Colombia

If many of the police officers in Colombia appear to be disproportionately young, fresh faced, and non-threatening, it is because they are: many of the youthful looking men patrolling the streets of this country are not full fledged police officers but conscripts doing their term of national service. Each male in Colombia needs to register [...]

As I travel I pay special attention to the fishing methods of people living along coastal regions and inland lakes. Humans have been fishing since our species first wandered down to the oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers of out planet: we have been fishermen from day one. What is interesting to me is how little [...]

CARTAGENA, Colombia- “Is yellow fever common in Colombia?” I asked the vaccination specialist who was logging the pertinent details of my bio into a little yellow booklet that was sitting before her on a large desk. “No,” she replied sternly, “because we vaccinate.” “Is there malaria in Colombia?” I then asked. “No.” “Is there dengue fever?” [...]

Throughout the streets of Colombia you can find bicycles that have been rigged up with motors, essentially creating low horse power motorcycles with pedals. Putting a motor on a bicycle is perhaps the dream of any kid growing up in a bike riding culture, and I once tried in vain to put engines on my [...]

CARTAGENA, Colombia- Flooding is a part of life on the Colombian Caribbean. Each year the rains fall, the rivers rise, homes, business, people, whatever that is not securely fastened to the earth is carried away or other wise destroyed. When the floods come boats replace cars and people move to higher — or drier — [...]

Villa de Leyva is a sweet colonial city in the department of Boyaca in Colombia. The whitewashed colonial architecture, surrounding mountains and unique attractions draw visitors from Bogota during the weekend but it is a fairly quiet city during the week. It is easily reached from Tunja, with minibuses (6,000 Clombian Pesos) departing every 15 [...]

Free activities in Bogota, Colombia While Bogota is Colombia’s administrative and business capital it does not mean that there are not a ton of free things to do all around the city. This is a list of activities that a traveler can do in Bogota without shedding a peso. Museo Botero and Casa de la [...]

Mompos, Colombia – Something felt different when I stepped of the boat onto solid ground in Mompos. The first thing was that I wasn’t hounded by taxi drivers. I wasn’t bothered by anyone because no was around. It was the first time that I can remember in which I arrived in a town and wasn’t [...]

San Gil is a little city in Santander province of Colombia. Known mostly as a mecca for adventure sports enthusiasts, San Gil is still a great place to visit even if you have no intention of jumping off a cliff, paragliding, rappelling down a waterfall, or going white water rafting. Simply sitting in the plaza of San Gil [...]