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According to the UN Colombia's homicide rate is now below El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras (highest they list), Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela. However they list it as higher than its other neighbors: Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. As well as being higher than Mexico, Russia, or South Africa. Still it has improved and I think there are safer areas.
I was there six months ago. Walked and took taxis and bus in Bogota. Took aa long bus ride to Medellin and from there to Cartagena and Santa Marta, and then to the national park outside Santa Marta. Seemed very safe everywhere, but bus was stopped once by troops and everyone had to show i.d.'s.
I'd go back except for the way U.S. Customs/Immigration treated me upon return - searched everything, bunch of question why I went there etc. Colombia really raises a red flag with these people when you re-enter the U.S.
While in Ecuador on a trip there 4 years ago, I decided to venture north to the last town before you enter Colombia, where they have that famous cemetery with the tree/bush sculptures.
En route back, there were any number of security checkpoints, their thinking that everyone was returning from Colombia with drugs. Made me extremely nervous as all security checkpoints do.
En route back, there were any number of security checkpoints, their thinking that everyone was returning from Colombia with drugs. Made me extremely nervous as all security checkpoints do.
They do that to everybody, foreign or not foreign in Medellin. I do despise their security checks, I think they are excessive and ineffective.
US customs sometimes asks no questions, sometimes they ask a lot. Sometimes they open all your bags sometimes they let you go immediately. The most common questions are the reason of your trip and questions about your job.
What scares me about security checkpoints involving drugs, is the horrid fear, one day, some guard is going to surreptiously slip some drugs into my bag, while checking them, claiming it was in there all along.
I almost got the pants scared off of me during a security check leaving the Quito Airport one time. I had bought stacks of DVD's in the markets, and I was aghast as these guards, with nothing better to do, opened up all 85 of those DVD's with no plastic wrapper, took out the lining, sniffed and shook them for hidden drugs.
Gee whiz! How would I ever know that there weren't traces of drugs in those DVD's! An experience like that, is almost enough, after you're finally cleared, to say: Never again!
What scares me about security checkpoints involving drugs, is the horrid fear, one day, some guard is going to surreptiously slip some drugs into my bag, while checking them, claiming it was in there all along.
I almost got the pants scared off of me during a security check leaving the Quito Airport one time. I had bought stacks of DVD's in the markets, and I was aghast as these guards, with nothing better to do, opened up all 85 of those DVD's with no plastic wrapper, took out the lining, sniffed and shook them for hidden drugs.
Gee whiz! How would I ever know that there weren't traces of drugs in those DVD's! An experience like that, is almost enough, after you're finally cleared, to say: Never again!
Anywhere you go, including the USA you need to be careful with law enforcement workers since the law protects them and they feel they are allmighty and can give you a hard time if you rub them the wrong way. I think it's so ridiculous that they sniff stuff. It's like a lawsuit waiting to happen. During my last trip to Colombia they changed the machines and stop the sniffing nonsense. They also stopped opening closed bags (like snack packages) and breaking things in case there was drug inside , I guess these new machines detect drugs better but they still need a lot of training down there because they have no clue what they are doing.
Colombia is actually safer than most Latin American countries. The issues are mostly confined to Choco in the northwest, and some of the eastern and southeastern provinces. The major cities, are, with the exception of Tumaco and Cali, safer than most U.S. cities. Cali is about on par with Baltimore or Detroit as far as crime issues, so...pretty bad. The rest, however, is safe- and Colombian people are really friendly.
venizula is the most dangerous, colombia is next, per the colombians I work with.
if you go to SA, Brasil and areas of Bolivia and Argentina are recommended.
I'm going to Colombia tomorrow actually, and I don't have any worries. I'll just be visiting Bogota for a week, and I'll be visiting a friend and his family so I'll have Colombians with me all the time, knowing where to go, where to avoid, etc.
I'm not going to make any assumptions on the safety of the country, but I'm told by everybody I know, people who live there and Americans who visit often, that it is a very very friendly country and its safety is just comparable to most cities in the world.
I'll tell you if I don't get kidnapped or murdered.
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, I guess these new machines detect drugs better but they still need a lot of training down there because they have no clue what they are doing.
