Canadian surfer Brian Rea is living the dream. 

Having dropped out of university, he became a beach bum with a difference in Colombia. Using his skills and his brother Colm's knowledge they started the Costeno Beach Surf camp (www.costenosurf.com) along the Colombian Caribbean coast near to the pristine beaches of the Tayrona National Park. 

And the success story continues, running almost at full capacity all year round, later in 2015 these Toronto natives will be expanding their operations to include further palm frond huts and facilities for their guests in their corner of heaven.

Can it get any better you ask? Well, at the end of August Brian will be getting married to a Colombian pop star! People dream of this kind of lifestyle! Check out his fiancee Liliana's band Bomba Estereo when you get a chance. Described as psychadelic cumbia they are one of the most popular groups in Colombia at the moment (www.bombaestereo.com). 

But, it could have all gone terribly wrong just a few month ago as Brian was attacked by a huge crocodile after a surfing trip. Fortunately, he made it out alive and is here on Colombia Calling to share the tale with us. It's a jaw dropping account of survival, not to be missed!

I for one believe that there is a dearth of quality contemporary literature out there available about Colombia and while author Tom Feiling would clearly shy from the accolades at having successfully started to stop this gap, a routine search for informative and interesting books about this country would inevitably lead you to him. 

Feilings books "Short Walks from Bogota, Journeys in the New Colombia" (2012), and "The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over the World" (2010) are two fascinating books and are highly recommended. So we track down Tom in London and get to discuss his latest project set for publication in 2016 all about the history of the Colombian Caribbean island of Providencia. 

Check out Tom Feiling's website here (www.tomfeiling.com) and inform yourself on Colombia before coming to visit!

Joining us this week from Asheville, NC is David Seth Miller. To most travellers David will need no introductions as he's a familiar face on the travel writing scene as Matador's Senior Editor and Director of Curricula at MatadorU. Check out the Matador page if you don't know it and reap the benefits of some serious inspiration! matadornetwork.com

David is the winner of two consecutive Lowell Thomas awards for excellence in travel journalism (2010, 2011) and we get the opportunity to pick his brains about the travel writing industry, Matador and of course his new book out there available on amazon: "23 Writing Prompts that Make you Work Smarter: a radical approach to skill building for writers of all kinds". 

It's a real pleasure to listen to David's insights and this show is highly recommended for anyone possibly considering living the dream and becoming a travel writer/ blogger and so on. Find out how David broke in to the industry. 

And yes, buy the book!