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Colombia: FARC or fun?

VAWN HIMMELSBACH, Chic Savvy Travels

When I told people I was traveling to Colombia, the most common response was some sort of joke about becoming a drug mule. Unfortunately, this country has become synonymous with cocaine — and with violence, in the form of FARC guerrillas known for hiding out in the jungle and kidnapping people for ransom.

The streets of La Candelaria in Bogota, Colombia. Photo by Vawn Himmelsbach

Colombia is much safer these days, and there’s a lot more to this country than coke and coffee (though, for me, the trip was worth it just for the cafe tinto…). It’s famous for its music, the salsa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And Cartegena is considered the most beautiful colonial city in all of South America.

Its diversity may surprise you — from the white-sand beaches of the Caribbean and pounding surf of the Pacific coast to the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains and pristine Amazon Basin. You can go scuba diving, trekking among snow-capped peaks and kayaking with pink dolphins. Or explore lush coffee plantations, villages intact from colonial days and even a lost city deep in the jungle. It’s also one of the most well-developed countries in Latin America — you can even drink the tap water in many cities.

Intrigued? I was.

Still, after decades of civil conflict, Colombia’s got a bad rap, and I was admittedly a little nervous about showing up in Bogota alone late at night. I rarely book a hotel room in advance, but this time I did.

Sometimes it takes me a while to appreciate a place (like China). But, I knew as soon as I had left the airport in a Korean-made yellow cab, zipping through the dark, damp streets of Bogota, the windows open, cool air hitting my face and Latin music blaring, I had already fallen for Colombia.

Playa Blanca on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Photo by Vawn Himmelsbach

I’m not sure why — perhaps it was something in the air, like the magic realism in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. Or maybe it’s the sense of a country recovering from a long period of violence. The cool thing about Colombia is you’ll be seeing the country alongside Colombian “tourists,” who may be seeing parts of their own country for the very first time.

So what’s the deal with FARC? The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or, in Spanish, Fuerzas Revolucionarias de Colombia) is a Marxist-Leninist rebel group that claims to represent the rural poor and opposes things like the U.S. influence in Colombia, multinational corporations and monopolization of natural resources. Fair enough.

But it funds itself primarily through ransom kidnappings and the illicit drug trade. Since 2002, however, when wildly popular President Alvaro Uribe took over and launched a crackdown on guerrilla groups, membership in FARC diminished.

FARC is still around, though its numbers vary widely (and is confined mainly to the high mountains and deep jungle), and Colombia is still the world’s largest producer of cocaine. But it has been relatively safe for travel over the past couple of years. You’ll notice tourist police in Bogota and Cartegena, patrolling the streets at night with large guns, and you may be subject to the odd baggage search now and then, though that never happened to me personally.

The cobblestone streets and whitewashed buildings of Barichara, Colombia. Photo by Vawn Himmelsbach

There is a backpacker trail in Colombia, but it’s not as well defined as other Latin American countries. Indeed, it attracts a certain kind of backpacker — one that seeks adventure off the beaten path.

It certainly feels that way if you don’t speak Spanish. Even in touristy places, you can’t rely on English. So if your Spanish is basic (like mine) or non-existent, bring along a phrase book or a translation app on your smartphone, because you’ll need it.

That’s not to say it’s difficult to get around Colombia. As one Canadian backpacker I met along the way said: “Greyhound could learn a thing or two from Colombia.” The buses were clean, comfortable, safe and ran on time — my only discomfort was the cranked-up AC, which seems to be a problem in pretty much any country.

And the airlines? You can fly across the country for as little as $50, and the planes are far superior to many of the “express” airlines I fly with when traveling to the U.S., which are like clausterphobic death traps with no movie screens or even food-for-purchase.

But, back to Colombia… So is it safe? Colombia is considered safer than some of its neighbours, including Venezuela and Ecuador. Bogota can be dodgy at night, but it’s fine during the day, so long as you don’t wander off into any bad neighbourhoods (and the locals will warn you before you do). I was traveling alone, but I felt safe everywhere I traveled in the country and didn’t encounter any problems, even on night buses.

That’s not to say incidents don’t happen. I met a Greek backpacker who was robbed on his first day in Bogota, though he said he was wearing his money belt on the outside of his clothing and was an obvious target. And another guy was jogging with his iPod and had it snatched right out of his ears. Like anywhere else in the world, take precautions, but there’s no need for paranoia.

In fact, you’re more likely to meet people who want to help you out than rob you. Colombians are some of the warmest people I’ve met, and I never felt like I was being taken advantage of, even when I couldn’t really understand what was going on.

When traveling through the mountains from San Gil to Bogota, the bus stopped at a roadside restaurant, and a mother and her 21-year-old son motioned me over to eat lunch with them. We then spent the next four hours on the bus communicating in a combination of broken English and Spanish. We’ve stayed in touch and I hope to see them again (because I will, of course, be going back). It was, without a doubt, the highlight of my trip.

Date Added: April 14, 2011 | Comments (0)