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MESETAS, Colombia — I'm with a small group of tourists preparing to rappel down a 150-foot canyon next to a waterfall in southern Colombia. It's scary, but we're in good hands, with guides intimately familiar with this jungle terrain.
That's because the guides patrolled here years ago as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist rebel group known as the FARC. In fact, to escape from army troops, the rebels sometimes rappelled down cliffs like these using nothing more than tree vines — though for us tourists, they provide the requisite ropes and safety harnesses.
A tourist rappels next to a waterfall.