'God made Colombia the most beautiful country in the world so he had to balance it by
inhabiting it with the worst people in the world.' Old Colombian Proverb
Australian writer Austin Galt arrived in Colombia looking for a life less ordinary. He found it - or
did it find him? On Austin's first day in the country he was hauled off a bus to look down the
barrel of a gun as he was detained and questioned by the AK-47-toting Revolutionary Armed
Forces. Welcome to Colombia!
In the days, months and years that followed, Austin travelled all over Colombia, tracing the
Narcos' trail and walking in the shadows of drug lords such as Pablo Escobar and the Cali
Cartel. While meeting local gangsters and international coke traffickers, he attended
underworld parties and was lured into the sex, drugs and danger-fuelled life of an underworld
kingpin.
What he discovered in those crazy days and white nights shocked, scared and, ultimately,
seduced him.
