Howdy, Sarah West

What’s the first thing you think of when I say Colombia? Cocaine? Pablo Escobar? Narcos? FARC? Terrorism? That’s fair. But what if I told you everything you thought you knew about the country is wrong?

We arrived in Venice just hours after the second-worst flood ever recorded. While our experience may not have been typical, it was very real—and also surprisingly great.

Close encounters of the German kind at the world’s biggest beer fest—from pseudo cocaine users, to a very generous dessert dealer, and gossiping without words.