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Useful info you need to know before you visit Colombia

Costs

Colombia is a reasonably cheap country to travel in, provided you are traveling overland. Backpackers should be prepared to shell out US$15 to US$25 per day on average. If you want a more comfy trip, with midrange hotels, some better restaurants and a flight from time to time, you'll average somewhere between US$25 and US$45 daily. Some resort areas, especially along the Caribbean coast, have all-inclusive resort packages that cost US$100 to US$150 for two people, a good value anywhere. You can save money by going to free days at museums (often the last Sunday of the month), or using a student card when buying plane and museum tickets. Also remember that bus ticket fares are always negotiable. A little haggling can usually knock off around 20% to 30% of the cost, though you may need to shop around at the various bus company windows.

Money

Credit and debit cards are the safest and easiest way to access money in Colombia. Traveler's checks (Amex are by far the easiest to change) are safer than cash, though some US dollar bills may be useful.

Large amounts of counterfeit US dollars 'made in Cali' circulate on the market. According to rough estimates, about a quarter of all fake US dollars, virtually indistinguishable from the genuine article, circulating worldwide are printed in Colombia.

Generally, Bancolombia and the Banco Unión Colombiano are the banks to visit if you need to change money or do any over-the-counter transactions. However, you will find half-a-dozen other banks in most medium-sized towns that have ATMs.

Read more practical info about Colombia at Lonely Planet.

Colombia has significant natural resources and its diverse culture reflects the indigenous Indian, Spanish and African origins of its people.

But it has also been ravaged by a decades-long violent conflict involving outlawed armed groups, drug cartels and gross violations of human rights.

The fourth largest country in South America and one of the continent's most populous nations, Colombia has substantial oil reserves and is a major producer of gold, silver, emeralds, platinum and coal.

Overview

It also has a highly stratified society where the traditionally rich families of Spanish descent have benefited from this wealth to a far greater degree than the majority, mixed-race population. With few avenues for social mobility, this provided a natural constituency for left-wing insurgents.

But the lucrative returns from drugs and kidnapping now dominate the rebels' agenda, and have largely replaced ideological motivations. Peace talks with the main left-wing rebel group, the Farc, collapsed in 2002.

At the other end of the political spectrum are illegal right-wing paramilitary groups, who are sometimes in the pay of drug cartels and landowners, and backed by elements in the army and the police.

Efforts are under way to demobilise the groups, which have been particularly active in the north-west where they have targeted human rights workers, peasants suspected of helping left-wing guerrillas, street children and other marginal groups.

Read more at BBC News

About Colombia

Colombia officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia), is a constitutional republic in northwestern South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the northwest by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia also shares maritime borders with Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Colombia is the 26th largest nation in the world and the fourth largest in South America. It has the 29th largest population in the world and the second largest in South America, after Brazil. Colombia has the third largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico and the United States.

The territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous nations including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and Tairona. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonisation which ultimately led to the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (comprising modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama) with its capital at Bogotá.^[12] Independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 "Gran Colombia" had collapsed with the secession of Venezuela and Ecuador. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858), and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886.^[2] Panama seceded in 1903.

Colombia has a long tradition of constitutional government. The Liberal and Conservative parties, founded in 1848 and 1849 respectively, are two of the oldest surviving political parties in the Americas. However, tensions between the two have frequently erupted into violence, most notably in the Thousand Days War (1899-1902) and La Violencia, beginning in 1948. Since the 1960s, government forces, left-wing insurgents and right-wing paramilitaries have been engaged in the continent's longest-running armed conflict. Fuelled by the cocaine trade, this escalated dramatically in the 1990s. However, the insurgents lack the military or popular support necessary to overthrow the government, and in recent years the violence has been decreasing.

Finish reading about Colombia at Wikipedia.

Map of Colombia

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