Why Colombia
Colombia is one of those destinations that goes beyond the bounds. Where most South American countries offer one or two signature landscapes, Colombia stacks a dozen of them: a Caribbean coast dotted with golden colonial cities, the Andes cut into three parallel mountain ranges, a coffee area classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Amazon forests, coral islands and tropical plains where jaguars and tapirs live. All this in one country, a ten-hour flight from Paris.
For a long time, Colombia existed in the French imagination above all as a setting for a narco-thriller. That reputation is now history. Medellín, the most dangerous city in the world in 1991, has reinvented itself as a creative capital celebrated around the world. Bogotá pulsates with a food and culture scene that rivals Buenos Aires or Mexico City. And Cartagena de Indias, with its flower-filled alleys and 16th-century ramparts, has been on lists of Latin America's most beautiful cities for decades.
What surprises the traveler on arrival is the human warmth. Colombians carry a sense of hospitality that goes beyond politeness: you are adopted, you are invited, you are explained. The party is never far away (Colombia has several carnivals classified as intangible heritage by UNESCO), nor is the music (salsa in Cali, vallenato on the coast, cumbia everywhere). To travel here is to accept to be carried away.
