http://shootingcolombia.com/

Published 2010-09-08 

In August 2010, close to 150,000 overnight stays were booked on hihostels.com. The top destinations were France, USA and Italy and the most frequent hostel bookers were the Germans, French and Spaniards. 

When it comes to customer ratings, two hostels achieved an amazing 100% satisfaction level: La Pinta Hostel in Bogota, Columbia and Seoul International Hostel in Korea. The countries with the highest average rating were Korea, Australia and Luxembourg. 

The destinations most in need of more allocation were New York, Rome and Munich. They were the top rejected destinations, which means that they showed the biggest discrepancy between supply and demand. 

Aerial view of a city in Colombia.

In a time of emerging-market juggernauts, Colombia gets little notice. Its $244 billion economy is only the fifth-largest in Latin America, a trifle next to Brazil, the $2 trillion regional powerhouse. Yet against all odds Colombia has become the country to watch in the hemisphere. In the past eight years the nation of 45 million has gone from a crime- and drug-addled candidate for failed state to a prospering dynamo. The once sluggish economy is on a roll. Oil and gas production are surging, and Colombia’s MSCI index jumped 15 percent between January and June, more than any other stock market this year.

This is more than a bull run. Since 2002, foreign direct investment has jumped fivefold (from $2 billion to $10 billion), while GDP per capita has doubled, to $5,700. The society that once was plagued by car bombs, brain drain, and capital flight is now debating how to avoid “Dutch disease,” the syndrome of too much foreign cash rolling in. Stable, booming, and democratic, Colombia has increasingly become “a bright star in the Latin American constellation,” as emerging-market analyst Walter Molano of BCP Securities calls it. Michael Geoghegan, CEO of HSBC, recently picked Colombia as a leader of a nascent block of midsize powers, the CIVETS (after the smallish, tree-dwelling cat), which stands for Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa. “These are the new BRICs,” he said.

There is something else that is now separating Colombia from the rest of the pack: in a region known to swoon for chest-thumping autocrats like Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and populist charmers like Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, this nation has come to rely not on personalities but on institutions grounded in the rule of law. Exhibit A: the election of Juan Manuel Santos as president. A former defense minister known as a technocrat, he labored for years in the shadows of his predecessor, Álvaro Uribe, the massively popular and seemingly irreplaceable leader. Uribe’s hardline policies against drugs and thugs rescued the nation from almost certain ruin, and his 70 percent–plus approval rating seemed to go to his head. But his aggressive, if undeclared, attempts to lobby the Congress and the courts to change the Constitution to allow him to run for a third term grated on the Colombian elite. Against all predictions, the Constitutional Court turned down Uribe’s reelection bid, a show of institutional nerve that struck a chord in a region still populated by tone-deaf leaders. “Can you imagine the Argentine courts saying no to Cristina Kirchner?” says Johns Hopkins’s Latin America scholar Riordan Roett of the populist Argentine president, who often has bullied the courts and cowed Congress into submission.

But saying no to Uribe was hardly an automatic s’ for Santos. Low-key and bureaucratic, Santos was often dismissed as a ventriloquist’s doll with no script of his own. Instead, pundits and pollsters touted the rise of Antanas Mockus as the new face of Colombian politics. It turned out that Colombians were not looking for personalities but continuity. Tellingly, all the half-dozen or so serious candidates ended up endorsing the basics of the Colombian equation: security, the free market, and a rules-based democracy. Mockus himself at times sounded more hawkish than Uribe, trumpeting his crime-busting credentials as mayor of Bogotá and vowing to give no quarter to guerrillas and terrorists. Voters apparently wanted the original policies, not a copy, and, absent Uribe, went for the man who made Uribismo work. Santos garnered a record 9 million votes, a triumph larger even than his predecessor’s 2006 landslide. “Whether on security, democratic stability, or vibrancy, the strength of Colombia’s democracy is there for all to see,” says Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas.

Santos makes an unlikely warrior. He is the scion of a powerful Colombian family—his great-uncle was president (1938–1942), and for decades his relatives controlled the country’s largest media group, El Tiempo. Santos trained as an economist at Harvard and at the London School of Economics. Before Uribe, he served as trade minister and then as finance minister, sponsoring tough pension and tax reforms and slashing government spending to beat one of Colombia’s worst recessions on record. But it was in defense, where he executed Uribe’s iron-fisted “democratic security” policy, that Santos made his mark, shedding the image of a bureaucrat. He launched precision raids on guerrilla outposts, including a predawn strike on a FARC encampment in the jungles of neighboring Ecuador, in 2008. That attack flared into a diplomatic incident in the Andes but also killed a top FARC commander, known by his nom de guerre, Raúl Reyes. In 2009 his security forces also rescued several of the guerrillas’ trophy hostages, such as former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Grateful as voters are, that war is not over. The guerrilla groups, though down, have not been routed, and street crime has spiked in Medellín and Cali. Some 3 million to 4 million people are said to be homeless after years of clashes between security forces, paramilitaries, and narcotraficantes. And while the economy is growing again (at 4.4 percent a year), Santos inherits the second-highest rate of unemployment on the continent (12 percent); 45 percent of the population under the poverty line (17 percent in extreme poverty); and a cold war with neighboring Venezuela that has crippled relations with Colombia’s biggest trading partner after the U.S.

No one seems more aware of the challenge than Santos. While praising Uribe, Santos quickly sought to distance himself from his prickly mentor with a coded message of truce. Barely had the votes been counted when he announced a government of national unity and named job creation, fighting poverty, and building houses as his priorities, while also rebranding the government’s master policy from democratic security to one of democratic prosperity. And even as he declared that he and Chávez were like “oil and water,” he made a clear peace gesture to the Venezuelan leader by naming Maria Angela Holguin, a former ambassador to Caracas, for the delicate job of foreign minister.

Can Santos turn Colombia’s prestige into international cachet? Until now, his countrymen have been too consumed by internal battles to look much beyond the border, and Colombia has neither the wealth nor the clout to rival Brazil, where the charismatic President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is still sopping up all the diplomatic limelight in Latin America. But while the neighborhood colossus seems bent on punching under its weight by courting tyrants (like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and keeping Western nations at arm’s length, Colombia is gaining kudos and clout. Prospering, democratic, and pro-Western—and with a new leader known more for his achievements than for his aura—the most conflicted nation in the hemisphere is now coming into its own.

In March in the otherwise staid Plaza Bolivar, hundreds of 3-foot-long ants appear to skitter up the imposing Colombian Congress building.

On a recent Saturday, feathered warriors, stilt walkers and dancers strut and gyrate and flash their way down one of the city's main avenues in a display of bawdy jubilance that rivals the most extravagant Mardi Gras parade.

And on Sundays, traffic on 75 miles of normally jammed thoroughfares miraculously vanishes, making way for thousands of free-wheeling cyclists.

The days when Colombia's bad-boy image as a land of narco-terrorist turmoil are waning. Officials are actively courting tourists with the slogan "The Only Risk Is Wanting to Stay." And nowhere is the transformation more apparent than in its capital city. An increase in flight arrivals from the USA makes getting here relatively inexpensive. A boom in international hotel chains (as well as budget lodgings) is beefing up a once-anemic tourism infrastructure. And an exuberant cultural, nightlife and dining scene is luring foreign visitors who previously considered a trip here as tantamount to scheduling their own kidnapping.

What a difference a decade makes.

Nationally, Colombia is touting eco-adventures, such as birding and whale-watching, and forays into its coffee-growing regions, along with beach and cultural tourism. (Cartagena, the Caribbean jet-set paradise of the '50s and '60s, has undergone a renaissance after years of neglect.)

But thanks to Bogotá's emerging status as a Latin American gateway, most visits begin in the sprawling city whose eastern edges scale the lush wall of the Cerros Orientales. The city is home to 8.5 million residents, but most visitors stick to the colonial downtown area, La Candelaria, and affluent northern neighborhoods with high-end shopping, dining and nightlife. In between is the International Center, with its high-rises and bullring, a remarkable 1931 brick structure that accommodates 25,000 spectators.

"Little by little, Bogotá is becoming an important Latin American city — not only because it's a business hub, but because of cultural activities and restaurants," says Jaime Echavarria, the U.S. director of Proexport Colombia, which oversees tourism promotion.

Locals are upbeat about these developments and seem particularly welcoming to the growing number of foreign visitors and residents.

"This city has so much to offer," says Michelle Yopp, an English teacher who moved here from Tampa in August. "I've never felt uncomfortable here."

Still, the U.S. State Department warning against travel to the country persists, despite somewhat softened verbiage. It's "something we have to live with for the time being," Echavarria concedes.

Tourism rebounds, residents return

Nevertheless, in 2008-'09, foreign-tourist arrivals were up almost 11% (at a time when tourism dropped 4% worldwide). And almost a quarter of those visitors were from the USA. Many credit Colombia's turnaround to tough security measures taken during Álvaro Uribe's eight-year presidency. In Bogotá, a series of reform-minded mayors have injected new vitality and order.

"There's a tourism boom going on. New restaurants. New hotels. It's not Denmark or Sweden, but it's coming," says developer Abdon Espinosa, walking along a northern street lined with Dolce & Gabbana, Bulgari and other international luxury brands.

In the past five years, 25 shopping malls have gone up, he says. Sidewalk tables fill a pedestrian-only area called the Zona T that by night is jammed with youthful throngs strutting to pulsing club music. In its colonial center, artists and others are moving into once-derelict buildings.

As in other big cities, there's homelessness and street crime. And security appears to be a thriving industry — it's not unusual to see armed military personnel on the streets, and private guards conduct cursory bag checks on customers entering some establishments, for instance.

"Bogotá has problems, like any other city. But a decade ago there was a feeling of being under siege and that's gone," says Mike Ceasar, an American journalist who last year opened Bogotá Bike Tours. "The war (against narco-terrorists) hasn't directly impacted tourists for years, and I've met lots of students who've come down here for holidays, senior citizens, theater groups and honeymooners."

Many affluent residents who, weary of kidnappers and drug lords, fled the country in the late '90s, are returning. And a creative culinary scene has emerged, led by talented chefs such as Leonor Espinosa, owner of Leo Cocina y Cava, where native ingredients fuse Spanish, Indian and African influences. The inventive chef pairs lobster tail with sweet red pepper sauce; whitefish ceviche with coconut milk vinaigrette and mango puree; and blends corozo, a tropical palm fruit, into her signature martinis.

Pride blossoms along with the arts

The city also boasts a vibrant performing-arts scene. This year's just-ended Ibero-American Theater Festival (held every two years and catalyst for the grand parade) attracted about 80 theater companies from 40 countries, the largest contingent in its history.

La Candelaria, which, despite its status as Bogotá's colonial heart, had become a seedy backwater, is re-emerging with new boutique hotels and budget hostels in rehabbed historic buildings along its warren of cobbled streets. (Though locals still warn you to watch your belongings by day and take cabs by night.) It's a youthful district populated by several universities. It's also home to a fine collection of 12 museums, including the stellar Botero Museum, featuring Colombia's premier artist, Fernando Botero, along with works by Picasso, Miró, Degas and others.

Also here are Bogotá's 19th-century cathedral and important government buildings, including the Colombian Congress, where earlier this year, local artist Rafael Gomezbarros affixed hundreds of giant fiberglass ants to its monumental façade. It's a curious sight. But for many, no more unexpected than the metamorphosis of the city itself.

"Fifteen years ago, people didn't like Bogotá— not even the people who live here," says Espinosa, the developer. "But something curious happened. And now, everybody is proud of this city."

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-04-15-bogota-colombia_N.htm

The tours are conducted by professional guides from the Tourism Police, who aside from ensuring the safety of participants, take pride in describing the sights to the smallest detail. Included in the sightseeing are the small plaza of Chorro de Quevedo, the Santa Clara Church Museum, the Mutis Astronomical Observatory, the Bolívar Plaza, the Environmental Axis, the Hermitage of the Third Order, the Journalist’s Park, and the Torres del Parque apartment complex.

The Bogotá walking tours are an excellent opportunity for becoming acquainted with the history of the Colombian capital. A characteristic that makes this service special is the fact that the guides are trained to adapt their discourse to specific publics: children, families, English-speaking tourists, senior citizens, disabled people, and youths.

http://www.colombia.travel/en/international-tourist/where-to-go/bogota-culture/bogota-news/543-walking-tours-a-new-option-in-bogota