Colombia

Five fishermen are sitting around on makeshift benches beneath a palm shelter behind Miss Sophie's guesthouse. They wear dusty cut-off slacks and baseball caps. It is nearly noon, they are back from the morning on the sea, and their boats bob on the wavelets just beyond the muddy beach at the end of the yard.

Leaving gentle Ecuador behind and entering this unpredictable land sent a chill of anticipation through me. Cocaine. Coffee. Cartels. That’s about all I knew about a country that has been deemed virtually off limits to travellers since ‘La Violencia’ in the 1940s...

Geography is a mirror: every nation sees itself in its natural places

Colombia is a land of the unknown and one of the wild frontiers of independent travel

This award-winning series is jam packed with up-to-date, in depth travel information and fascinating background details