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Originally Posted by Caligari
Colombia, was there for about 6 months total- one day we were walking into the center of downtown bogota and saw two dead guys lying in a huge pool of blood in the driveway of a gas station. drug cartel hit. a bunch of 8 - 10 year old school kids were all standing around giggling and pointing at the bodies. pretty creepy. bogota is too freaking huge for me, over 9 million people just way too much for my liking. And the humanitarian crisis from the idiotic drug war (financed by u.s.) has made for countless thousands of refugees. check out amnesty international's write up on colombia's human rights situation...
although i gotta say i really loved the colombian amazon. Leticia, Mocoa and a little further north, San Agustin...incredible. small town in a beautiful valley and they have these insanely precise stone statues and ruins of a mysterious nameless civilization which vanished before the spaniards got there.
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I am an American, I have not visited ColUmbia. I live in Colombia and have done so for 10 years.
I was in Miami last week, leaving little Cuba, Some one pulled besides the car in front of us and shot all 4 people inside with sawed off shot gun.
My first trip to Colombia was in October 98, visited Cali, and then Medellin. Medellin was so bad you could not go outside and look for taxi.
Cali was so bad you could not go into a nigh club that was not infested with Narcos.
When I moved here it was after Escobar and the start of the Colombian Drug War.
Medellin is one the most respected and visited cities in all of South America. It is known for flowers, clothes, some of the best underwear in the world, world class fashion models, video chat and of course very hot women.
Bogata is one of the largest cities in the world, it sucks, why, because I hate large cities.
Cali being the second largest city in Colombia is beautiful, although the infrastructure is just now being fixed.
Is ColUmbia dangerous, yes no doubt about it. are there kidnappings, yes no doubt about it. Who gets kidnapped these days, dumb ass gringos who wander into the mountains flashing money around or politicians.
I have lived here like I said 10 years and have never had anything happen to me. I have visited parts of Colombia where they have never seen a gringo before.. Am I carful, yes.
I have I ever been hurt YES, but it was by having my heart broken by a Colombian woman. I can tell you this, you have NO IDEA what love is like until you have been loved by a Colombian woman.
Is Colombia a good place for an american to live, depends on the American. If you have the attitude that you are going to live here, learn about the culture, become involved you will be fine. If you come with an attitude that you are better than Colombian or that THEY DONT HAVE REAL MONEY, DOLLARS you will be fucked and unhappy.
Drug war yes, And with the help of the US the country has gotten a lot better. Was it achieved by methods that liberals would approve of, Nope... But it works.
Ok finishing my book here, Colombia is great, it is complicated, hard to understand, dangerous for the ignorant, and a wonderful place to be if you can blend in.