredible touristic attractions. My time there has been amazing because the friends of friends we met gave us so such a warm welcome, made us taste local food and took us to real Colombian places.


In Medellin we went to a Colombian bar where everybody danced including me, sat in the street and drunk beers like the students, tried typical païsa food (païsa = from the region of Medellin) and our friend cooked for us.

Views of a water reserve near Medellin and of the river crossing the city (with lights systems for night time)

In Bogota I met many Colombians introducing me to Colombian politics and the coming presidential election, spent an afternoon with 7/10 years old school kids met in the street, went to cafes on the hills of the city with a beautiful view, had a typical Bogotan sunday visiting a salt cathedral and having a desert at the local milk factory and got invited at a local farm for a birthday party.

The school kids and the girls I played with at the birthday party

I have now one embassador in each city because without them I would simply have been one more gringo sticking to the gringo trail and I am really grateful to Andrea and Carolina for what they did.

My ambassadors: Andrea (left) and Carolina (left as well)

I met also really nice Colombians in Cali, Tierradentro, Villa de Leyva and San Gil, basically in almost all places I have been to.
One funny thing about Colombia is that i´s the country where I spoke most French with locals. Many Colombians know French because they have been studying there.

Ciudad perdida my highlight of Colombia

If there was one thing I wanted to see in Colombia it was la ciudad perdida (the lost city), a former political and religious centre of the Tayronas.

The terrasses where there used to be huts

The city is reached after an easy 3 days trek into the jungle, crossing rivers and walking up 1,200 stairs.

The stairs leading from the river to the city

One of the 9 streams we had to cross

Evenings came early as there were just candles to give us light which dragged loads of bugs committing suicide into the flames.

Our international group (France, Spain, Germany, England and Israel) therefore got into card games. We slept into hammocks and I even learned that there is a technique to sleep into hammocks.

One of our camps

The city itself was really nice. This is not Angkor Wat, there are no temples or houses left but just terrasses on which were built everything in a mix of wood and bamboo. That was done in 700 AD and the city is abandonned since 1m600 AD to avoid that the Spanish would find it and loot all the gold. Next to the terrasses remain many staircases, some greened by the moths and many trees that give an authentic feel to the city.

Lots of green in the former City

Overall this was a really nice journey. The trek is tranquilo (laid-back) because we stopped many times to swim in rivers or eat delicious fruits and this made it really enjoyable.