Colombia.........the gem of the ocean ?
Did the narcos put down their guns and pick up paint brushes ? So, we've been in Colombia for about 3 weeks, arriving in Santa Marta and making an excursion to both Medellin and Jardin in the interior. It's totally interesting and nothing like we imagined, although we're not sure what we imagined (or have we been watching too much Narco on Netflix?). Imagine Vail with the per capita income of Bangladesh..... To prepare for our three months here Kirstin and I have vastly expanded our knowledge of Spanish (doubling our vocabulary from 25 to almost 50, often mispronounced, words) and we've read several books on that narco trafficking rock star Pablo Escobar. While he met his fate in 1993, the mayhem he unleashed didn't subside until relatively recently. Now that FARC (a Spanish acronym for the main revolutionary army) has taking a break also, tourism is growing exponentially. There are narco tours in Medellin for crime/history buffs, hotels opening everywhe