i first came to k-town in the middle of the night to discover a strange and fabulous and delicious slice of america i had never known was there, but i'm trying to figure it out. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is a good place to both experience fantasy and reality. ♪ the air, explosives and food? you can't beat that. ♪ the stands are in the street, random strangers bring you delicious foods. it's a great country.

♪ i took a walk ♪ through this beautiful world ♪ i felt the cool rain ♪ on my shoulder ♪ dancing in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ ♪ colombia, ordinarily and for all too many years, when this country makes the news or

appears in a film or television drama, it is not for the looks which i should say right up front are speck ttacular. it is not for the people who everyone i have ever met anyway, warm, proud, generous, and fun. or for its food which is truly great. i don't know what this is, but it is good. the food in this country, excellent. ♪ i'm no stranger to this place. generally speaking, it's a particularly vibrant mix of spanish, european, afro-caribbean, and indigenous people. these are deep waters, my friend. no news story or episode of "miami vice" has ever come close to navigating. it is and always has been a fiercely, fiercely proud country, and its people yearn to see international coverage of something other than cocaine and violence, but that isn't a

legacy that's easy to ignore. its decades of civil unrest have left vast swathing relatively unknown, even to its citizens. to reach a place previously considered a no-go area, i'll fly out of an airport of in villavicencio outside of bogata. on first inspection, this is an airplane boneyard where unwanted props of "romancing the stone" corrode artfully. but in reality, this sleepy han gar is a gateway to the more impenetrable parts of the country. the remote settlements in the amazon basin are cut off from the country, with neither rail nor roads connecting them. there are only two ways in, either boat for several days downriver, or aboard a jungle

bus, which is what locals call the world war ii era dc-3. >> i've flown worse. >> i have been brought here by pablo mora, a teacher at medellin university, and a student of the classic. >> you take this flight before? >> yes, every chance i have. it's a romantic thing. >> he sees the work these hulks great airships and their pilots do, as daredevil humanitarian missions for the more remote colombians? >> they have an in-flight movie? >> no, nor first class either. >> what? >> no, no. the planes travel with their own mechanic to cobble together anything that might go wrong. stuff can go wrong. the risk is we'll be able to land but not take off, so this guy is the return ticket out of

the jungle. ♪ our captain is joaquin san clemente, something of a legend in these parts, and his copilot is costanza reyes. >> it's mystical. they develop this sensibility with the plane. there's no intel in sight here, no software. they have gps, but that's about it. it's beautiful, you know, they have to sense everything. they know when the sound of the plane is not right. it's just man and machine. >> the weather is the big unknown around here. it's changeable enough to ground planes in remote places if they hang around for too long.

we have to make one stop on the way to pick up more cargo. vital cargo, by the way. the land we're passing over is beautiful and lush. but the life of those below has been anything but. >> colombia seems to be trapped in a vicious circle. >> they use the territory as a haven for kidnapping -- >> until recently most of the news coming out of this part of colombia was not good. it was a front line in the war on drugs, for lack of a better term, and colombia's long struggle with the farc, a marxist guerrilla force financed by drug trafficking, kidnapping

and covert s a sassistance from venezuela. 50 years of very dirty war. the stakes are not about drugs per se, but about the ability of ordinary colombians to live without fear. we land in the jungle outpost of miraflores in the southern province in the amazonian forest reserve. the heavy presence of army and special police is a result of its strategic location and recent history of the one-time center of coca production. farmers would grow the stuff, making leaves into paste. traffickers would come and buy it. the farc had this area under its sphere of influence for years. nine years ago, the government moved to expel the farc, the traffickers and any

paramilitaries, with apparently much success. overnight, however, its population shrank by 85%. what remains struggles to survive. the people here you're telling me either were born here or -- >> most of the people came from elsewhere. in the beginning in the 1950s and '60s they were -- they were escape from the violence from the political violence between the two parties in colombia. >> so if you were having problems in the city or wherever you were from, you came out here? >> yeah. >> so what did you do for a living out here? >> cattle and some agriculture, and after that the drug trade began and everything with the coca plantations. >> the climate is good for it? >> yeah, very good. since 1999, there were no police

or army force here, so it was just occupied by the farc. and then by the farmers who tried to -- but that's when the real violence began. >> so really the problems in this country preexisted the drug trade? >> what we say here is the drug trade just made everything more. there's no judge here. there's few institutions here. >> right. >> basically you know the state is here just because the army is here. so i think you're going to meet the major. >> oh, yeah? >> anthony, this is the major. >> julio cesar gonzalez is the current mayor of the, which has seen much better an worse days. how many people in the town? >> there's around 1500 to 2,000 in the community. they were the central authority here. >> you're running -- plantains and not much else?

not even particularly well, not particularly happy with the government, somebody comes along and offers you a nice machine gun and a cool scarf, especially if you're 15, 16 years old. >> yeah. >> that's a pretty attractive option. >> of course it is. >> even if they say you probably will be dead by 25. >> it is, and they offer you a salary. >> what is the future of this town? [ speaking foreign language ] >> they're providing free education, and there's a lot of potential in biodiversity and ecotourism as well. >> what our people say is without the customer, there's no cocaine trade, there's no violence, right? so if the united states and europe stopped buying cocaine? >> it's so impossible, i can't think about it, if the situation where the demand is not going to be there. >> but demand in the states is down 40%. >> as long as there's a market,

there will be people ready to do it. >> the united states spends billions of dollars a year paying for guns and uniforms, training, et cetera. where should they be spending it? >> i would say the health is very important, but more important is to end the war on drugs. it just doesn't work. >> here's my problem. if crack didn't exist, i would have no -- i would absolutely agree with you, but as a former coke addict and former crackhead, you know, that is a problem. >> the think is people think if you think that drugs should be legalized, you're saying they're good. no, they're not saying that, we're just getting rid of one problem. the problem that the major has he here. >> you're freeing up a lot of money you could divert? >> yes, we have two ferocious. >> i agree. >> we can get rid of one, we're not going to get rid of the

other. we have to deal with it forever. >> it's a beautiful country, the people here are -- from what i've been is nice, even the bad guys are charming. >> that is true. >> the food is delicious. the problem is the united states will never legalize drugs. it will never happen. it's a complicated issue. >> yeah, yeah. >> so the good people of this town could thank us for bringing their fresh supply of coca. cerveza, coca. think nothing of it, gentlemen. it was really our pleasure. the age old question. what do women want? this is kate.

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bogata, the country's capital and an almost two-mile-high city with new lofty food ambitions, where previously the restaurant scene didn't really exist. now young restauranteurs such as musician turned chef tomas rueda are beginning to make a name for themselves in colombia. >> stop, stop, stop. please, please, please. >> this is one of the biggest markets in bogata. i love this place. it's very beautiful. the colors. my mom comes here to buy flowers, my grandma also.

>> did i mention that this city is over 8,000 feet up? hence the altitude sickness i'm feeling. not good. tomas comes here a few times a week for an early breakfast, which i'm hoping will make me feel better. paloquemao market has been in existence in one way or since the '40s. >> you want some juice? >> yeah. what do you have? >> orange juice with some carrot. >> probably the healthiest thing i've had in a while. >> good for the high altitude. >> yeah. >> this is better? >> i'm feeling better every hour. >> first hour is killing me. >> but you have a better face. >> i didn't think i was going to make it out of the airport. >> most of the mornings, early

in the mornings, 5:00 to 6:00 in the morning, i climb the mountain. >> why? >> fresh air. >> okay. >> you have to come with me. >> hell no! ain't happening. >> you want to taste some arepa? it is made with corn. por favor. this is fantastic. i love it. [ speaking foreign language ] >> tucked away in a back corner of the fish market is a place that serves breakfast for the market's workers and shoppers. we're talking beef short ribs simmered in an oily broth with potatoes, salt and scallions. tomas swears by this stuff, a traditional breakfast soup from the andean region. >> okay.

gracias. >> would you like chile? >> i do. [ speaking foreign language ] >> now we're talking. >> this is perfect. when you have a good party last night. >> i was just going to say, this is hangover food. >> perfect. >> i know hangover food well, and this is good. that's a nice hunk of meat in there. good broth. >> yes. >> good. >> what is this dish called? >> beef stock. calde de -- >> rib broth. >> yes, with potatoes, of course. everything with potatoes. [ speaking foreign language ] >> very good spanish. >> i don't speak spanish. i speak a little mexican. [ laughter ]

♪ ♪ bogata. back in the '90s, a very dangerous and violent place to be. today, not so much. today in my repeated experiences here, kind of awesome. the candelaria is a recently renovated old city when i meet up with hector abad, one of the most distinguished authors and supremely important writers in south america. his recent work is "oblivion" about his father's outspoken attempts to change things for the better. so first of all, where are we? >> puerta falsa.

this is a place where many bogatans come to eat something in the middle of the morning or in the middle of the afternoon. >> the tamales are made with chicken and pork belly combined with vegetables, rice and masa, wrapped in a banana leaf, and slow cooked for hours. this place has been serving chocolate completo for the nearby plaza for a couple hundred years. >> here are the tamales. >> beautiful. it is a thing of beauty, isn't it? >> let's see if it tastes like my mother's. >> a high standard. >> i suppose it is not. >> i was just in milaflores yesterday. what economy was entirely drug based economy. now that the drugs are gone, there is no economy. it's a ghost town, a military and people sitting there staring at the space waiting for the beer to arrive. that is something i can understand. tell me something hopeful.

>> i think we are becoming more and more conscious that this past decade of violence has been absolutely useless, and that we have to change many, many, many things. >> um-hmm. >> and so -- i think -- it's not as good as my mother's. i'm sorry. >> well, it never is. if you removed cocaine from the equation, removed the drug trade as a financial engine, you would still have serious division over ideology here. is that improving? >> things are changing in a good direction, but very slowly, i think. you know, ten years ago in medellin they killed 7,500 people every year. three years ago this number came to 700 people killed in medellin

in the year. so the situation has changed. >> right. >> i have only questions, i have no answers. i'm so sorry. if i were the president, i really i -- i don't know what. >> you wouldn't know what to do? >> no, i wouldn't. >> to suggest that a nation should expand its social services, do its best to lift people out of poverty, to provide medical care for everyone, as you well know, that may be in the minds of many as saving the country. are those as dangerous and potentially deadly ideas as they used to be? >> well, 25 years ago my father was killed just because he was asking for these basic things like clean water, a glass of milk, and an arepa for every child. that's -- we still don't have that, and we need that. now we in colombia, maybe we are trying.

i think there are some people here even in the government who are working for that. ♪ with so much noise about health care... i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

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chef tomas rueda add the restaurant sit side by side, in the macarena areas. it is where the city meets the north. if the lunch at tabula is defined by high fundamentals, than high concept theories. if there's a theme here, the ingredient meticulously prepared is the essence of great eating. such a beautiful space. so how's the restaurant business in bogata. >> a very good business. a lot of people with money, they don't know how to cook. >> nobody cooks at home. maybe their cook does. they eat out a lot? >> yeah, a new part of our culture. everybody wants to go to restaurants. >> so ten years ago, 15 years ago, what? traditional casual food? >> yeah. >> a few fine dining, you know,

white tablecloths, serves french, continental or italian? but this is new. >> it's a new business, a new world. there's two great bodies of food, the mixture of the culture, black people, indians people, white people. that mixture is beautiful. the other one is all of this region of the mountains, the valleys, the rain forests, the sea, we are like a big farm, a beautiful farm to send all these products to the world. i believe more in a beautiful carrot than a great recipe, yeah? >> right. >> this is a crab salad. >> right. >> and this is made from pasta. >> thin sheets of pasta are

filled with cheese and finished with a chorizo sauce. >> you used to be a musician? >> still. >> what happened? how dug go from music to restaurants? >> rock and roll doesn't make me money. >> this is good. >> really good. >> business is good. generally speaking, the only worse idea that i think i'll try to make a living music is i think i'll make a living by opening a restaurant. let's see why that's so popular? good stuff. >> thank you, tony. >> tomas' take ones on osso bucco using beef in a wood-fired oven. >> whoa, it's huge. oh, yeah. >> you don't need a knife, only a spoon. >> you're right.

>> do you cure this first in salt? >> no. >> dry it salt it? >> no. >> just fresh? >> yes. >> delicious. >> you would never get this off your menu. you'll have to keep it on your menu forever, right? >> forever. the best part. >> mama didn't raise no fool. ♪ santiago de cali is a city in the southwest of colombia known for its proximity to the pacific coast and semitropical temperatures, but i'm not really here for the climate. i'm here for tejo.

♪ it involves alcohol and explosives. colombian mario gallino, ex-pat, will holland and the band mates are to be my guide for this traditional and very colombian sport. how do you play this game? i guess that's how it's done. what do you call this object? >> el tejo. >> hence the name. >> exactly. >> i should be good at this, because i have been throwing pots into the dish sink from across the room for years. >> you get more points if you

get it in there. >> that doesn't sound like any fun. >> everyone has a different style. you have to do one and another, and swing. >> i don't think that style is going to work for me. it turns out we all pretty much suck at this. >> not enough beer. that's my problem. time to bring in some outside muscle. >> we're going to mix in now the experts. [ speaking foreign language ] >> who am i with this i'm over here with these guys. whoa! [ speaking foreign language ] >> holy crap, two in a row? this is dismaying. no, wait, one of those guys had

to be on my team, right? >> so the guy in white striped shirt, his name is el pollo

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