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On Location: Beyond Netflix – PAX finds “the real Colombia” with agents & G Adventures
"Hey! Terminator!” shouts a microphone-wielding rapper in my direction.
The performer with red highlights, wearing an oversized hoodie and rose-coloured sunglasses, is one half of a hip-hop duo that’s improvising rap lyrics, on the spot, based on whatever, or whoever, happens to be within earshot.
I turn to the stylish street performers, whose swagger, in a sea of wall graffiti and shoulder-to-shoulder tourists, has caught my undivided attention. Smiling cheekily, they're playfully flexing their biceps at me. By “Terminator,” they mean me.
I’m no Schwarzenegger, but at six foot one, with broad shoulders and calves of steel, I suppose I could be mistaken for a cyborg assassin from the future. Hey, it’s my first time in mountainous Medellín, Colombia’s green and clean city. I’ll take it.
The freestyle rap, supported by a looping hip-hop beat, continues. “Arnold Schwarzenegger! “Arnold Schwarzenegger!” chants the one holding the mic, his Spanish voice booming through a small speaker that’s wrapped around the shoulder of his tank-top-wearing amigo, whose job is to extend a hat and collect Colombian pesos from whoever in the audience is entertained.
I toss them a $20,000 bill (the equivalent of roughly $7 Canadian) for the 30-second show, and in a deep Austrian accent, I lean in and say: “I’ll be back.” Fist bumps and high fives seal the deal, everybody cheers. The rappers disappear into the crowd, possibly in search of their next “Terminator.”
Visiting Comuna 13 is like going to a roaring street carnival.
The dense neighbourhood of brick and cement homes, stacked together like matchboxes, is a multi-level melange of souvenir vendors, tattoo parlours, art galleries, stilt walkers, break dancers, children scrambling with soccer balls, thumping Latin beats and funky hipster bars overlooking the city.
The district in Medellín’s western fringe, which is wedged into the side of a mountain, is a mecca for tourists. Crowds, in droves, will climb the neighbourhood’s uneven, winding roads and stairways to catch street performers in action and to take selfies in front of the area’s many graffiti murals.
The urban hot spot, in today’s context, is a portrait of tourism at play. But it wasn’t always this way.
The world’s most dangerous neighbourhood
Not long ago, during the ’80s and ’90s, Comuna 13, or “San Javier,” was considered one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in the world.
Even for locals, the hillside hood was long a no-go zone, where drug traffickers engaged in daily conflicts with the army, police, gangs and guerrilla groups.
It’s a complicated story of murder and corruption, but the idea to “clean up” Comuna 13 hit in 2002 when the Colombian government, under the direction of newly-elected President Alvaro Uribe, decided to intervene, sending in armed helicopters and more than 1,000 soldiers to expel urban guerrillas from the district.
Dubbed Operation Orion, the controversial move was portrayed as a way to bring law and order to Comuna 13. But some locals may tell a different story. The military operation, which unleashed days of gunfire, left thousands of innocent civilians injured, killed or arbitrarily detained. Many remain missing to this day.
Comuna 13 was left broken, but residents found the strength to move forward. Following the military siege, a local movement sparked. The community, including graffiti and hip-hop artists, self-organized, giving younger generations safe outlets to express themselves through art and dance.
The year 2006 saw further transformation. Residents living in ramshackle homes were given utilities, like clean water and electricity. The city also invested in infrastructure, adding a cable car (to provide essential transit up the mountain) and outdoor escalators, saving residents from having to climb some 350 steps to get home.
The arrival of tourism, coupled with the power of art, eventually turned Comuna 13 into the safe playground it is today. But it was the locals who made it a reality, my Medellín day guide, Juan Carlos, tells me.
“The changes happened because of the people,” he says. “People were tired of the violence. It’s the people who embraced the changes.”
All aboard the Colombia Express
The revitalization of Comuna 13 shows just how a community-based approach to urban development, and inclusive tourism, can improve the lives of residents in marginalized neighbourhoods.
It’s one of many stops PAX made recently on a multi-city tour of Colombia with 13 Canadian travel advisors and small-group tour operator G Adventures.
Our journey from July 10-18 – one of five trips offered this year through G’s trade FAM program, which agents have to qualify for – was called “Colombia Express.”
The nine-day tour, led by local experts, takes travellers on an eye-opening ride through Bogotá (Colombia’s capital), Armenia, Salento, Medellín and Cartagena, from Colombia’s high-altitude Andes regions to the Caribbean coast.
Why showcase Colombia? “It’s a bit of a hidden gem,” explained Jenna English, G’s global purpose specialist (GPS) for British Columbia and Northern Territories, speaking to PAX, which covered the trip exclusively. “A lot of people will come to South America and do Peru and Ecuador, but unfortunately, there’s a negative stigma about Colombia.”
Made-in-Canada G Adventures, where the average traveller age is 51, sells nine different itineraries through the “gateway to South America.” But they all share a common thread: that Colombia is ready to welcome travellers, and operating safely.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about Colombia is how diverse the country is. Encompassing the Andes, the Amazon, the Caribbean, moorlands and valleys, and a fusion of Indigenous, Spanish, African and Caribbean backgrounds, Colombia is like six countries in one, each offering different experiences.
G’s FAM program, meanwhile, is a chance to show agents how “smoothly tours operate” (the company, after all, has been perfecting transformative travel since 1990), and to “highlight the good that tourism can do for communities,” English explained.
G Adventures, a community tourism pioneer, uses a “Ripple Score” to show its guests the percentage of money it spends locally on hotels, restaurants and transportation.
In Colombia, our locally-owned accommodations ranged from three to three-and-a-half star hotels to even a resort-style, family-run hacienda, Hostería Mi Mónaco (formally a coffee farm) in lush-green Armenia.
When travelling with G, guests see firsthand how communities directly benefit from tourism dollars. It's an experience that transforms tourists into travellers, who are often left with a sense of responsibly to make a local impact.
This is why showing travel advisors a re-emerging destination like Colombia is also “an opportunity,” English said.
“This country can really grow its tourism, and G can be a monumental operator,” she said.
Beyond guns & drugs
Spanish-speaking Colombia, since the early 2000s, has made strides in boosting its security and stability, while making areas more attractive for both locals and visitors.
The 1980s and 1990s were rough years for Colombia, a country located in northwest South America that's made of up flat lowlands and the Andes Mountains, bordered both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Mass tourism declined during those turbulent decades due to rampant drug trafficking, violence, and political corruption. The public’s negative perceptions resulting from those high-profile challenges still impacts tourism to this day.
But since the early 1990s, Colombia has tried to tell a different story, reviving its tourism sector by promoting its cultural heritage, culinary scene, lost kingdoms, adventure activities, unique exports (like coffee, flowers and emeralds), warm climate and biodiversity (the country ranks first in the world for its bird and orchid species).
The historic signing of a Peace Treaty between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla group in 2016 also marked the start of new chapter for the country.
These negotiations, which aim to achieve non-violent solutions to resolve conflicts, are still ongoing. However, they have helped deescalate the public-facing violence that, once upon a time, gripped the country.
Local tour guides will tell you that Colombia, today, is a safer and calmer place compared to two, three decades ago.
“I’m going to show you the real Colombia”
Colombian cities are generally safe for visitors who exercise caution and adhere to common sense, such as avoiding walking alone at night and safeguarding personal belongings.
Still, the world seems to be obsessed with Colombia’s dark past. If you’ve spent any time on Netflix, chances are you’ve crossed a slew of TV shows, documentaries and movies about Colombia’s high-profile cocaine industry, and Pablo Escobar, a now-deceased drug lord and narcoterrorist who founded the Medellín Cartel, which dissolved in 1993.
While these productions are, at best, outlets for entertainment, they don’t accurately reflect the Colombia of today. One could even argue they go as far as perpetuating negative stereotypes.
Then you have films like Disney’s 2021 movie Encanto, an animated feature that tells the story of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live in Colombia’s magical mountains (which G’s Colombia Express tour covers in depth, by the way).
Sweet and charming Encanto, unlike the gritty Escobar dramas, celebrates the positive aspects of Colombian culture, such as dancing, music, vibrant clothing and stunning landscapes.
So then, what is Colombia really all about? This is where the power of experiential travel comes in.
"On this tour, I’m going to show you the real Colombia,” said Luis, our Chief Experience Officer, or CEO (G’s term for tour leader), addressing our group at a welcome meeting on our first night in Bogotá, a melting-pot city of eight million people, covered in street art, located some 2,640 meters above sea level.
Through the eyes of a local
G’s CEOs are the heart and soul of a G Adventures trip.
Luis, who was born in Bogotá and now lives in Cali (a Colombian city known for its salsa dancing) was not only our travelling Wikipedia for the week (on all things Colombia, he had all the answers), but he also handled every logistic, from helping us order food in Spanish to securing transfers and tickets to attractions to finding us ATMs with the cheapest fees. Luis made us feel like family.
Above all, he offered us a local (and honest) perspective about his homeland.
“Colombia is known all around the world for its drugs and violence,” Luis tells me later in a sit-down chat. “But behind this, there's a real Colombia. A culture of dancing, food, music and coffee. Most people say we are one of the most happiest countries in the world. That's the real Colombia. It's not the Colombia seen in the news, or in TV shows, like Narcos.”
Colombia, we learned, is an untold story of geographical and cultural beauty.
Like the rolling emerald hills of the Cocora Valley, where majestic 200-year-old wax palm trees kiss the sky; or the sweet and citrusy aromas of a Colombian coffee bean that was picked for quality over quantity; or the sight of a vivid street mural, a symbol of social and political reform; or the crunch of a succulent pork rind, smothered in fresh guacamole, the ultimate supper starter; or the taste of a juicy mango, one of seven varieties in the country; or the roar of cheers that fill a city when Colombia’s soccer team scores a goal.
Different regions, different rhythms. Welcome to the real Colombia.
What are PAX’s top takeaways from Colombia? Stay tuned as we bring you more on-the-ground content from G Adventures’ “Colombia Express” tour.
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