I am Barry Max Wills and in 2001, my partner Adriano Zamudio and I bought an abandoned coffee farm in the Colombian Andes. It was called Rancho Grande. At that time, coffee was almost worthless and guerillas were kidnapping anyone rich enough to own a refrigerator.

In 2002, on my first visit to Rancho Grande, my older brother Chris, in Sydney, made me promise to send emails regularly to reassure him and the family that we had not been killed or kidnapped. Such was the view of Colombia then.

Rather than just confirm to the family that I was alive, I decided to share my observations and experiences to counterbalance the relentlessly negative view of Colombia propagated by the media.

That is how ‘Letters from Colombia’ started.

Today, we are still alive and our estate comprises nine farms, three principal residences, six dogs, six cats and a goose called Goosey Loosey.

And today Colombia is attracting huge international attention, for all the right reasons, as it comes out from the shadow of terrorism and drug cartels that blighted its image for so long, and which obscured the true beauty, passion and hospitality both of the country itself and of its people.

Colombia now seems a different place. As the tourism board boasts, ‘The Only Risk is Wanting to Stay’.

‘Letters from Colombia’ tell the story of two who did.