
Colombia, Once Consumed by Violence, Became a Tourist Destination - baristaGeek
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-colombia-once-consumed-by-violence-became-your-next-destination?mbid=social_facebook
======
Grazester
My dad had a business in Colombia and had worked between Colombia and other
South and Central American countries all his life. In the mid 90's they killed
his business partner while he was out of the country. When he went back for
the funeral an attempt was made on his life. He was approached and gun point
on the ports had to jump into the water and dive understand the docks to
escape gun fire.

My dad fled the country and left his business and all his assets never to
return. My mom told his it wasn't worth his life, which it wasn't. My dads
business partner's wife was at the time was trying to install herself into the
day to day operations and have more of a role in the business. He thought she
was simply greedy and harmless. My dad now feels different about that because
she was the only one that knew my dads schedule and where he was going to be
that day. She was also the only one that knew that her husband was going to be
without his body guards that time of day.

My dad has lots of stories of Colombia and it's violence in the 90's, most of
which was drug influenced. It wasn't the media blowing anything up and
exaggerating.

My parents loved Colombia and it's people though. It would be great now that
it's safer so he can maybe visit the place he loved and worked most of his
life.

~~~
tryingagainbro
How much money we're talking about in your dad's business?

Couple of hundred dollars to a teenage sicario in Escobar's time and you're
gone.

~~~
lumberjack
>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-fell-
in-l...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-fell-in-love-with-
a-female-assassin-791978.html)

I remember of this story that was posted on HN, a few months ago.

tl;dr woman becomes a paramilitary assassin killing political opponents, later
she just becomes a contract killer

------
tomdale
I was just in Medellín for JSConf Colombia a week ago. It was my first time in
Colombia and I didn’t know exactly what to expect.

I was blown away by how friendly and engaged the developers I met were. I can
say unequivocally I have never had the audience burst out in spontaneous
cheering and applause at the end of a technical talk with such enthusiasm as
they did in Medellín.

The conference venue was a beautiful, modern building next to the botanical
gardens. The coffee was both delicious and strong. But most of all, the people
were whip-smart and hungry to make their dent in the world. I can’t say enough
positive things about Colombia.

~~~
theoh
The building (part of the Ruta-N complex) was designed by
[http://alejandroecheverri-valencia.co](http://alejandroecheverri-valencia.co)
It was the first LEED Gold-certified public building in Columbia (in 2016) so
it's cutting edge rather than typical.

It's worth noting that Alejandro Echeverri also teaches (edit: has taught) at
Syracuse University.

It sounds like you experienced the lives of the privileged, mobile elite of
Colombia. That's valid, as far as it goes, but any boosterism should be
tempered with at least a mention of the countries massive inequality (sadly
not that atypical for Latin America).

~~~
foldr
Wealth inequality in Colombia is high, but actually lower than wealth
inequality in the US by most measures.

If someone posted about a positive experience at a tech conference in New
York, I wouldn't expect to see a follow up reminding us about poor people in
Tennessee.

~~~
greeneggs
> Wealth inequality in Colombia is high, but actually lower than wealth
> inequality in the US by most measures.

Really?

CIA Gini coefficients: US 47.0 (2014), Colombia 53.5 (2012)

Ratio of the average income of the top 10% to the bottom 10%: US 18.5,
Colombia 60.4

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality)

Granted, this is income not wealth inequality. And there are many ways of
measuring it. I would like to know your source.

~~~
foldr
[http://fortune.com/2015/09/30/america-wealth-
inequality/](http://fortune.com/2015/09/30/america-wealth-inequality/) (the
relevant list is at the end of the article)

See also
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_distribut...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_distribution_of_wealth)
for wealth ginis.

I'm sure there are lots of different measures that give lots of different
results. My point was just that the US and Colombia aren't radically different
in terms of economic inequality.

~~~
afterburner
The US is not a high bar for comparison of wealth inequality. In fact wealth
in equality in the US is a problem, and by any measures Columbia is either
about the same or much worse.

The goal is places like Denmark.

South America in general has serious inequality problems.

------
davnicwil
I'm British and my wife is Colombian. I've lived in Bogotá and travelled
around the country a fair bit. It's an absolute paradise.

The nature and landscapes are just incredible. You have rolling lush green
hills with forests and lakes, snowy mountains, canyons and desert plains, the
coffee regions, tropical forests and beaches.. You can even drive for just a
few hours and see a few of these in a single day. It is truly wonderful and
can't really be described, you just have to go there and see it for yourself.

The food in particular is really great. For instance, the sheer variety of
fruits and vegetables on offer that I didn't even know existed before I went
to Colombia is remarkable!

If you are considering going to Colombia, don't give it a second thought, just
book your flights! I promise you will have an amazing time, and will be
telling your friends the same when you get back :-)

~~~
personlurking
I've been saying the same to friends and strangers for over a decade. Colombia
is an awesome place. As the article says, they have this seemingly gimmicky
tourism phrase "the risk is that you'll want to stay" (only it's true).

Speaking of fruits, one of the problems there has to do with papayas. There's
a Colombian phrase "no dar papaya" (do not give papaya) and it means that you
shouldn't act foolishly because someone will "take your papaya", if you do. In
fact, the second unwritten rule regarding papayas (aside from "don't give
them") is that if someone offers it to you, you must accept. Essentially, it
comes down to "take whatever opportunity will place you in an advantageous
position". This is obviously bad on a societal level, in many ways.

That being said, it's still an undeniably beautiful
place/people/culture/cuisine.

~~~
santiagogo
I agree with you, I'm Colombian and I think that the "No dar papaya"saying and
mindset is terrible on so many levels. That mindset incentivizes distrust,
cheating and exploitation of unfair advantages. I've personally thought about
starting a movement called "Si dar papaya". I just haven't had much time to
start it and no idea of where/how to begin.

------
brndnmtthws
A lot of places are safer than you've been led to believe, since popular
culture and 'the media' feed off sensationalism and fear mongering.

Colombia is indeed wonderful, and to anyone wishing to travel there I suggest
you get away from the big cities and check out the countryside. Some spots in
Boyacá worth visiting are Paipa, Laguna de Tota, Duitama, and Villa de Leyva.

------
ingenieroariel
Medellín and Bogotá are great but I encourage all to make the trip to the
north of the country: I live in Barranquilla, sandwiched between Cartagena and
the Sierra Nevada and we have a healthy group of people who contribute to Open
Source Software on a regular basis. We have the caribbean beaches right here
all year long without leaving the DC/NY/Boston timezone.

~~~
desiderantes
Where are this OSS contributors in Barranquilla? I haven't heard of them
before. Is there any kind of OSS meetup here?

~~~
ingenieroariel
There is Guillermo Iguarán who contributes to Rails. I personally have
contributed to several large geospatial projects like GeoNode / GeoServer and
Inasafe and bits to other projects like Django/GeoDjango in the past.

In retrospect I should have used a different term to differentiate people that
are sharing smaller projects with liberal licenses from people who regularly
write patches for the linux kernel.

------
gok
I’m curious how they pulled it off. Did the drug war work? What about the re-
intensification of hostilities with FARC? Was Colombia’s drop in violence just
the flip side of Mexico’s explosion in it?

~~~
santiagogo
There are 2 parts to it. Firstly, the guerrillas and narcos were heavily
combated, thanks in part to Plan Colombia which was a collaboration with the
US government to fight the criminal/drug dealing structures. This led to the
narcos migrating to other regions and changing strategies (raw cocaine output
wasn't reduced though) and to the guerrilla being weakened since most if it's
long time leaders where killed, which in turn led them to peace negotiations
and finally a very strange peace agreement (which the country voted against).
All in all, we were very lucky to have two very successful executive
administrations in a row. Secondly, the underlying problems leading to social
conflict which are extreme rural poverty and inequality, have significantly
diminished since 2002, with a close to 75% reduction in extreme poverty,
thanks to economic growth. So as they say: growth solves nearly anything.

~~~
megaman22
Is crack still a big business, the way it was e.g. in the 90s? Cocaine and its
derivatives were never especially common in my region, but all of the news,
and reports I've heard from friends in law enforcement seem to center on
opiods, meth, and synthetic drugs like bath salts in recent years.

~~~
poisonarena
I took the bus to centro medellin yesterday with my dad and we saw 3 people
smoking crack in the open.. If you are really poor and can't afford crack you
are going to be sniffing glue all day. most tourist places you can buy low
quality coke from nearly anyone for about 5 dollars a gram or so.

------
switch007
Unrelated but I thought I'd mention the great Colombian Gabriel García Márquez
– one of Latin America's most famous authors.

I like his Nobel Prize speech: La soledad de América Latina (The Solitude of
Latin America)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzHWZKZXZwI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzHWZKZXZwI)
(audio starts after a while, and captions are in available in English):

> _Several themes Márquez addresses in his speech mirror those of his short
> stories and novels. Márquez touches on European colonialism, colonial
> legacies, deterritorialization of the Latin American culture, and he
> specifically addresses Latin American countries that have been affected
> negatively by foreign policy._

I wish I knew Spanish well enough to fully appreciate his literary style
(currently struggling with "Vivir para contarla", his autobiography, looking
up every 10th word!).

~~~
pm90
This is something that is incredibly sad for me. I've considered learning
other languages simply to appreciate literary works better, but life seems to
get in the way (more likely: I'm just not that motivated). Being bilingual,
I've seen just how much can be lost in translation... I can only imagine the
things I miss when I read, e.g. Les Misérables in English .... :(

~~~
switch007
Aw don't be sad about it. The little nuggets of hispanic culture that I have
picked up have enriched my life immensely. I take what I can and enjoy it.
I've probably misinterpreted or missed loads. That's fine...

Anyway, there is a huge amount of excellent and diverse literature in my own
language; other languages are a bonus.

------
melling
I was in Colombia for a month 10 years ago, traveling through on my trip to
Buenos Aires. Santa Marta, Cartagena, Medellin, Armenia, Bogota. It was safe
then. I’ve been back a couple of times. Most recently in March. The tourism
has really picked up.

------
kilroy123
I was just in Colombia last month. Spent several weeks in Medellín and
traveled to a few other cities.

There were a lot of tourists in Medellín. I do have to agree, people were very
nice.

Highlight, I went to checkout an organic coffee farm outside of the city. One
of the cowboys from the farm took my horseback riding through the hills. Very
cool experience.

Definitely recommend Colombia for a unique vacation.

------
imartin2k
Coincidentally, I just wrote about my trip to Medellin.

“The remarkable, inspiring story of Medellin”
[https://medium.com/@martinweigert/the-remarkable-
inspiring-s...](https://medium.com/@martinweigert/the-remarkable-inspiring-
story-of-medellin-bc76d8c79b15)

------
crdoconnor
I got the feeling in Medellin that its "renaissance" was in a large part due
to it being a center of the drug war. It brought a lot of violence but it also
brought a _tremendous_ amount of wealth into the city, which put it in good
stead once the war ended.

~~~
baristaGeek
Indeed. It's impossible to analyze Colombia's macroeconomics without having
into account drug dealing. At some point, I know that this activity
represented 3% of the GDP.

However,

Lots of colombian corporate giants where founded in the '40s in Medellín.
Today, out of the 10 most valuable colombian companies, 6 are headquartered in
Medellín. These companies (not in order) are Éxito (retail), Argos (concrete),
EEPM (utilities), Sura (insurance), Nutresa (food) and Isa (utilities).

In conclusion the city was heavily industrialized before the cartel, but the
drug war did indeed bring some money that got managed for good in later
decades.

------
VeejayRampay
In the meantime Acapulco, once hugely popular with tourists is now engulfed in
gang land slaying, vendetta and gun violence in general.

~~~
totalZero
Mexico is a totally different animal.

Acapulco in particular has grown immensely since its heyday in the 1950s. Its
population within the city proper was 49k in 1960. Now it has grown to 708k.
Wages are low; think $8/day in a hotel where guests pay $150/night. Moreover,
foreign tourism is dwindling.

------
ZenoArrow
I had a great time in Colombia a few years back (Cali, Bogotá, Medellín,
Baranquilla and Cartegena, be prepared to sweat buckets with the last two
though!). I would say you do still need to take basic precautions to avoid
trouble (like taking taxis home after a night out instead of trying to walk
home) but I felt safe, I heard more stories about Mexico than Colombia at the
time, the drug war seems to be a bigger issue in Mexico these days, and I felt
safe in Mexico too. Honestly, if I hadn't run out of money whilst I was
travelling, I could have quite happily moved to Central or South America.

------
wallflower
Colombia is also home to the world's scariest drug. Ten cuidado!

> I woke up many hours later not knowing where I was. I stayed in bed, without
> pillows or blankets, feeling queasy and resting for a half-hour, trying to
> figure out what happened. At that point, I didn’t remember the lady, but I
> soon realized that I was at home, even though it hardly resembled my
> apartment — because it was empty. Everything was gone: my com­puter, my
> guitar, my clothing, my jewelry, about $5,000 in pesos I had hidden under my
> mattress, even my shampoo. There was only the bare bed and a table.

> I went downstairs to the lobby. ‘‘What happened to my stuff?’’ I asked the
> doorman.

> ‘Your mom came with a man and took your things away,’’ he said. I told him
> that was impossible because my mom was hundreds of miles away in
> Barranquilla, my hometown. ‘‘Let’s look at the surveillance video,’’ he
> said, explaining that I brought the woman by the day before. I had recently
> told the doorman of my plans to move, so he assumed she was my mother
> helping me out.

> ‘That’s not your mom?’ he asked, standing at the video monitor and pointing
> to her, sounding alarmed. I still didn’t remember anything about the old
> woman, but then, after watching the video some more, it started to come back
> to me. I saw her haul my stuff out with the help of a middle-aged man, who
> had waited in the lobby. She was wearing one of my coats as well as an
> expensive pair of shoes (mine) made by a Colombian designer.

> Watching the video, I saw myself come in with the woman, smiling as if
> everything were normal, and then I did not appear again. A doctor who
> checked me out later said I was given a drug nicknamed burundanga, popularly
> used by criminals in Colombia. He said it could have been administered
> through the paper the lady handed me, or perhaps some kind of aerosol. Even
> though my memory was wiped clean, on the video I appeared to be my everyday
> self.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/magazine/the-swindled-
sam...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/magazine/the-swindled-
samaritan.html)

[https://www.vice.com/video/colombian-devil-s-
breath-1-of-2](https://www.vice.com/video/colombian-devil-s-breath-1-of-2)

~~~
Shorel
Not even remotely unique to Colombia or originated here. I seems even the
Greek and Roman used it in their Bacchanalia.

Just Google "devil's breath" or "Angel's Trumpet".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium#Use_in_tradi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium#Use_in_traditional_medicine)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon's_Rebellion#Use_of_scopo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon's_Rebellion#Use_of_scopolamine)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15266468/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15266468/)

~~~
wallflower
True and fair enough. The reason why I posted it was in the hopes that someone
visiting Colombia would at least be aware of the possibility of this unique
type of criminal attack. It is totally out of comprehension for most people
from other parts of the world, being as is we are numb to armed attacks.

------
fellellor
Some of the most striking things about the show Narcos, are the amazing
visuals of Colombian cities and country. It's extremely beautiful. Which is
also one of the reasons why I found the depiction of the cartels and their
ruthlessness in the show to be pretty tragic.

If what this article claims about Colombia today is true, then I'm very happy
for the country and it's people.

~~~
ChoGGi
If you'd like something with less amazing, but more striking visuals then give
Orozco el embalsamador a try (NSFW).

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0982908/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0982908/)

It's on youtube, but it doesn't have subtitles

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG60-lk0o_U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG60-lk0o_U)

------
fpisfun
I currently have a developer working for me in Colombia and am thinking about
making a trip there soon.. I've talked to some really smart people online from
there about topics like machine learning, it seems to be an up and coming
place for tech.

~~~
jpkeisala
How is the hour rate of Colombian developers usually?

------
jayess
I visited Bogota earlier in the year and I fell in love. I seriously
considered moving there! I'm going back later this year to spend New Year's in
Medellin. The Colombians were unbelievably friendly.

~~~
forinti
I visited Bogota in 2009 and scheduled only two days in the city. I regretted
that as it's a spectacular city, and quite cheap (taxis are everywhere and
really cheap). Food and coffee are excellent, and there are lots of
interesting museums to visit (Gold Museum and the Botero collection alone were
worth the visit). Only downsides were that service is usually very slow and
traffic is awful. And the Bogota accent is delicious if you speak spanish.

