Indeed, you remind me of my direct encounter with quite a few Venezuelan physicians/refugee peoples

from its upper/leading class while I visited Barranquilla, Colombia next to Cartagena, February last year,

not for the famous carnival but for the meeting, which is located rather close to the border to Venezuela.

And many refugees seem to settle in that area and also heard first-hand stories about how desperate

the situations in Caracas were, where they locked up the houses/apartments, asking the neighbors to take

after till they come back.

Even in a daytime, women, in particular, could NOT go out to the neighborhood for grocery shopping, etc

because of the risk of mugging if not kidnapping. It was very painful to listen to! 

Colombia and Venezuela were once one country so that they still share the same national flag.

Once again, I felt how lucky we are here in the U.S. though guns are everywhere here!

BB Lee

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-colombias-foreign-minister-sees-chaos-in-venezuela-fragile-peace-at-home

(How Colombia’s Foreign Minister Sees Chaos in Venezuela, Fragile Peace at Home)

I would like to tell you about Colombia many keep the wrong impression as I did till lately.

Indeed, I had a wrong impression to Colombia based on distorted old information to exaggerate the danger

related not only by FARC but also by notorious drug trafficking like Medellin drug cartel/lord through

the last decade- some friends advised me not to accept the invitation unless they send out a bulletproof limo

to the airport!-. But, I found out lately Colombia is an entirely different country from what I heard

through years with such nice surprise to me.

Due to such wrong information to scare me enough, I lied to Colombian friends- one of our USUHS fellows

is Jorge Ulloa from Bogota to have become a leading vascular surgeon in Colombia now! -

for many years not to accept their invitation to come to Colombia with many poor excuses. But finally,

I gave in to accept the invitation three years ago, August 2016, for the first time to come to Bogota, Colombia.

And I changed my impression completely to this relatively unknown country among many South American

countries. I assure you Colombia is rather safer than Mexico in general now and the risk involved in drug

trafficking is almost all gone, very much limited in a certain area - for example, Medellin is now as safe as

Bogota- and FARC is also pretty much settled (by the way, I had a chance to see such a historical event of

their celebration for an upcoming peace treaty with FARC while in Bogota 2016).

So, you certainly could include the travel through the major highway in NO danger from Cartagena to Bogota

along the Andes in a daytime to enjoy one of the world most spectacular sceneries of Andes.

Indeed, I think Colombia is one of the most beautiful countries I ever visited throughout the world,

enjoying every bit of it, including so many art galleries, museums like world-famous Botero’s museum,

churches, etc besides colorful old city quarter and many easy(?) hiking courses in the vicinity including

legendary Lake Eldorado where all the gold pieces were retrieved ( they are now exhibited at Gold Museum).

And of course, you could buy a world-famous emerald, if you happen to be a gem collector,

in a half-price for much better quality- many colleagues come to Colombia not only for the meeting

but for the wives to buy the emeralds as well. So, I strongly recommend you all to include Colombia

as one additional option to visit to enjoy not only Bogota but also Barranquilla as well, especially

on its carnival season to enjoy its world second largest carnival after Rio but more colorful they say -

I missed its peak on my last visit so that I plan to revisit for this carnival next year if the schedule

(2020 date: February 22 – February 25) should fit me.

Warm regards,

BB