For most travellers, Colombia is unknown territory-a place of cocaine barons, guerrillas and mysterious lost cities. lt is the land of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his One Hundred Years of Solitude-a tale as magical as the country itself. Far from being a place to avoid, complex and hospitable Colombia offers some of South America’s most varied landscapes, flora and fauna. As you travel through this diverse country, you’ll discover a changing panorama of climate, architecture, topography, wildlife, crafts and music

January to March (the dry season)

Visiting Cartagena-a living museum of Spanish colonial Architecture Beachcombing at Parque Nacional Tayrona, on the Caribbean coast Photographing the enigmatic stone statues at Sun Agustin-a pre-Hispanic ceremonial funeral site Hanging out in the great cosmopolitan metropolis of Bogota Hiking to Ciudad Perdida, one of the greatest pre-Hispanic cities found in the Americas, hidden in a lush rainforest

Read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Noble prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or anything by Jose Asuncion Silva, perhaps the country’s best poet

Listen to Colombia’s most famous musical export Shakira, whose album Laundry Service stormed chats in 2002. For some traditional Afro-Caribbean tunes check out Toto La Momposina.

Watch llona Arrives with the Rain or Time Out by Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera

Eat ajiaco (soup made with chicken and potato); or, for the more adventurous, horming culona (a dish unique to Santander consisting largely of fried ants)

Drink coffee, the number one drink-tinto (a small cup of black coffee) is served everywhere. Other coffee drinks are perico or pintado, a small milk coffee, and café con leche, which is larger and uses more milk.

Chevere (cool)

Coffee; Gabriel Garcia Marquez; emeralds; lost cities; El Dorado; football

Colombia claims to have the highest number of species of plants and animals per unit area of any country in the world; Laguna de Guatavita, the sacred lake and ritual centre of the indigenous Muiscas, is where the myth of El Dorado originated

Trying to adapt to the generations-ling violence, many Colombians have developed a sort of siege mentality. ln cities particularly, children and teenagers are often under stric supervision, residential buildings have 24-houe security guards and sniffer dogs are omnipresent. Many people will travel intercity only under the umbrella of the caravanas turisticas organized during holiday peaks (which involve placing an enormous number of soldiers along major roads in order to discourage robberies and kidnappings).