Juan Convers

Last month, I had the privilege of returning to one of my home countries with my family, and we used this trip to visit some of the most beautiful places Colombia has to offer. I always tell my friends and acquaintances that if they visit the country, one of the most memorable spots is the coffee-growing region — in particular, the "Valle del Cocora" (Cocora Valley) with its unique wax palm trees.

I've had the chance to visit several countries around the world, and this spot is still one of my favorites. During that trip, we visited Salento and took a Willys jeep to the Valle del Cocora. Once I was there, hiking uphill through the wax palm tree forest, I remembered why this place is truly special. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Colombia.

If you want to check out the exact place where that picture was taken, this is the point on the map.

With five votes in favor and four against, Colombia's constitutional court issued a ruling yesterday decriminalizing abortion in this South American republic. Given that like many of its neighbors, Colombia is a Catholic country, where the church and right-wing parties exert a strong influence in the judicial decisions, this is undoubtedly a landmark ruling that continues a trend that has already set its pace in Mexico and Argentina.

I am aware that the issue of abortion is quite contentious and generates many conflicting opinions, but that a woman who wishes to have an abortion (and who is going to do it in any case), can do it in a safe way, is a huge achievement, Well done!

I always believed one the main problems with the presidential elections in Colombia, held every four years, is the timing: They always coincide with the Football World Cup!. Football is an extremely popular sport in the country and when the national squad qualifies to the tournament, the country turns the attention away from everthing except to this event.

The previous graph generated with Google Trends Search Data, relate to this point at least on the online sphere: The Colombian people are more interested in searching information about topics regarding the World Cup, than topics related to the presidentials.

The first round of this election will take on the 27th May and the second round on the 17th June (the World Cup starts on the 14th). Just saying ...

Yesterday the the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.

I was really happy about this outcome because it's encouraging the international community recognizes the historical importance of this peace process and the prize keeps it on the highlight and put some pressure in all the parties to keep working to get a resolution.

I have been quite bummed this week because Colombia, the country where I was born, rejected last Sunday an historic opportunity to sign a peace agreement with the oldest guerrilla movement in the Latin American continent. It's sad that the people most affected by the conflict approved the accord while the voters who are safer in the cities decided to go to the NO camp.

Wikipedia contains an interesting article about emigration from Colombia. It has a constant phenomenon for political and economic reasons. The map and chart above shows the preferred destinations for the Colombians are USA, Venezuela, Ecuador and Canada. The data is a bit stale but nevertheless interesting.