this is a good place to both experience fantasy and reality. ♪ the air, explosives and food? you can't beat that. ♪ muy gracias. so you just stand here in the street and random strangers bring you delicious foods. it's a great country.

♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good 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's not for its looks --

which are, i should say right up front, spectacular. it's not for its people who are, everyone i've 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's good. 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 swaths of colombia relatively unknown, even to its own citizens. to reach a place previously considered a no-go area, i'll fly out of an airport of in villavicencio 45 miles southeast of the capital city of bogata. on first inspection, this is an airplane bone yard. where unwanted props from "romancing the stone" corroded artfully. but in reality, this sleepy hangar is an important 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 down river, or aboard a jungle bus, which is what locals call

the world war ii era dc-3. i've flown worse. i've been brought mere by pablo mora, a teacher at medellin university and a particular enthusiast for this golden classic of aviation. you've taken this flight before? >> yes, every time i have a chance, i come here and fly one. it's a romantic thing. >> he sees the work these hulking 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. and stuff can go wrong. the risk is we'll be able to land but not take off again, so this guy is our return ticket out of the jungle. ♪

our captain is joaquin san clemente, something of a legend in these parts, and his co-pilot is captain 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. >> farc has used 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 assistance from venezuela.

50 years of very dirty war. the stakes not about drugs per se, but about the ability of ordinary colombians to live without fear. we land in the jungle outpost of milaflores 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 as a one-time center of coca production. farmers would grow the stuff, and make 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, they were born here? >> most of the people came from elsewhere. in the beginning in the 1950s and '60s they were -- they were escaping 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 pre-existed 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. anthony, this is the major. >> julio cesar gonzalez is the current mayor of milaflores, which has seen much better, much worse days. how many people live in this town? >> there's around 1,500 to 2,000 in the municipality. the farc were here for 20 years, and they were the central authority here. >> you're growing plantains, 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? >> they're providing free education, and there's a lot of potential in biodiversity and ecotourism as well. >> what other 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 how many 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 thing is that people think if you think that drugs should be legalized, you're saying they're good. no, we're not saying that. we're just getting rid of one problem. the problem of the pay jor here. >> you're freeing up a lot of money you could divert? i'm with you, i agree. >> yes, we have two problems. one did -- one is drug addiction and the other is drug trafficking. 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. >> yeah. yeah. >> cerveza, coca. think nothing of it, gentlemen. it was really our pleasure. ping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. so ally bank has a that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct.

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bogota, 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. >> this is one of the biggest markets in bogota. 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 one form or the other since the 1940s. this place is huge. >> you want some juice? >> yeah. what do you have?

>> i love the orange juice with a 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. >> yeah? >> 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? arepa is made with corn. [ speaking foreign language ] it's fantastic, i love it. >> tucked away in a back corner of the fish market is a place that serves breakfast to 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 chili? >> i do. >> gracias. >> 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. there's a nice hunk of meat in there. >> yeah. >> good broth. >> yes. >> the stock is good. what's 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. ♪ ♪ bogota. 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 where i meet up with hector abad, one of the

distinguished author and writers, the most supremely talented in latin america. his recent work is about his father, called "oblivion," who was killed for his outspoken attempts to change things for the better. so, first of all, where are we? >> puerta falsa. this is a place where many bogotans 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 to the politicians of the nearby plaza bolivar 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. >> oh, well, that's a high standard. >> i suppose it is not.

>> i was just in milaflores yesterday. >> yes. >> what economy there was 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. best i can understand. tell me something hopeful. >> i think we are becoming more and more conscious that this past decades of violence have been absolutely useless, and that we have to change many, many, many things. >> uh-huh. >> 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. 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 saved the country. are those as potentially dangerous 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. ♪ [ male announcer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not.

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♪ bogota is the largest city in colombia and the economic heart of the country. about a fifth of the population lives here. many of them very well, but some not so well. it's a city with a marked north/south divide. chef tomas rueda's restaurants sit side by side in the macarena neighborhood where the city center meets the north. ♪ >> the lunch tomas is serving us here at tabula is defined by high quality fundamentals than

we high-concept theories. if there's a theme here, it's that ingredients this good, meticulously prepared, are the essence of great eating. such a beautiful space. so how's the restaurant business in bogota? >> 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 10 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 colombia food, the mixture of the culture, yeah. >> right. >> black people, indian 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 the crab salad. >> right. >> this one is from -- >> thin sheets of handmade pasta are filled with ladna cheese, and finished with a chorizo sauce. >> you used to be in a band. you used to be a musician? >> yeah, i'm still. >> what happened? how did you go from music to restaurants? >> rock 'n' roll doesn't make you 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 making music, is i think i'll make a living by opening a restaurant.

i see why that's so popular. good stuff. >> thank you, tony. >> tomas' take on osso bucco uses beef shank instead of veal which is braised over vegetables and wine and broth in a wood-fired oven. whoa. it's huge. yes. 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? nothing? >> 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 or just cali as people call it in these parts is a city in the southwest of colombia known to its proximity to the pacific feast and semi-tropical 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 their band mates, are to be my guide for this ancient and traditional 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. tejo. >> i should be good at this. i've been throwing pots into the dish thing across the room for years. >> you win more points if you get it in the middle without hitting anything. >> oh. but that doesn't sound like any fun. >> everyone has a different style it seems. you've got to do one and then another and swing. >> i don't think that style is going to work for me. after some is early success, 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? i'm over here with these guys. whoa? [ speaking foreign language ] >> holy crap, two in a row? no, one of those guys had to be on my team, right? >> the guy in the white striped shirt. his name is el pollo viejo, which is -- >> the old chicken. >> i need a poultry name. he's calling himself the old chicken.

i should be the enormous cock! the chicken dude is killing it. every time. ♪ >> must beat chicken. that's what i'm talking about. but i wanted something to blow up. tejo is hungry work, but the kitchen here is up to the challenge, making a colombian piccata. this is a huge selection of fried pork, pork rib, steak, casava, potatoes and deep-fried plantain. i smell food. oh, thank you. oh, that's good. a beer, explosives and food? can't beat that.

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♪ if bogota is colombia's financial heart, cali is the shaking hips. people here like their music. ♪ my tejo buddies mario and will are the founders of a collective called on the tropica. their idea was to reinterpret the tropical music heritage of colombia. what often sounds like salsa in style is actually colombia. ♪

if there's one type of music that can be classified as distinctly colombian, this is it. ♪ cumbia draws on the music of the african, indigenous european mix of the country, so will and mario created something a long way from the pop music that's a staple here. they brought together musicians who had been famous in the scenes in the '50s and '60s, and matched them up with younger counterparts. with the impressive amount of fried meat we ate at the tejo courts wasn't enough, we go for dinner at one of the band's favorite spots. >> the recording we made for three weeks in medellin, had 42 musicians so it was a big ensemble. there were musicians from 25 and the oldest was 82.

>> old school and new school mix? >> the idea so we can meeting not only doing music, but also exchanging lots of information about how music was made, how music was recorded, what was the spirit of the music. >> so that's the ideas, get back to the roots. >> first up, the cali version of ceviche. cooked shrimp lathered in mayonnaise and worcestershire and ketchup. essentially a '70s shrimp cocktail. native to the man groves of the pacific coast, mollusks are used in everything from tamales to stews. cooked rice, and guancha, not a clam. >> like a rock mollusk pretty much. >> mmm, it's delicious. wow.

♪ >> so this is like palau, very pacific pago rojo, red snapper. >> mm-hmm. >> steamed shrimp. >> very cool. >> and some nice green tomatoes. >> you find them everywhere. >> it is -- >> plantain. >> with all of that you have to accompany with ceviche. >> yeah, i'm learning that. >> it's the best way. to just handle this. >> cane sugar. >> cane sugar. homemade. >> it's the best way to handle this. >> what are your favorite places in colombia? >> colombia is like five countries in one. when you come to colombia, you definitely have to go to some pacifico experience, either cali or go straight to the coast. you have to have a caribbean experience. you definitely have to have a mountain experience with medellin or bogota, and the other would be to go to amazon, like the jungle.

>> i'm planning a vacation. should i come to colombia? should i come to cali? >> most definitely, man. you will find great music, great partying, great food, beautiful views, beautiful nature around. >> yeah, yeah, look, the country is beautiful, we know this. okay. but most americans, they're afraid to come. is colombia any more dangerous for a tourist than rio or puerto rico? or -- >> south central? >> i mean, my impression is no. when you go to rio, you don't wear a big watch or an expensive suit, you don't behave like an idiot, and life is going to be good. >> maybe i've been lucky, but i've never been mugged or kidnapped or robbed. most people will tell you we had an amazing time. we heard some great music, met some beautiful girls or guys. we drank some great drinks, hung out, went to the beach and, you

know, it was great and we want to come back. you know? >> there's a lot of heart here. people feel very deeply about things. it's the most welcoming country in latin america where i've been. >> salud, salud, salud. salud, salud. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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i leave the subtropics for more extreme climates. riohacha is a city 600 miles northeast of cali on colombia's caribbean sea. the most northern part of south america and borders venezuela in the east. it's the home of the people of colombia called the wayuu. the wayuu are a tough tribe who have never taken sides with either the government, the farc or the paramilitaries. as a result they remain independent politically and live pretty much by their own code.

i'm meeting juan pablo majorca, a chief from bogota who comes to this spot on a regular basis. this is not a different part of colombia. >> it's rugged terrain, there's not that much water, so that's part of why the spanish weren't able to colonize it. >> you've been coming here for some time. >> i became interested, because i began dealing with fresh fish, fresh lobster, fresh shrimp and for me to take back to bogota. >> is it good? >> it's very good. >> goats are important to the wayuu, they're used for food, bartering, even for dowry payments. rancho owners come to the old market in riohacha to sell, slaughter, and cook goat in the mornings.

today we're having frichi. >> it's a traditional fish from the wayuu. it consists of the heart, the intestines and the offal. >> of the goat. >> it's fresh. they slaughter back here. this is where the wayuu women cook it. this is fresh and traditional. >> this is breakfast. >> this is breakfast for them. >> and a little bit of everything in there. >> yes. we have hearts. we have a little bit of meat, of ribs. >> now it's interesting, because this one is for breakfast, and it's almost done where they are slaughtered. they have to eat this fresh. >> fresh, this is delicious. if not fresh, this would not be so good. >> no. >> this is where i say something that takes us seamlessly from a

discussion about fresh meat to me hauling my aging carcass on to an atv, sugar bear style. ♪ tribal members of the wayuu have dual citizenship and can cross the border into venezuela to live or trade there whenever they need to. luckily for us, it means that cheap gas is easy to come by in these parts. there are no stations as such. you just keep an eye out for the cans. >> most of this gasoline is from venezuela. it's extremely cheap. it's like 50 cents a gallon. the government subsidizes a lot of it. they're able to buy venezuelan gasoline and sell legally venezuelan gasoline in colombia. >> having taken on as much gas as can be mouth-siphoned into one sitting, we're off again.

let me set the scene. it's hot out here, desert hot. we plan to ride three hours along the coast to our lunch spot, and i ate salty goat innards for breakfast, and i refuse to wear a helmet or sunblock. we avoid wild donkeys and goats, and get lost more than a few times. so a little heatstroke leads to a lot of horsing around. we decide to open these puppies up. $25 yet is ending soon! choose two melt-in-your mouth entrees, like new parmesan crusted chicken, 3 courses, 2 people, just $25 at olive garden! also enjoy weekday signature favorites, four classic pastas, now just $10! there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate.

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and prevents gum irritation. for safeof backache pain,f you can trust extra strength doan's. specially formulated for your worst backache pain. a momentary concussion is seldom a good thing. waking up in colombia on a beach almost always is. ♪ having abandoned the epic ride, we're back where we started in the guijira at the blue sea restaurant. how come you're all clean? >> i changed. >> you brought a change of clothes? >> yeah. >> i'm hurting now. i'm feeling every minute, every hour, every month and year of my age. >> so you're ready? >> yes. i trust it will make me feel all better. >> much better. it's a good end to a fun day. >> you can't ask for better

scenery. it's beautiful here. >> a beer. >> i need the anesthetic qualities of the local fire water. that's probably a really good idea. >> that's going to be a good start for tonight. >> a good start. i'm done. oh, man. that dog has the right idea. see, i'd be very happy if that was me right now. just like laying down in the sand with my chin out like that. man, it's so beautiful here. who comes here? >> basically tourists from colombia and backpackers that are making their way up to the north. >> we saw one tourist all day, and it's nice, really it's completely off the grid. >> this used to be a fisherman village. >> there are definitely worse places to eat seafood than beachside in a fishing village, and the strength of this area lies in the variety of fish available. >> basically it's like a fish

chowder, made with shrimp, clams -- >> right. >> -- a small kind of clam. a lobster. fish. >> yeah. >> and conch. >> i need a bath. very clear sky for the caribbean. >> oh, yeah. oh, man. >> always accompanied by lemon and coconut rice and plantain and some hot sauce in there. ♪ >> some good food, a few shots, the sounds of waves in the background, and a nice sunset. these are things in my experience that will set most things right. thank you to guajira. >> and colombia. >> salud. >> cheers. >> we had good fun. >> we had good fun.

>> cheers. >> i always find colombia encouraging. they face problems more extreme and seemingly more intractable than many of us can imagine, and yet every time i come here it gets better. don't get me wrong. problems, serious problems, remain, which is particularly heartbreaking in a country so beautiful, so generous, so proud, so eager to love and be loved back. i come back to my own country from colombia, and i think if they can fix that, if they can make things better, then surely there's nothing we can't do.

for now, however, i'll settle for fixing my headache. that hurt. peru is a country that's historically driven men mad, mad for gold, for cacao, for its magical ancient history. now, there's something else drawing outsiders to its hidden mountain valleys. we love the stuff. we obsess about it, gorge on it and fetishize it. i'm talking about chocolate, once a common treat, it's now becoming as nuanced as fine wine making the pursuit of the raw good stuff all the more difficult. i'm joining that hunt in remotist peru, but not before i've re-immersed myself in the booming lima food scene.