Word: colombia
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...risking your life for a vacation?" a close friend said with a gasp, aghast when I told her I planned to spend my postelection holiday in Cartagena, Colombia. In fact, few of my friends seemed to think it was a good idea: I couldn't persuade any of them to share my rental house in the city's walled Old Town. If they had heard of Cartagena at all, it was only as the backdrop of the classic 1980s romantic caper Romancing the Stone, a place of corrupt juntas and bodice-ripper-reading drug dealers - a parody turned deadly serious...
...evidenced by the 400-year-old walls, made of mined coral, that encircle the city. But for all of Cartagena's battlements, in the modern era it has been plagued by crime, its potential as a UNESCO World Heritage site marred by kidnappings and murders. (See pictures of Colombia's guerrilla army...
...areas. Murders dropped from 66 in 2002 to just 23 last year, 10 fewer than in my hometown of Washington. Uribe then lobbied Washington to declare the city safe for U.S. travel, a designation that opened the floodgates to cruise ships. In the past five years, foreign visitors to Colombia have more than doubled, from 1 million to 2.6 million a year. From 2006 to 2007 alone, the country saw a 13.2% increase in tourism, which is now Colombia's third largest industry...
...private island for a luxurious, leisurely lunch at the hotel's gourmet restaurant under the mangrove trees. Another upscale island destination popular with the Colombian upper classes is Punta Iguana, which feels like a mini-South Beach. Less-expensive day-trip options dotted around the archipelago range from Colombia's version of a swim-up bar to a variety of touristy beaches equipped with cooking huts where freshly caught fish is simply but succulently prepared. Everywhere, women tout $8 massages. Beware if you're sunburned; sand and a vigorous rub can really chafe. In a few places, hawkers sell rough...
...Read "Colombia: A Make-Over for Stumbling Rebels...