Colombia: The risk is seeing your paradise go up in flames

We don't have to go too far back to find a time when Colombia was pretty much considered a no-go area.

At the turn of the millennium, only the true adventurous, nay mad in the head, would consider visiting the country as a tourist, let alone actually settle down and invest decent time and money in it.

For the last number of years, as most readers of this blog will know, this negative reputation has been rapidly changing.

Uribe's utopia

The peace agreement signed with the Farc guerrillas in 2016, officially ending over half-a-century of internal conflict between that group and government forces, was a significant moment in this regard.

Up in smoke: The damage caused to 'Finca Entre Ríos'.

Yet, as important as that has been at an official level, the truth is this viewing of Colombia in a much more positive light internationally had begun years before.

Unpalatable as this may be to many Colombians today, especially younger generations, between 2002 and 2010, under the hawkish presidency of Álvaro Uribe, the general security situation improved considerably.

Whether the ends justified the heavy-handed means — heavier on some violent types more so than others, it could be said — is something still being discussed today.

A home from home

Nonetheless, from a tourism perspective, visiting the many natural gems the country has to offer became much less risky, for locals and foreigners alike.

This trend, some hotspots notwithstanding, has been continuing.

Alongside increasing tourist numbers, a not-insignificant number of foreigners have made Colombia their home. They've voted with their feet in a positive way, demonstrating to those who care to listen that this place is not the violent backwater some in the more 'developed' world still think it is.

At times, however, the country gives us all a little reminder that it has a bit to go before we can compare it favourably with other, more established spots when it comes to investing in it. Quite a bit to go.

Para-dise's price

One of these more sinister sides is extortion, which reared its ugly head for fellow Irishman Patrick Fleming who has called Santa Marta his home since 2001. While we've heard stories of police being directly and unashamedly involved in this practice, this particular example is to do with suspected paramilitaries.

In some ways, that Patrick managed to avoid trouble for so long could be seen as good fortune. Paramilitaries did operate in the area in question when he first arrived, but nothing untoward had ever happened.

That aside, when your little piece of paradise on the Caribbean, a magical place visited by this blog last year, gets deliberately burnt to the ground at any stage, it's difficult to view it in a positive light.

In fact, after years developing his 'Finca Entre Ríos' at Paso del Mango on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where he provided employment for a young family, this arson attack now has the generally easygoing Patrick and his Colombian wife contemplating their future in the region.

The reason it happened is quite simple.

Pay or go?

Earlier in the year Paso del Mango's small community experienced a number of petty robberies. Shortly afterwards a hotel in the area was approached and asked to pay the dreaded 'vacuna', the word for protection money in these parts.

The community got together and decided they wouldn't fork out the cash to the extortionists. Extra police protection was asked for, which duly came. It didn't last, though.

As a further buffer, the community also managed to get additional army patrols, but again, the frequency of these soon decreased.

Thus, with little sustained help from state authorities, be it by accident or design, the rather secluded community was ripe for the picking. Cue the arson attack.

Now, it must be said that one man was arrested and charged in connection with the incident. Authorities seem content, by all accounts, that they've done their bit.

Yet, for Patrick and the Paso del Mango community in general it's a question of, 'What next?'

Mob rule appears to have taken hold, where the only options seem to be pay up or leave. The hope is that this retrograde step is just temporary.
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Santa Marta's serene surrounds

It's no major revelation to state that the main reason most tourists go to Santa Marta is to visit the attractions surrounding it. 

In other words, the city is a tourism hub solely because it's close to places of greater interest and beauty. (Its historic centre is quaint enough for sure and it has a bog-standard beach, but they're not necessarily crowd-pullers in themselves.)

Of the many places of interest in the region, the best known are, arguably, Parque Tayrona and The Lost City, La Ciudad Perdida. 

Indeed, by all accounts the latter has become almost too well known compared to our first and thus far only virtually-solo trek there back in early 2009. It's not that 'lost' at all these days so it seems. An inevitable result of Colombia's growing popularity that.

A quite refreshing dip ...

Nonetheless — and thankfully for those of us seeking less-crowded locations — the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, this being the mountain range that surrounds the city, still has plenty of fairly remote spots to discover. And we don't have to go too far out of our way to find them.

In fact, about an hour's combined bus and moto-taxi ride from the city centre, via the suburb of Bonda and the village of Masinga, there's the quite stunning Paso del Mango. 

Similar to rural parts of Colombia's coffee region, many of the farms (fincas) here offer peaceful, sustainable mountain living but with the special bonus of the beach, should you want it, being just a stone's throw away, relatively speaking.

However, considering just the trickle of visitors the place seems to get, you mightn't be too pushed to leave the tree-shaded serenity it offers.

The small rivers that race towards the Caribbean around here regularly have their flow interrupted, resulting in impressive waterfalls that call out to you well before you can see them.

Peaceful surrounds ...

Aside from being picturesque, the little pools they've created provide a very refreshing dip after trekking in the tropical sun — not forgetting the natural massage the cascading water provides should you wish. 

What's more, there's a good chance you'll have them all pretty much to yourself in which you can relax and unwind.

Speaking of unwinding, another plus point for us was that there was no mobile phone signal in the finca we overnighted in.* 

Seeing as how addicted many of us have become to our handheld devices, rarely disconnecting even when on holidays, a bit of forced rehab is a very healthy thing every now and again. (At the risk of ruining the image, we must point out here that the finca's caretakers, a young local family, do have cable TV. We were able to avoid that, though.)

Lying in pitch darkness, the gentle sounds of a busy nocturnal jungle and flow of a nearby river are therapeutic-like (interrupted by the odd dog bark albeit and, if things get sticky, you may have to turn on a fan. Nothing's perfect, eh?).

Altogether, the biggest pull factor Paso del Mango has to offer is its tranquillity. 

With a few other fincas currently in construction, there is a risk it might lose a bit of that in the coming years. Here's hoping it doesn't. 

We're all for development, but when we're talking about a paradise like this, keep it sensible, sustainable and in harmony with the natural environment. It's not too much to ask, is it?

*For more information about Finca Entre Ríos, visit Aluna Casa y Café.
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Introducing "our" Colombia

We all, those of us with links to the place at least, have our own views about Colombia and what it represents. There are, obviously enough, many ways to look at it.

Nonetheless, however you view it, do remember that it is ColOmbia not ColUmbia. For a country with so much to offer and seemingly growing ever more popular by the day, some outsiders still can't spell it correctly. Hence the line 'The only "u" that should be in Colombia is you.' Clever enough stuff, eh?

So as a helping hand in this regard, taking each letter of the country's name, here we give our — sideways, you might say — take on what Colombia is for us.

Changua: Not everybody's favourite. (Photo by Jorvato, Wikipedia.)

C is for changua

Admittedly this isn't the first thing people think of when linking the letter 'c' to Colombia. Most would more than likely go for the country's world-renowned coffee. (No? What were you thinking of, then?)

Yet, we're plumping for changua here, not only because we find it delicious, especially in combating a hangover (on the rare occasions we have one), but also because not many outsiders will know about it.

In fact, the changua we love -- a couple of cracked eggs cooked in milk with bread, cilantro (coriander) leaves, a bit of onion and perhaps garlic, ideally some cheese melted in as well, with salt to taste -- is pretty much a Bogotá speciality. It's hard to get that exact mix on offer in other parts of the country.

For most who haven't tried it, it sounds revolting. We have to admit, we thought the same. But it works, and works wonderfully if you ask us.

O is for office

One of the 'offices' ...

We've had a few offices scattered around the capital; they've generally depended on where we've been living at the time.

Basically, we're on about panaderías, the bog(otá)-standard bread and coffee shops. Delightful places to get an affordable coffee with milk (a perico) and snack-sized portions of fresh bread, all the better when they're just out of the oven. We call them the office as we tend to spend a good deal of time in them, be it to do some writing or other work, or simply just to chill out.

Giovanni's on Calle 32 just up from Carrera 5 in La Perseverancia (see below) remains a favourite even though we now live miles away from there. Max Pan in Barrio Santandercito and Vicky's in Barrio Nueva Zelandia are new regulars in our current north Bogotá base.

Lost City

L is for Lost City (Ciudad Perdida)

Colombia's Machu Picchu so to put it, but somewhat quainter and allegedly older. It's now over eight years since we visited this ancient indigenous settlement hidden away (well, not quite now!) in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta jungle off the Caribbean coast, yet it left a lasting impression.

Things might have changed a little since then, but we found the three-day trek to reach it more authentic, and certainly far less congested, than the more celebrated Inca ruins. While we're due a return, there remain other popular and not-so-popular beauty spots that we've yet to visit here; 'a lot seen, a lot more to see'. All in its own good time.

O is for Ordóñez

An important 'o' this, insofar as some people put a 'u' in here. Don't. That's a different place.

So rather than 'u for Uribe' we've got 'o for Ordóñez', the nation's former inspector general who's now a 2018 presidential candidate.

As mentioned in a previous post, in many ways Alejandro Ordóñez represents traditional Colombia, so he's worthy of inclusion here. That and the fact that of the country's political big guns, he's one of only a couple we've met, briefly as it was.

M is for mujeres

We could have used 'c' for chicas, but changua is far more important (and rewarding). So we'll mention the women, 'mujeres' here.

Colombia, of course, is well known for its beautiful women, but that beauty often comes at a price, in all sorts of ways. This is certainly the case for the majority of the ones we've tried to woo anyway.

We've practically written the book on that in a host of previous blog posts (you can start with 'Ignoring is bliss' and work back from there), so we'll say no more, other than try not to take things too seriously if you do get involved on this score. It's better in the long run.

B is for Bogotá

An obvious one, but it has been the base of our Colombian operation and it's a city that still exerts a strange hold on us.

When we do eventually leave the place, there are lots of things we'll miss. They're just not always easy to point out.

I is for IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz"

Self-serving this may be, but we're talking about our experiences in the almost six years we've been here, and IQuiz has played a significant part. Put simply, our labour of love.

Best buddies!

A is for Abril 

No, we're not referring to the month of April, which is abril in Spanish. We're on about the surname Abril, and more specifically our good friend Fernando Abril.

For sure, Colombia has many amazing and unique things going for it, but as in many walks of life, it's often the simpler ones that matter most.

In this regard, Fernando, his small tienda and a number of the clientele in the not-quite-salubrious surroundings of La Perseverancia have been a memorable find.

Yes, in other barrios we've found similar places, but Fernando's and the folk of La Perse are the original, the first 'true love' so to put it (with a worthy mention of a bar up Barrio Egipto way, the precursor to La Perse in a sense).

So that's 'our Colombia', one version of it anyway. Each to their own and all that.

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