Everybody, without exception, should make it their New Year Resolution to visit Cartagena, Colombia in 2013. If it’s not already on your list of things to do before you die it should be.

I’ve been fortunate enough to do my fair share of travelling in style on luxurious commissions for This Is Cartagena, Wallpaper* magazine and Jetsetter but the Global Rally guys starting out on a truly remarkable 7,000 mile voyage from Cartagena de Indias to Ushuaia, Argentina take it to another level completely.

As the capital C in CIVETS, the group of emerging economies singled out for stellar growth in the coming decade, Colombia has put much of its violent and painful past behind it.

The rest of the world could learn a thing or two from the uplifting story unfolding in Colombia’s second city, Medellin.