To most people, if you play a game of word association with them, when you say ‘Colombia’, they are very likely to come up with ‘dangerous’, ‘cocaine’, or ‘guerrillas’. But the top most dangerous issue that you really have to worry about, that would really affect your daily life in Bogota, is walking or driving on the roads.

You get serious potholes on any road (ok this picture doesn’t really do the serious problem justice.. I promise to risk my camera getting nicked while on the road just to take a picture of a real magnificent hole when I get a chance next time), be it in the affluent areas or on the highway.

When you are driving you are constantly negotiating with the sudden openings on the ground, and Mario is really like Super Mario on the TV game swirling and swerving on the road. So it’s really a bumpy ride. And when you’re walking, if you get distracted, then it’s very likely you’ll get a twisted ankle! And the reason for the poor infrastructure that doesn’t match Bogota’s social and economic development is the endemic level of corruption..