Half of Colombia is forgotten

There is a huge area of Colombia that even Colombian don't care about

Every time you as a foreigner come to Colombia, your trip (for tourism and business) will be based in Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla or any other major capital city. Your staying there will be more than enough, you will enjoy and get a complete outlook about the beauty of the country and insight about how life is here.

You can go to a major city and expect a more vivid experience, good night life and business opportunities (Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla, Cali): you can go tho the country side and relax and be surrounded by a calm landscape of fresh and organic foods (Boyar); and you can go to middle size cities and enjoy a mix of the stress of a city but with the mentality of a little town, everyone being kind and still attached to their place (Quindio, Bucaramanga, Manizales, Santa Marta).

But if you look at the map, all this cities are the center, north and west of the country. There’s a clear gap that display that a HUGE part of the country is “empty”, and by this I mean lack of development and investment (compared to the other regions of the country).

Just look the map of the major cities in Colombia:

You can clearly see what I mean. And geographically and historically it can be explained.

Short and incomplete answer is the presence of the Amazon rainforest that won’t allow the rapid and complete establishment of medium/big economic centres. And its true, we are fortunate enough to have part of the amazon rainforest and all biodiversity it comes with.

But that’s not the complete story; Colombia is and exceptional place, the capital city was stablished in the middle of a mountain. Just think about it, how difficult could it be since 1500 to govern a territory from the top of a mountain. It displays, since the first moment of Spanish establishment here, that the ability to properly govern was being done from people in the middle of the country, without a complete understanding or reality check about the different regions.

And that’s what happened. The political class that governed the territory were families and oligarchs that based their lives in the middle of Colombia, their real influence were merely political, not to economical or based on trade. Just imagine the hardships to move around goods and services to all country, governing in the middle of the country.

Compare to other South American capital and main cities: Caracas, Rio, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Lima. They are all coastal cities and can clearly see that the importance of their economic influence, they were the main open to trade with the world.

That’s a overview of what could explain the lack of development in this areas of Colombia, even further, we can almost divide the country with a straight line and see that almost half of the territory is unknown to many of my fellow Colombians, they won’t even know the name of the “departamentos” even less the capitals.

Anything under the line doesn’t have the development the other regions of Colombia have seen.

Don’t get me wrong, I and not saying it’s empty territory and nothing is happening there. Im just saying that historically and culturally, those regions have been left behind.

And it’s good for you to know that. This will give you a clear understanding about what to do in every region of Colombia.

The departments Im talking about are: Caqueta, Guaviare, Vichada, Guainia, Vaupez and Amazonas.

Definitely as a tourist attraction you can go, but its a tourism more similar to a crossing trip were you’ll be completely surrounded by nature and beautiful sightseeing. As a retirement from the stress of the cities and if you deeply enjoy connection with nature, you can definitely come visit. I promise I will make more articles about this region.

I just like you to get a good overview about Colombia and don’t come here as someone without the enough experience to completely enjoy tourism and business. For example, if someone tells you to come to Bogota to connect with nature and retreat from city stress, he’s obviously lying.

You need to know that here, as any other place in the world, there’s a place to make business, to relax, to enjoy nature, etc… I am only guiding you to get a better idea of where to look.

Keep in mind if you want to get more insights about your coming here, for tourism, business, ventures and anything, I provide you a complete guidance one on one with you. You can book a consulting with me by clicking here.