"Colombia - Travel Warning, March 26, 1998
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens
against unnecessary travel to Colombia. Violence by narcotraffickers,
guerrillas, paramilitary groups and other criminal elements continues
to affect all parts of the country. U.S. citizens have been the victims
of recent threats, kidnappings and murders. U.S. citizens in Colombia
are currently the targets of kidnapping efforts by guerrilla rebels. Since
it is U.S. policy not to pay ransom or make other concessions to terrorists,
the U.S. government's ability to assist kidnapped Americans is limited.
U.S. citizens of all age groups and occupations have been kidnapped, and
kidnappings have occurred in all major regions of Colombia."
This was the sort of thing Susan was reading, back in Canada, while
Grant was heading to Colombia. It made for a very stressful time. Originally
the plan was for Grant and Max to head through Colombia to Venezuela,
but after much investigation as to shipping options from various locations
back to Miami, eventually they decided to just fly from Bogota. Excerpts
from e-mail at the time convey the mood:
Grant: "Try not to worry too much, we'll be fine. Got more pepper
spray, and so does Max now. Max got really security conscious and bought
pepper spray, mace, switchblade and a pen that shoots a .22 cal. bullet!"
This was guaranteed to relax Susan's nerves!
Grant flew out of Bogota to Miami on 8 April, 1998, safe and sound with
the bike.
He hasn't written much about Colombia, perhaps he wrote so much about
Ecuador that he tired of writing!
Apologies to the people of Colombia if this sounds negative. As with
any country, there are safe places and less safe places, and it's always
bad news that makes the news!
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