“You must go to Colombia.”

Half of the travelers I met while in Panama told me to keep going south. They were coming from there, recounting beautiful beaches, the tallest palm trees they had ever seen, salsa dancing.

I had some free time before I had planned to meet friends from home in Costa Rica, so I decided to book a flight to Bogotá, where my Dutch travel homie had arranged to work at a hostel.

When I told friends and family I was headed there, reactions were mixed. Most were bewildered (my family). Surely not with the reports of crime and drugs!

I only had ten days, so decided to split my time equally between three major tourist destinations: the capital city of Bogotá, Medellín, the second largest, and Cartagena, a costal city on the Caribbean. I was impressed by the sheer size of the city; we took the gondola to Montserrate, so named after Montserrat in Spain, and saw the sprawl of the 10 million person metropolis. We sipped on cappuchinos at the cafe while watching the sun set.

The quality of the museums in Bogotá was impressive, many of them being free. I really dig countries making important museums accessible to as many people as possible, citizens or foreigners (I went to school in DC and London where the national museums are free, so I may be biased). After a visit to the Fernando Botero Museum I discovered my new favorite artist.

I was able to see the Museo de Oro for Pre-Columbian artifacts and Colombian National Museum as well, but regrettably did not go out in Bogotá. Reason 1: I had heard some random but messed up stories of crime the night I arrived. Reason 2: the city cools down at night and with my collection of sundresses, frayed shorts, and backpacker sandals, I didn’t feel adequately dressed to go out in the city. Reason 3: there was a bombing at the nearby mall where we had planned to go out.

And thus started a very eventful trip in Colombia.