I am also familiar with the hats.

[wanttobeatree]

I AM NOT GOING TO LIE, the 'do you know their ethnic background?!?' post that every single actor ever has on their imdb board is a source of ENDLESS AMUSEMENT for me. It's just so American.

*

So, hey, has anyone here ever been to Colombia?

There is a very slim chance that barthi and I will be going there, at some uncertain, expensive point in the

Comments

[elizardbits]

Oh dude. Colombia is srsly one of the most beautiful countries in South America, and definitely does not get enough tourist lovin'. It's still recovering from its shitty (but well-earned) reputation of the 80s, but these days the majority of the country is just as safe as any Western European country. I haven't been back there since I was like, 12 or 13, but unless they chopped down the mountains and turned the pacific and caribbean coasts into a massive car park, I think it's safe to say that it remains fucking gorgeous.

It has the usual wacky kind of S.A. geography, meaning you'll see ridiculously high snowcap mountains in one city, horrid sticky sweaty jungle in the next, and gorgeous balmy coast in yet another. Depending on what you want to see, I can give you better advice. Personally, I prefer cities like Cartagena and Baranquilla over Santa Cruz and Santa Marta (all of these are coastal cities), the latter two of which have grown kind of agressively touristy. I don't know how good your spanish is, though, so aggressively touristy might be more helpful. OTOH, more touristy tends to equal more expensive.

Anyway. Cartagena, on the northeastern coast, is unbelievably beautiful - 500 years old means it's definitely got its run-down bits, but I think that just adds to its awesomeness. It can get stupidly hot in the summertime (around 37°-38°), but luckily it seems to be a stopping point for all the caribbean tradewindy thingys (I believe that is the precise scientific term, yes), so there's always a good breeze. The cuisine relies pretty heavily on seafood, which is apparently fantastic if you like that sort of thing (I do NOT. feh.). Plenty of people speak decent to ok english, and are more than happy to use it, even if the result is giggly mutual incomprehension followed by lots of handwaving. Also, despite the shitty financial situation the world seems to be in, I suspect the pound will be strong as hell there. Better than the wretched dollar, certainly.

If you're looking at cities in the interior of the country, you run into the possible problem of altitude sickness. Not everyone gets it, and even if you get it once, you may or may not get it the second time around. It is sneaky like that. And EVIL. (I didn't get it in Machu frakkin Picchu, but randomly got it in Kunming, China. WTF, self.) Elevations can range anywhere from ~300m (Cúcuta, on the Venezuelan border) to 2,600m (Bogotá, right smack in the centre of the cordillera). This also means they'll have a tendency to get kind of cold at night, around 6°-7°. I won't go so far as to say that the interior cities are boring, but in terms of vacation spots, I think you'd fare better sticking to the coastal cities, on both the caribbean and pacific coasts.

ANYWAY. I've never been to Panama, but I have been to almost every other country in both South and Central America, so if there's anything else you want info on, let me know.

[ashen_key]

I. May steal this reply, if you don't mind me. I keep getting RP characters from Latin America, usually connected to Columbia in some way.