People are constantly asking me if Colombia is safe or not. It’s the most common question from those thinking of coming to
Colombia. I am sure many are put off coming by the overwhelmingly negative image which this country has.

The below are my opinions with regard to these issues. Opinions from six years living in this country and having met
thousands of travellers in Colombia, and having visited a lot of this amazing country. As the country's latest tourism ad says,
''the only risk is in wanting to stay''

Firstly I am happy to say that I have, as yet, never been robbed, kidnapped or murdered in six years travelling/ living in
Colombia. I have travelled by bus from the south to the north and from the pacific coast to Los Llanos and never experienced
any problems. I have taken over fifty night buses.  I have been stopped only once by the guerrilla, but that was on a bus route
that very few travellers take: Medellin-Quibdo. They neither robbed nor kidnapped anyone from the bus.  That was also four
years ago and the guerrilla group that stopped my bus, the EPL, are now a part of history.

Yes it is true Colombia was a pretty dangerous place several years ago but that was then and this is now. No one travelled to
Cambodia fifteen years ago, same with Croatia. now those places are firmly on the tourist trail. Colombia is heading in the
same direction. Murders, for example in Medellin which were running at 6,000 a year in the nineties are now at less than 10 %
of that or around 600 murders a year. Also most of those murders occur in the poorer neigbourhoods and are in there
majority murders between rival drug gangs or disputes over women. Talking about Medellin. There have only been two
robberies of people staying at this hostel and over 6000 backpackers have been through these doors in that time. One of
those robberies is also pretty dubious. A guy walking back drunk from a club at four in the morning said the police asked him
for some money and since he had none he gave them his T-Shirt. The other was in a crowded street by some pick-pocketers
during the biggest festival of the year. They are in all seriousness the only two problems people staying in my hostal have
encountered in the three years we have been open. Robberies are so uncommon that if someone comes to me and tells me
they have been robbed I'm generally very dubious. In April, 2008 the only time in the past year or so that someone told me
they had been robbed I asked for further details so shocked I was that someone could have been robbed in this
neighbourhood.. after further prodding I found out that the girl was just making it up, she admitted so, because she needed a
story for some money she had lost previously to make a insurance claim with the police.

With regard to bus travel, I have been told personally of three problems encountered by people travelling to Medellin in the last
three years. They are. 1. During elections last year on a bus from Cartagena to Medellin two travellers and the rest of the
passengers were asked to collect there belongings, luggage and get off the bus as it was stopped by the guerrilla. The bus
was then burnt to send a political message to the Govt. But not one passenger was kidnapped, hurt or lost there stuff. 2. An
American guy arrived on an overnight bus from Cali to Medellin. He was sitting next to a friendly old guy who during the
journey offered him some cookies. The cookies as it turned out were laced with the date-rape drug and the guy was practically
unconscious for the next several hours until someone woke him up at the terminal. He had been robbed of his money and
camera. 3. A Dutch traveller and everyone else on the bus was robbed by a fellow passenger on a journey from Bogota to the
coffee country and on to Medellin. She lost some money and that’s it.

The most common problem travellers run into in Colombia is street robbery in La Candelaria in Bogota. However I believe
some of the hostels there have now hired a security guard for the street during the night so that may help a bit. Other trouble
could be had when buying drugs in certain areas. The sellers of drugs may be working with the police to set up travellers. So
buy at your own risk. In Taganga the police are pretty dodgy and are known to set up backpackers and then charge them
money to stay out of jail. Don't do drugs in Taganga or anywhere for that matter. Once you start messing around with drugs
your chances of getting into trouble go up a lot.

While there are areas of Colombia that one should not travel in most travellers would have never heard of these places. They
would be along the Ecuadorian border except the main Pan-American highway. Along the Venezuelan border but not Cucuta,
Puerto Inirida or Puerto Carreno. Also south of Villavicencio (Los Llanos), and west of Medellin and around the Panamanian
border. Between Pasto and Tumaco on the Pacific Coast, but north of Buenaventura on the Pacific Coast is safe.

Basically its safe to say that the paramilitary (right wing) groups are not at all interested in kidnapping backpackers. Its also
safe to say that neither are the FARC or ELN (left wing groups), not that you should try them out though. The last kidnapping
of backpackers occurred about three years ago when several trekkers doing the Ciudad Perdida trek were kidnapped by the
ELN. They were however released unharmed after mediation from the church three months later. There have been no
problems on that trek since. If the main guerilla group, Las FARC, wanted to kidnap a backpacker, they would. But its just not
worth it on there part. Too much publicity. The govt is hell bent on turning Colombia into a tourism superpower. They would
not respond favourably to a foreigner being kidnapped.

Petty crime directed at tourists is less of a problem than in many other South American countries. However one must be aware
of those around them in Bogota around La Candelaria where many people are robbed of money, credit cards etc.

To summarise I personally feel pretty safe in this country. My parents and sister came after a bit of convincing and were also
surprised as to how safe the place seemed. There is no need to take planes between major cities. Travelling by bus is easy,
cheap and safe.

I would recommend though to not take night buses on the following routes though. Medellin-Quibdo; Medellin-Turbo; Popayan-
Ecuador; Popayan-San Agustin. Don't walk around Bogota at night on your own. Get the taxi straight to the hostel door. Don't
go buying drugs. Don't get into trouble with the police in Taganga. Don't take food or drinks from strangers on the bus. Don't
take your eye off your small bag on the bus. Don't slam the door when entering/ leaving taxis.

You can get into trouble anywhere/ anytime. Its as likely to happen in my perceived safe home city of Christchurch, New
Zealand as it is in Medellin, Colombia. Just take the normal precautions and its very unlikely anything too bad will happen.
Colombia's too dangerous!!, blablablablabla
sorry for the language, but bullshit!!!!!!!