Mon, 9 March 2015
Rather than cornering a travel blogger to wax lyrical on the tropical fruit available in Colombia, this week we speak to Briton Francesca Tarrent, a keen observer of Colombia. We talk about Francesca's recent journeys around Colombia which have taken her to the haunting and harrowing ruins of Armero, where, 30 years ago this year a massive landslide brought about by a volcanic eruption killing almost 20,000 people from a population of 29,000.
After Armero, Francesca visited the former country mansion of someone you might have heard of, Pablo Escobar, the former global godfather of international cocaine trafficking. His finca, Hacienda Napoles, located near to Puerto Triunfo was once an opulent structure where he housed tropical animals and entertained his visitors. Only this week, the main building collapsed putting paid to the possibility of an authentic museum to illustrate the havoc wreaked by Escobar.
And finally, our conversation turns to that of the elitist nature of Colombian society with a discussion about recent events involving a character named Nicolas Gaviria which has dominated debate with the hashtag #ustednosabequiensoyyo (do you know who I am?) in the Colombian national press. For more information about this story, read on http://www.richardmccoll.com/
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