View of San Pedro Claver church from Paseo de los Mártires, Cartagena, Colombia

"I am Miss Colombia"

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November 2nd 2007
“Yo soy Miss Colombia.”* The bold claim leapt defiantly from the text. My eyes flicked back up to the accompanying photograph. Catalina, the septuagenarian fruit vendor, undoubtedly had the poise of a beauty queen and certainly wore her age well, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Reading an in-flight magazine from cover to cover on a grounded plane, I had chanced upon an article about the p ... read more

South America » Colombia » Cartagena

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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... ... read more