There is a lot of beautiful places that weren't accesible a few years ago and you can go and visit nowadays, war indirectly has protected those places but ironically there are people deforesting those places now, the government is also trying to access mining and oil resources which can put these places in danger. I hope the international community can start looking how we can preserve those forests and all the species that they have.
I spent 3 months in Colombia back in 2018. Such an amazing country. Amazing people, rich culture, beautiful places... I miss it very dearly and I'm certain I will return.
I will forever remember taking the bus from Bogota to Pereira. The entire trip is filled with images of glorious beauty.
Just want to second this. My wife is Colombian and I lived in Bogotá for a year and go regularly. I've travelled quite a bit of the country by bus -- absolutely recommend doing this! One reason is the variety of landscapes you can see in a single journey.
I agree that crossing the mountains between Bogotá and Pereira is an incredible route. Very long, but if you go and have the time, it's in itself part of the holiday!
My wife is also Colombian and we spend a lot of time there.
I tell nobody about the town her family is from or the surrounding area. It is breathtakingly beautiful, ecologically fragile, and my lived experience around the world is that there is no form of tourism that does not destroy what it touches.
I don't pretend to be able hold the forces at bay that will eventually pave paradise. But I do what I can not to embolden them.
Oh wow, I can certainly understand this! My wife's a Rola though so my approach is somewhat different - promoting Bogotá to anyone who'll listen at any opportunity!
If you'd be kind enough to satisfy my curiosity about the wonderful sounding place your wife's from, though, my email is in my profile :-) Perhaps I'll (very respectfully) visit there some time!
When it comes to untouched areas on Earth, does anyone ever ponder whether we should explore them?
What if we took a different approach—fenced them off and left as is, untouchable by anyone for any purpose? What is the cost of unknown to science species or two, compared to environmental impact of scouring every inch of land to find something new?
They might be raising the distinction between "rain forest" and "jungle".
As I understand it, A rain forest is a tropical forest characterized by a dense canopy that blocks most sunlight from reaching the floor; it has relatively little undergrowth.
A jungle is a tropical forest without a dense canopy, and so has heavy undergrowth. This frequently exists on the edges of a rain forest or in other areas where storms, etc prevent the growth of a dense canopy.
Maybe "jungle" does not apply to much of this land in Colombia?
There is a lot of beautiful places that weren't accesible a few years ago and you can go and visit nowadays, war indirectly has protected those places but ironically there are people deforesting those places now, the government is also trying to access mining and oil resources which can put these places in danger. I hope the international community can start looking how we can preserve those forests and all the species that they have.