Dani Bonilla is a Spanish filmmaker who currently has a YouTube channel in which he tells his stories, trips, and reflections. Seeing that many tourists ask the same question before traveling to Colombia, he decided to make a video in which he tells his story before having the opportunity to visit the city of Medellín where he was greatly influenced by what people around him said about it. to insecurity and violence in Colombia. "Of course, they couldn't be further from the truth", this is his story.
Although it didn't seem different to him, just another country, he didn't give much thought to what they told him and while in Spain he looked for the cheapest flight to Colombia and bought it.
In the beginning, he liked the idea of going to work in Colombia more and more, from what he had read from other people who had already been, they said that the people are incredible, the climate impressive, the food delicious and best of all for him, it was full of places to explore.
But that illusion remained until he told his friends and family. Well, in the opinion of his family, Colombia has not had a very good reputation in the last decades in Europe. The perception they had is from the ugly story that began in the 50s when an emerging market from the United States began to alter the economy of Colombians, this was the drug market. Where many people instead of working on the land as farmers or farmers, saw a great opportunity in the cultivation of marijuana and cocaine to later be sold in the United States. For this reason, his parents and friends from Spain, during his youth, were only used to hearing bad news from this country, such as the terrible crimes of drug trafficking, the wars against the FARC, or people who had to flee the country.
All this created a concept of Colombia, in the minds of the people of Spain, as a place of hostile land where everyone is a drug trafficker and life is not valued at all, now for him, they could not be further from the truth.
Before his trip, there were times when he thought about canceling it and simply losing the money but inside of him, there was something that told him that everything couldn't be true, that how in all countries there are good and bad people. He always had the feeling that he would meet good people just like anywhere else. He continued with his idea until it was time to go to Colombia, he reviewed in detail the requirements to travel to Colombia before saying goodbye to Spain and so he caught his flight to Medellín, one of the most important cities in the country. < /p>
On the plane, her nerves became noticeable, since she saw many Colombian people who were going to see their families but she did not see so many Spanish people, she had in her mind that “once I set foot on Colombian soil I would not trust anything nor of anyone, I was going to be with a thousand eyes so that nothing would happen to me ”. When he arrived in Colombia, after getting into the taxi that would take him from the Rio Negro airport in Medellín to the hotel where he was going to stay, he saw reality; he realized that the people of Spain “could not be more wrong.”
The taxi driver who took him to the city was “an incredible person”, a hard-working paisa who made this profession to be able to pay for his studies as a mechanic, the city of Medellín that he imagined as a dark, dangerous and full of people with bad looks turned out to be a city of light, alive in every corner, full of nature, good atmosphere and especially with very good people, for him all the Colombian people he met in this city were very attentive, kind, open and happy
The supermarkets in Colombia seemed to him full of exotic food and fruits, like guanabana, which he had never tried since it cannot be found in any supermarket in Spain. He was also surprised by the good infrastructure of both roads and the internet, and shops, and it turns out that in all the streets I walk through both day and night, he did not feel unsafe at all, he even felt even safer than for many of the streets I walked when I lived in London.
But not everything is rosy, in his video he tells that as in all parts of the world there will always be bad people. Although he stayed in the town, a very touristy area, there are some areas of the city where they did not advise him to go, such as the communes, but for him, it is not that different from other cities in the world that also have dangerous areas such as "the famous bronze of New York".
In any other country there is the possibility of robbery or kidnapping but he emphasizes that this does not depend on the vast majority of people, people in Colombia have a normal life, just like him or any European. A life in which they are happy with their family, their work, or their home.
After living in the city of Medellín for a month and a half, all that remains is to say that this city is a magical place, the people are incredible, its landscapes are moving and it is a place worth exploring and traveling. By the end of his stay, he felt completely comfortable moving around the city, in his normal clothes, with his mobile in hand, working on his computer in coffee shops, taking taxis to explore other places and wherever he went, people were “He was amazing.”
Lastly, the advice he gives is “As they say in Colombia, you won't have any problems if you don't give papaya, this means don't do anything stupid and act with common sense. The best of all is that I am not the only one who fell in love with Colombia, all the people I know who have traveled share the same opinion of this country, which is an incredible and exceptional place.”
In conclusion, he says that "People tend to be very quick to judge but very slow to reflect, the past of Colombia and Medellín has been dark, no one is going to deny that and the danger of something bad happening can be real, but that is only a very small part of the truth, if something happens on the news people exaggerate it or blow it up. That is why I tell you from now on, Colombia is a country that has turned the page, that is evolving at an incredible level, and that its people were the victims of circumstances but not the cause.”
“If for some reason you are thinking of traveling to Colombia, do not pay attention to what other people think, do your research, talk to people who have lived there and I assure you that you will not regret it”
This was Dani's story, about how his unforgettable experience in Colombia. If you have also visited this country and were left with the same perception, I invite you to share this article with your loved ones so that more people around the world change the mistaken concept in they have this country and are encouraged to visit it, because "they are missing the opportunity to have one of those most enriching experiences of their lives.”
If you want to see Dani's video, I'll leave it here along with his social networks for you to follow. Thank you for reading this article.
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