heh, seems more stable than up there. Current president, Petro, is Colombia's first left president. Fine with me. Best health care in Latin America, I read that WHO ranks it in efficiency above Canada, the US, and Australia. Place we've rented the last few days, husband a retired gastroenterologist with a PhD, wife a retired nurse.
https://www.internationalinsurance.com/ ... lombia.php
Took a long semi-organized hike (ended up being about 16 km) up to a big mountain valley called El Silencio (The Silence) part way towards a 17,000 ft peak called Nevado del Tolima yesterday, that chiva bus is what was supposed to have gotten us somewhat close to the start of the hike but dropped us off early due to the road being deteriorated (First Lady opted out, thought it sounded too difficult, good thing, she never could've/would've dealt well with it).
Brought that up because I ended up hiking and talking most of the time with a fellow named Henri, former Colombian national police during the Escobar years. Turned 50, got his pension, now studying to get a law degree.
He didn't elaborate much about what was like, other to say he worked investigations in street clothes and that things were duro (hard). Seemed like a good guy. I already knew about the peace accord signed between the right-wing paramilitaries, the left-wing "terrorists", and the Colombian government in 2016 to end all hostilities, and he elaborated a bit on that, saying drug traffickers still active in remote areas out by the Venezuela border and in the south near the Ecuador border.
Part of me likes Colombia having such a shitty dangerous reputation, keeps things original without a bunch of outside tourists around all the time. When asked where I'm from and say Los Estados Unidos generally no response, don't think the US is highly regarded here, the Colombian civil war was a really fucking difficult time and US government was highly enmeshed in that. But almost the entire country is now stable, a young very health-oriented population seems happy everything is cool and people are really proud of what a beautiful fucking place it is. Often asked where we have been so far in Colombia, how long have we been here, what places are we going here next.
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