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While it is mostly Colombians who are the victims of kidnapping, the status of being a foreigner does not mean you are safe. In the past couple of years, 28 Americans have been reportedly kidnapped in various parts of the country. Victims have included tourists, journalists, scientists, human rights workers, and businesspeople.

According to a Colombian I met on the plane, if you run across a roadblock and the nice gentlemen are wearing leather boots, that means it is the army who is subjecting you to a search. If the boots are rubber, then they are guerrillas. Either way, experiencing a roadblock search is not a fun experience—but at least the army won’t kidnap you!

Of course, there is also the cocaine problem. Colombia is the world's leading producer and distributor of cocaine, generating between 75–90% of the global supply. Cocaine, which is the most potent natural stimulant found in nature, is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant of which Colombia has a considerable amount. On a street in Bogota, a man tried to sell me a huge bag of coca leaves, apparently to make tea. I was pretty sure that attempting to bring a bag of coca leaves into the United States would have bought me some serious time in front of a judge, so I politely declined.

Yet, despite all this, Colombia isn’t necessarily a bad tourist destination. Anyone who believes what they see on “Miami Vice” reruns and assumes that Colombia is a country full of guerrillas, murderers and drug lords should visit Bogota or Cartagena.

In both of these cities, I saw people driving around with their car windows open—a big no-no in a lot of South American cities—and women walking around wearing “bling-bling” gold necklaces and diamond rings although I wouldn’t recommend this.

I had a fantastic time in Bogota. It was the 466th anniversary of the city, and there was a lot going on. It seemed like a strange anniversary to be celebrating—466th?—but I guess any excuse for a parade and party will do. I encountered no problems at all and never felt like I was in danger, but the military police, army, city police, bomb squads, etc. were everywhere. In fact, there were gun-wielding guards on virtually every street corner, and it seemed like there was a police substation on almost every block.

After spending some time getting to know Bogota, I took a one-hour flight—instead of a 20-hour bus ride—to the coastal city of Cartagena. Cartagena is more like Disneyland than the Colombia portrayed in the news and has subsequently always been referred to as “Disney-lombia” in my conversations back home. It is rumored to be the most beautiful colonial city in the Americas and is Colombia's most popular Caribbean destination.

In the old town, there are shady plazas, narrow cobblestone streets, overhanging balconies, churches, and ramparts from colonial times. A day trip to the Fuerte San Fernando via water taxi is an experience that I recommend. Other than the persistent t-shirt, necklace and sunglass merchants, nobody bothered me at all in Cartagena, and I felt safe 99.9% of the time—even on the streets at night.

In Colombia, I flew between destinations on the national airline, Avianca, which is very modern and comfortable. Besides being faster than buses, flying seemed like a good way to travel because nearly every travel advisory I’ve seen strongly recommends against any rural road travel due to the omnipresence of guerrilla and paramilitary groups. Despite this fact, I’ve heard from many travelers that traveling by bus overland in Colombia can be done. An acquaintance of mine went from Venezuela through Colombia on to Ecuador by bus and did not have any problems on the road. Though she did mention, as a side note, that five gunmen held everyone at a hotel in Medellin hostage for a short time. All of the guests had to strip to their underwear and then wait in a room while the thieves stole all of their stuff.

In the end, I left Colombia without having a single scary encounter. Unless you count getting back through customs in the United States, my whole trip went off without an incident. In the customs line, the customs official took one look at the countries I had visited, and I was immediately routed to the “special” line where a rather intimidating officer questioned me for an extended period of time.

My favorite part of the interview was when she said they were “randomly” interviewing people and asking why they traveled where they did. I took Criminal Procedure classes in law school—there’s no such thing as random when it comes to these interviews.

At any rate, the moral of the story is that Colombia can indeed be traveler-friendly. However, there is no easy answer to the question of whether visiting Colombia is “safe.” It’s all relative and boils down to how dicey you like your travel destinations. As with any endeavor in life, there are risks—the statistics are just a bit worse than usual in Colombia.

Amy Loftsgordon is a contributing editor at InsideOut Travel Magazine and works as a lawyer in Colorado, though she much prefers airports to courtrooms.

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