Updated by: August 14, 2026
What Jose Taught Me About Colombia
At a Colombian travel conference recently, a room full of DMC’s took turns explaining what made their corner of the country worth visiting. Most of it was the expected pitch. Then Jose spoke, and it wasn’t a pitch at all.
He told us he didn’t love Colombia until he left it. He studied abroad, met other Colombians with a completely different view of their own country than the one he’d grown up with, and somewhere in that distance, he fell back in love with the place. He came home and started a business taking foreigners through it.
It’s a familiar idea that travel changes you. Less familiar is the other direction: sometimes you leave, and the place changes without you, and you come back to somewhere both foreign and entirely your own.
This week, Colombia changed again, in the worst way. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the western part of the country on August 10, the strongest to hit Colombia in over a decade. The death toll has climbed past 250, with hundreds more injured and entire buildings gone in Cali, Pereira, Quibdó, and towns near the epicenter in Chocó. A country that has already carried more than its share of hardship didn’t need this.
The Intrepid Foundation has opened an emergency appeal, matching donations up to AUD $30,000, with funds going to Patrulla Aérea Civil Colombiana for relief on the ground.
You can donate here: theintrepidfoundation.org/colombia-earthquake-appeal
If you can give, give. But if you want to do something that actually matches what Jose was describing, go. See the Colombia that made him fall in love with it twice. Tourism doesn’t fix an earthquake, but it tells a country that the rest of the world still shows up.
Colombia’s just moved higher on my list. It might be worth moving up yours too.
Paul Mercuri
Wake Up Here Founder
