Colombia

Chances are, you haven’t been reading too many articles about peace-loving Colombian communities, the charitable work of the Colombian military, the orphanages being set up by paramilitary groups, and the general tranquility of Cali and Medellin.

That’s because Colombia has a reputation for being the most violent country in South America, home to a thriving traffic in drugs and generally, a risky place to spend your vacation.

On the other hand, it’s true—Colombia gets a bad rap. If you’re not in the country to score drugs, and if you avoid certain areas like the Emerald District, and the jungles where coca grows, you would hardly believe there’s a problem. Urban violence is virtually unknown, and thievery rare. There’s a lot of money in Colombia, and more people sprain their ankles stepping into potholes than get robbed.

That said, there are a lot of good reasons to visit Colombia. Chief among these is Cuidad Perdida, the magnificent lost city. San Augustin, a superb archaeological treasure not far from Popayan, the mud volcanoes close to Arboletes, the awesome Salt Cathedral two hours north of Bogotá, and the world’s most spectacular gold museum, in itself worth a trip to Colombia. And that’s not even mentioning the coffee, which is worth writing home about.

For travelers not deterred by the bad publicity, there is much to see and do. There’s diving along Colombia’s 3,000 km of coastline on the Caribbean and Pacific, magnificent opportunities for climbers in Colombia’s world-class national parks, rock and ice climbing, trekking, parapenting, water sports, mountain biking, rafting—and that’s just sports. Travelers to Colombia marvel at its superabundance of flora and fauna that include the Andean condor, white-tailed deer, spectacled bear, and trogons. The Colombian Amazon boasts the same diversity of bird life and other creatures with wooly monkeys, quetzals, and a list of bird species to rival Ecuador’s.