“Have you any holiday plans?” Even asking this question seems a distant memory when the most exciting outing most of us have had recently has been to the local park. However, Wade Davis’s book about the River Magdalena allows you to explore with him Colombia’s vital artery of commerce and culture that runs a thousand miles from the mountains of Southern Colombia northwards to the Caribbean. The book is peppered with facts about this beautiful country, with its unequalled abundance and diversity of biological life. 1,932 species of birds, including 165 distinct humming birds, and 26,00 native species of flowering plants for a start. Most of all, it is a series of personal encounters with some extraordinarily brave and resilient people who have survived appalling periods of violence, cruelty and sudden death and have shown enormous courage and hope for the future.

Two anecdotes in particular stuck in my mind amongst the many reported in this book. One is an account of those who managed to transform Medellin, from the murder capital of the Americas when Pablo Escobar ruled, to a beautiful city with parks, libraries, a university, science museum, Metrocable and famous botanical garden. The other is the story of Jose Manuel Zapata, known as Morita, who became the guardian of his small town. He was so outraged by the guerrillas who had rounded up all the locals at gun point and marched them to his hut, where he was watching the World Cup football, that he ordered them to let the people go immediately – and ended up letting the guerrillas watch the football with him. Asked how he could face down killers he said “I have a father who is called God who walks with me everywhere”.

Read this book and you will feel that you have visited Colombia from your armchair!