Colombia

Medellín has had a terrible reputation in the past – due to the drug cartel led by the infamous Pablo Escobar, it was once dubbed the most dangerous city in the world. Thousands of innocent civilians died in the 1980s and 1990s due to the business of cocaine. After Escobar’s death in 1993, however, the city started to get back on its feet, and over the past two decades there have been humongous changes. It is not a city totally devoid of crime, but crime rates have fallen in huge numbers, and I for one felt safe in its streets.

Now, as the second biggest city in Colombia, it is a city of beauty and culture; surrounded by mountains, it offered us blue skies and green landscapes. Although we only had a few days there, we filled our days with as much as Medellín could offer. There are many things to do in Medellín, but here are just a few of the things we enjoyed.

A photo essay from around South America, of all my favourite shades of blue.

“Captain?” I tried to make my whisper heard above the ocean’s many sighs and groans. He stirred, his eyes finally opening. He was seasick, too. When the captain’s seasick, you know it’s bad. “I think we’ve changed speeds.”

He came on deck to check the dials.

“Yes, we did, thank you for waking me,” he yawned once, stretching his arms out over his head. “We’re just sailing into a squall.”

Without looking for it, we found blue everywhere in Cartagena – in the walls, the skies, the seas, in the beaded necklaces and the words of poets. But far from melancholy, it was electric. It was, like everything else in Colombia, full of passion, full of vigour and joy.

  Guatape, Colombia There is a little town in Colombia called Guatape. Found just a couple of hours from downtown Medellin, it’s famous for La Piedra, a huge, 200 metre rock that’s…

Tayrona Park, Colombia There are few places in the world as beautiful and idyllic as Tayrona National Park. I spent three days there last August, basing my life on the rising and…