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Colombia
Where the Andes meet two oceans
Colombia is the only South American country with coastlines on both the Caribbean and the Pacific, a green and mountainous land where the Andes fan out into three parallel ranges before dissolving into the Amazon and the grassy plains of the Llanos. It is a place of extraordinary biodiversity, second only to Brazil, and of a cultural vibrancy expressed in cumbia, vallenato, and the magical-realist prose of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Bogota, the high capital, sits on a cool Andean plateau, while warm coastal cities like Cartagena guard colonial walls beside the sea.
The three Andean cordilleras give Colombia a dramatic vertical geography, rising to the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated coastal massif whose Pico Cristobal Colon reaches 5,700 meters. Between the ranges run fertile valleys threaded by the Magdalena and Cauca rivers, the country's historic arteries. To the east and south stretch the lowland plains of the Orinoco basin and the dense rainforests of the Amazon. The climate spans tropical heat on the coasts to perpetual spring in the highland cities and snow on the highest summits.
Spanish conquest centered on the gold-rich highlands, and Colombia became the heart of Bolivar's short-lived Gran Colombia after independence in 1810. The modern country has endured a long internal conflict involving guerrillas, paramilitaries, and the drug trade, but a 2016 peace accord with the FARC opened a new chapter. Today Colombia is a rising regional economy and a magnet for travelers drawn to its coffee region, Caribbean coast, and the rich life of cities reborn from a turbulent era.