Nicholas Coghlan arrived in Bogota in 1997. A political officer for the Canadian government, it was his responsibility to report on Colombia's complex civil conflict, lobby the Colombian authorities on human rights, and provide visible moral support and other assistance to the victims of the war. Soon after he arrived it became apparent that he could not fulfill these functions from the relative peace and security of Bogota and he found himself traveling to remote and sometimes dangerous locations rarely visited by outsiders - the coca fields of Putumayo, the swamps of the Darien Gap, the vast savannahs of the Llano - meeting with everyone from impoverished inhabitants of the barrios to guerrilla leaders, from human rights activists to military commanders.