I've found many Colombians to be the most gentle and best mannered of all Spanish speaking peoples and also I consider the way they pronounce the language the most appropriate, comprehensible, and neutral without being devoid of personality. I guess I find (educated) Colombian Spanish to be "proper" Spanish (certainly not the ear-grinding dialects they speak in the Iberian peninsula).
People say Colombian soap operas are much better than Mexican soap operas ("another level") and I believe, not sure, that the best selling author of recent times was Colombian.
I've also seen how ordinary Colombian men resort to fist fighting to solve the most simple or inane conflicts, know about the paramilitary killing innocent children for the crime of being homeless during campaigns of "limpieza social", and have watched the vice documentary on donkey sex (mind you, in the Caribbean lowlands close to Cartagena, not in the highlands where Bogota, Medellin and Armenia are).
So in conclusion Colombia is a land of contrasts.
Okay. There is no such thing as a single version of "educated Colombian Spanish." The number of different accents and dialects from region to region is astonishing. The Spanish people typically talk about as the "best" on the continent is not found outside of Bogotá and surrounding areas. I studied dialectology and did a massive symposium presentation on Colombia during my MA in Spanish linguistics. If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, there are some okay videos on YouTube you can watch to hear examples. Colombia is pretty fascinating from a linguistic standpoint. Palenquero, for example, is the only Spanish-based creole language still alive in the world today. Now I'm off track.
Your second paragraph shows you've seen some fights and watched a few Vice documentaries. I've seen the one with the people living in the sewers/limpieza social, too. Interesting how you say the donkey stuff only happens on the Caribbean coast, "mind you." (I will assume this is an unfortunate choice of words on your part and that you didn't inherit this prejudice.) Okay, if there's a documentary on it I suppose it does, but that's where I live and that's where my husband's from and the only donkeys I see are pulling carts with avocados and fruit. They look malnourished and like they could collapse at any second, but they're not having sex with anyone. If you don't actively search for things like donkey sex, they're not going to pop up in your face.
Replace "Colombia" with the name of pretty much any other place and your last sentence would be true.
My original point stands. If you're not looking for seedy stuff, you very likely won't see it. That, to me, was the most surprising thing about living in Colombia.
Where in Colombia are you living? My friends were all in Poblado, Medellin and it happened 4 times in a year. 3 love triangles, and the last one was robbed en el centro for his Yamaha 600R, when he didn't give it up he got shot.
If you aren't hearing these stories you have your head buried in the sand.
Don't get me wrong I love Colombia and I really never felt threatened there, but violent it most certainly is and you very well know this!
Let's not forget about the Farc very much still active.
I never denied that there is violence in Colombia, and the crime is the main reason why I don't want to live here or raise children here. (Coming in at a very close second is the classism and obsession with attaining/showing off wealth, which is unavoidable and drives me insane.) But if all your friends are shooting each other over romantic disputes, you're hanging out with idiots. That's the type of shit you see on the local news and roll your eyes at, just like back in the U.S. Robberies, etc. are something else entirely, and often cannot be avoided. I lived in Bogotá, I live in Barranquilla but I have only visited Medellín. I do not have my head in the sand, I assure you.
Yes, FARC is still active, but not the way it used to be, so let's hope the negotiations go somewhere.
I was actually surprised to see so many Colombian cities on the list, I really thought it had gotten much better over the last five years or more. My sister traveled around there for a month in 2010 and had a fantastic time and felt very safe. I have only been twice and not really traveled around but felt safe as well.
