Zika vs Escobar vs Vergara (Colombia)

That would be Colombia! Currently on an AC flight from Bogota to Toronto, scheduled for a 75min connection to the last flight out to YVR, however we were delayed 55min sitting fully loaded at the gate due to a "weight problem" (our best guess is some sort of non-passenger-baggage cargo as fuel, passenger wt and baggage wt shouldn't vary by much on a flight of close to 300 people)- so will prob miss it- at very least our bags which we need to collect will (we were concerned with the tight connection, and had asked for our bags to be prioritized, however they only offer this as a perk to business class and aeroplan with current balance >25K instead of by need) will update outcome before sending email: hate to admit it, but they managed to make up almost all of delay en route.

Our 12d itinerary was Bogota-Zona Cafetera (coffee-producing region)-Cartagena-Medellin. Overall, as always seems to be the case for various reasons, mixed reviews. Before arriving our fears were initially about safety, and then more recently Zika virus. No, we haven't changed our minds about not wanting kids, however more recently Zika has been linked with an at least 10-fold increase in Guillain Barre paralysis, of which I might at increased risk due to a family hx in my Dad (best answer to is there a genetic component to post-viral risk is "maybe a little"), for which Colombia is ground zero with the Health Minister having been quoted in late January as saying "last wk we had 15 cases, now it is in the hundreds with one Cartagena neurologist who used to see 3/yr, seeind 3/d". With this slope was on the phone ready to cancel, until I found another story stating a more acceptable 42 cases. Googled daily over next 2wks before leaving (thank you to Marcella, SPH diabetes centre Colombian dietitian for help with my spanish), it seemed that quote was an overcall of the rate of increase with about 100 cases out of 25000 reported Zikas in the country (still several fold higher than normal post-viral rate). So decided to take our chances, but be prepared. Permethrin- sprayed some clothing (kills mosquitoes on contact), brought lots of DEET and face, leg and bed nets,.

Zero risk in Bogota at 2600m (grey zone for Aedes Aegypti mosquito is 1700-2200m. next stop was supposed to be San Andres one of Colombia's 2 caribbean islands off the coast of Nicaragua- however rate of Zika infections there was 10x rest of country, and as solely an outdoor relaxation destination with little unique culture, decided to change this to the much more interesting Zona Cafetera (1500-2100m similar to Medellin and surroundings: therefore low, but not zero risk). This left only coastal Cartagena as high risk. Ended up seeing only 2 mosquitoes while there (both at airport)- I think the higher risk areas are the poorer outskirts and villages where standing water is much more common. Also never used bug nets. A few bites in Zona Caf and Medellin, but should be ok... There should be a better understanding of Zika & GBSyndrome before we head south again.

Some of you might be wondering if we were crazy to consider drug and guerilla- violence over-run, murder and kidnapping-rife Colombia to begin with. However since Pablo Escobar (personally responsible for over 4000 murders including ~30 judges) was killed by the govt in 1993, Medellin has gone from the most dangerous city in the world to safer than Baltimore, and with considerable govt gains against FARC guerillas, the country's overall murder rate is down ~75%, and in keeping with most of Latin America (still ~10x USA, 40x Canada). Colombia has dramatically remade its reputation, consistently near the top of recent up-and-coming destination lists. Still seems to be an unsafe destination for going out of the major cities and tourist routes (esp travel btw remote destinations, connecting btw major cities best by air)- which did eliminate some of my more exotic initial geographic thoughts. We ended up not only not having any problems, but never feeling the least bit unsafe, regularly "walking streets" in evening after dark, and hailing cabs randomly and easily.

So Zika and Escobar both struck out- what about Sofia Vergara? Well for both good and bad what she represents had a much more significant influence on our trip.Colombia is loud. Music (standard modern stuff) blasts well past 3am, if not all night, most nights of the week. 3 of our 4 destinations suffered from thumping bass ruining sleep (1st nite so bad that I tried to sleep with my own headphones with music on and shower running all night, earplugs and room switch attempts failed). Another hotel had construction starting 730am in the room next to ours despite our request for a quiet room. Add this to some mild altitude sickness in Bogota, and an adenovirus (so labelled as conjunctivits in addition to rhinitis) from either AC flight or kids hockey rink in Toronto which I then caught from JC led to one or the other of us being exhausted all but 3 days of the trip. On the positive side Colombia is very colourful, and the women aren't shy about displaying their considerable beauty [often surgically enhanced, esp posteriorly!]- probably more so than anywhere else I've travelled.

In many ways we were quite impressed with the modernity, culture, and livability of Colombia's cities. My impression of Colombia over the decades had been that it was a joke of a country. This was very wrong. It is neither a shelled-out recovering drug war wasteland, nor an Andean backwater similar to Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia (all fascinating tho), but instead a contemporary of Brazil (to which its popn of 45m is 2nd in SA), Chile and Argentina. It has very good roads, good cosmopolitan cuisine (esp Bogota's Macarena barrio where we ate at a red-velour-lined French restaurant, and medellin's very loud Parque Lleras in Poblado district) great museums (esp Bogota's Gold and Botero museums) with english translatn, and many daring modern sculptures (Bolivar riding naked horseback in the main squares of ZC's Pereira, and as a headless condor in ZC's Manizales). There also is some impressive infrastructure- esp in Medellin, where not only is there a metro, but also a new metrocable(car) line going 400m vertical up the slum-filled mountainside (and then beyond above the canopy) as part of a widely hailed successful integration of these prior Escobar-recruitment regions with the core of the city, credited with helping to reduce the levels of violence, and in addition being named by Lonely Planet as the world's cheapest siteseeing tour! Cartagena's historic wall-lined Colonial old city is extremely picturesque, a more polished version of Havana (where we were for a couple days after fleeing cheap Varadero all-inclusive in december- anyone who hasn't been there should go asap before it is overrun by Americans-maybe in one sense unfortunate, but as it should be given geography and history). We stayed a few km away in noisy high rise and seaside Miami Beach lite- Bocagrande suburb.

Zona Cafetera also deserves special mention (ironically, thank you Zika!). We stayed in the 2 medium-sized cities of Manizales (which has a fascinating ridge network-top geography, with amazing views and steep declines right off central artery) and Pereira, visiting the beautiful coffee-producing countryside during the days, and 1 evening at a quiet hot spring hotel. The small (but v.touristy on weekends) town of Salento is extremely picturesque (as is Guatape with nearby El Penol 200m monlith [30min staircase per guidebk. 7min15s with daypack for me, then got gatekeeper to give me a 2nd try without pack-5m20s] 1.5hrs out of Medellin- we'd suggest visitors spend a night in both).

So that pretty much sums up our trip. We'd definitely recommend Colombia for travel, but with above caveats. My Spanish continues to improve much less effortfully than my Mandarin...

Hasta la Proxima,

Stu & JC