So here we are, in Colombia. Our first new continent together. This is exciting. This is exhilarating. This is dangerous?
We’d originally planned to skip Colombia. We had thought it was dangerous and decided it wasn’t worth our while. But then we started thinking… upon entering Mexico many people advised us against going. We had a great time. We had a phenomenal time. So why should we skip Colombia if we didn’t skip Mexico?
The more important questions is why do we, as people, typecast entire countries when we know so little about them? All I knew about Colombia before I started preparing to go there was what I learned from watching Clear and Present Danger. Is that really fair, probably not.
So here we are, in Colombia. There are dangers here, just as if we were going to New York or Detroit. There are also beauties to behold…from volcanic mud baths along beautiful beaches to mountain vistas and more whitewater than you can shake a stick at. The people of Colombia are actually rated as some of the happiest in the world (although the statistician in me is at at a complete loss for how one calculates happiness.)
A few weeks ago, we were sitting on the island of Utila in Honduras. This was before we were rocked by an earthquake and before Honduras ousted their president. We were speaking with some people who were headed to the USA in the near future, planning to road trip the east coast in just a few weeks. I asked what their plans held and for the most part there was nothing surprising. But then they said they planned to spend 10 days in New York and just 2 in Washington, DC. I asked why such a short time in a city where all the tourist attractions are free and they told me that Washington was just too dangerous for them…after all, it was the murder capital of the country… in the 1970’s.
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