Background: Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and Venezuela). A 40-year insurgent campaign to overthrow the Colombian Government escalated during the 1990s, undergirded in part by funds from the drug trade. Although the violence is deadly and large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence, the movement lacks the military strength or popular support necessary to overthrow the government. An anti-insurgent army of paramilitaries has grown to several thousand strong in recent years, challenging the insurgents for control of territory and the drug trade, and also the government's ability to exert its dominion over rural areas. While Bogota steps up efforts to reassert government control throughout the country, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders.
May 9th 2008South America » Colombia » Santa Marta The guy who does Jean Luc’s spanish voice dub is a poor replacement for the sonorous manliness of Patrick Stewart. I think facebook status updates are not the most appropriate place to express ... 4 photos[full story]
May 8th 2008South America » Colombia » Cartagena For the many friends worried about us being kidnapped, don´t worry! We are not being held hostage! We landed Friday morning in Cartagena as planned, checked into our hotel in Bocagrande and got some ... 9 photos[full story]
May 6th 2008South America » Colombia » Taganga Another update...we are in Taganga, which is about 5-10 minutes just outside of Santa Marta, which is on the northern coast. To recap the last week or so, in San Gil, we decided to just go white wa ... 2 photos[full story]
May 5th 2008South America » Colombia » Medellin So another big city, and to be honest I have started running out of energy for this traveling lark (finally). My theory is that to properly get a feel for a city you either need friends there or at le ... 16 photos[full story]
April 27th 2008South America » Colombia » Manizales My next stop was in the lovely little town of Salento, an hour east of Armenia. The town is a typical pueblo paisa and full of colourful fronted houses around the main plaza and lots of people milling ... 44 photos[full story]
April 22nd 2008South America » Colombia » Cali When I went to meet the kids I was planning to volunteer with they were sitting quietly watching TV but I was immediately jumped on and hugged by 4 little monkeys called, Jhon, Yahaira, Nicole and Cri ... 25 photos[full story]
May 2nd 2008South America » Colombia » Cartagena Eens even kijken. Terwijl Joost zich ligt op te fokken omdat hij geen Youtube kan kijken (een echte junk) ga ik maar eens een update erop gooien. Het is iets van 30 graden buiten, maar ik ben natuurli ... [full story]
April 8th 2008South America » Colombia » Cali I arrived in Cali at the beginning of the month with exactly 31 days until I need to be back on the north coast for my lift out of here to central America. I wanted to work here for a while in order t ... 37 photos[full story]
April 30th 2008South America » Colombia » Bogota Wow I´m supposed to be partaking in a game of cards at the moment but I feel I should tell you a tad bit about my time in Columbia. It´s been great from start to finish. The thing that I noticed mos ... 23 photos[full story]
April 28th 2008South America » Colombia » San Gil Hello everyone,
Today we just arrived in San Gil, which is about a 7 hour bus ride north of Bogota. I think the road was more twisty than any road I have been on in Vancouver. Tomorrow we are goi ... 2 photos[full story]
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