The Colombian Comeback

Colombia comes back by promoting culture, tourism

Jim Farber
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

You have to give Colombians credit for nerve.

They’ve just launched a new ad campaign — meant to combat the country’s ruinous image as a haven for drug lords and guerrilla rebels — which kicks off with the line, “You run a risk when you go to Colombia.”

Naturally, the TV ad, currently running on CNN International, ends with a tourist-friendly punch line: “The only risk is wanting to stay.” But there’s something admirable about the country’s willingness to confront the elephant in the room right off the bat.

That’s not all Colombia is doing to try to broaden and update people’s awareness of a country that did indeed rate as one of the world’s most dangerous places as recently as six years ago.

Of the nearly 50 installations adorned with information about Colombia, perhaps the most telling displays written testimonials from a globeful of tourists who’ve traveled to the country with great pleasure and without incident.

I did exactly that last month, visiting the capital, Bogotá, the warm Caribbean city of Cartagena as well as Medellín — a vastly improved place from its days as “murder capital of the world” back in the 1980s and ’90s.

In a dizzying week, journalists hosted by the tourist board got to speak to czars of the media, fashion and music. Although most of those folks were clearly putting the best face on the place, they didn’t sugarcoat the country’s continuing problems.

“It’s much, much better than it was,” said Benjamin Frieventh, editor of Colombia’s most respected news magazine, Semana. “But things still happen in some places.”

Under the administration of current President ­Álvaro Uribe, the insurgent FARC movement has been greatly diminished from its fearsome peak — accounting for the president’s approval rating of between 70% and 80%.

But even in its enfeebled state, FARC still controls remote parts of the country, and its campaign of kidnappings continues.

photo/Getty

Castillo de San Felipe, the city’s historic guardian

In Medellín, we met a woman who only recently had escaped violence in the jungles to seek the safety of the city, while in Cartagena, a representative of the tourist board told the tale of his own father, who’d been kidnapped by FARC in 2000 and held for six years before escaping.

But the violence didn’t reach all corners of this country of 46 million people. In Cartagena, where we began our visit, it was relatively rare even during the nation’s darkest days.

CARTAGENA

The historic city’s gorgeous mix of Colonial Spanish architecture, and the Republican style that followed, inspired a level of reverence that seemed to insulate the place from the country’s worst problems.

Still, because of Colombia’s poor image, cruise ships shunned the port for years. As few as 20 a year would dock in the ’90s. But in the past half-decade, that has changed to the point where this year will see a peak of 191 ships sailing into port, according to local guide Luis Ernesto Araujo.

There’s plenty for tourists to view when they get here, even if some elements threaten to glitz up the place. (Two years ago, the first Hard Rock Cafe marred the town.)

Still, the charming and narrow streets of Cartagena’s prized old section will remind Americans of New Orleans — only with Spanish wooden terraces subbed for the American city’s French ones of wrought iron.

Caribbean colors of aqua, daffodil and cantaloupe adorn the tidy, squat houses, all of which seem to be weighted down by the impossibly dense Caribbean air. You don’t breathe air like this. You gulp it.

To get the best, and fastest, survey of the city, ride up to Convento Santa Cruz de la Popa, a 15th-century church at the city’s peak. Several hills below lies the Fortress of San Felipe (Castillo de San Felipe), the main..................full story here