Dangerous Colombia - Myth vs. (my) Reality

That Colombia has a reputation as being somewhat unsafe is to understate the impression I’ve gotten once people heard I was heading to a land, which according to various sources is run by drug-lords, paramilitaries, kidnappers and/or corrupt politicians. Throw in the unexpected statistics, like that Colombia is the most heavily land-mined country on the planet and it seems miraculous that I have survived thus far.

How dangerous is it really? I can only tell what I and people close to me have experienced.

In all honesty, Colombia is probably the most dangerous place I’ve been to, but contrary to what one could think this has nothing at all to do with the current actions of the FARC or the land mines. Instead it is the prevalence of arms and drugs that makes it necessary to take certain precautions when being in Colombia. For instance, we (almost) never stay in Agua Blanca (our “slum”) much after 2 p.m.

Considering the measures that we have taken, I have only been on edge on 4 occasions thus far. Considering that I on a daily basis am moving about in a part of Cali which 90% of the city spends their lives ignoring this is a low figure. To state the obvious: it is entirely possible to be safe in Colombia, you just need to know how.

However, safety doesn’t attract news stories, nor is it exciting material for a blog, hence to illuminate what those 4 scary instances entailed (and maybe scare my mom) here are some brief descriptions:

4) A night-time party in Charco Azul
As part of our networking efforts to get to know people from all parts of Agua Blanca (inhabitants ca. 700 000) we got an invitation to a neighbourhood party in a particularly notorious part. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but for some reason it was impossible to decline the invite and off we went. It turned out the street was full of music and children and we had a blast (though we really early).

3) Walking (with guide) in the “Invaciones”
As a rule, when Joni and I are walking around in the Agua Blanca we have a local person with us as a guide/facilitator. On one recent occasion I and my guide walked into a recently “settled” area (a.k.a. “Invaciones”). I was acting totally cool because I thought she knew most of the young men eyeing us, only later to hear that she was scared but found comfort in my relaxed demeanour.

2) “Ride of the Valkyries” into Retiro
The two best pieces of travel advice for anyone going some place exotic is to

a) Eat your malaria pills

b) Stay away from motorcycles

The last piece was ignored last week when we wanted to visit a school in the area called Retiro. All our contacts in Agua Blanca said that this was a very dangerous area and when they strongly suggested that we ride to the school on motorbikes, we agreed. Good thing that we did. Most parts of Agua Blanca have good pavement and the people on the streets are usually old ladies or small children. As we neared Retiro we noticed that the buildings were in a very dilapidated state and that on most corners 2-3 men in their late teens or early 20’s were hanging. Most of them only managed to catch a glimpse of us before we were gone. It felt almost like being in a war movie; zooming through the streets, reaching our destination, jumping off, calling in our rides when we wanted to leave, jumping back on as soon as they appeared and driving off in a different direction than we came. The adrenaline was pumping and the only thing missing was some Wanger turned up loud.

1) A visit to the Jail.
You are probably most scared when you are surprised by something, and neither I nor Joni expected that we would end up in the municipal jail when we were visiting the coordinator for the local schools. In fact, her office was at the back of the main municipal building and to get to it we were lead into and through the municipal jail. This was without a shadow of a doubt the scariest scene thus far in Colombia. Jail cells so stuffed that arms are sticking out, reaching for us as we walked by. A boy standing in a corner, shaking his legs intensely and screaming. This was the closest thing to Dante’s inferno I’ve ever been.

Needless to say, afterwards we counted our blessings and were overjoyed to be leading the lives we do, getting the chance to see such things but not having to suffer them. Some however are not so lucky, which is the topic of the next post.