Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.
Colombians are a little touchy about their country’s reputation, and not without reason. The first or second night I was here I stumbled across a broadcast of “Clear and Present Danger” on cable, and stopped to watch it out of combination of curiosity and perversity.
I think that no reasonable complaint can be registered about the general subject matter. Colombia did and does produce a lot of drugs, and the US was and is actively cooperating in the suppression of that business, albeit less … colorfully … than was depicted in the movie. However, I thought that the shootout-in-Bogota sequence was pretty unfair.
Bogota
In the first place, Bogota is depicted as a dirty, dusty 3rd world hellhole. Now, I haven’t been there, but judging from Medellin I’d have to say that this is unlikely to be an accurate characterization. (Particularly of the parts of the city between the airport and U.S. embassy.) For one thing, Colombia seems to be a green and lush country, and for another Colombians seem to keep their cities quite tidy.
Water
In the second place, characters allege that the water is unsafe to drink. This is certainly unfair as regards Bogota, although water quality is actually a complicated question in Colombia. In the major cities, it’s supposedly perfectly safe. (I’ve been drinking the Medellin stuff by the gallon, and report no ill-effects.) I’ve also heard that, as a rule of thumb, the higher the altitude, the better the water: Bogota and Medellin are fine, Cali might be a little dodgy, and the coastal cities will kill you. But the notion that Bogota’s water is unsafe is frankly incorrect.
Food
Finally and most outrageously, the characters claim that Colombian food is like Mexican food. This is a complete falsehood. I bet there aren’t more than 5 places that make a decent enchilada in this entire country. Reasonable sushi is more prevalent that passable Mexican.
* * * * *
I seem to have drifted a bit from my original point at the end there, but you get the idea. Colombia gets a much worse rap than it deserves. My late-90’s copy of “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” lists it as a “5-star” country. The scale only goes to 5, and here is the description of that rating:
Hells on Earth
A place where the longer you stay, the shorter your existence on this planet will be. These places combine warfare, banditry, disease, landmines and violence in a terminal adventure ride.
As much as I’d like to promulgate that lie in order to burnish my adventuresome credentials, it just ain’t so. And from talking to Colombians, I don’t think it was so in the late-90s, either. Sure, the jungle is dangerous. Don’t go there. (Colombians don’t.)
