A man, his Land Rover and a 20-Year mission to see every corner of his country
ROBERTO PAYÁN, Colombia–-When turning up at some forlorn Colombian town on his bucket list, Diego Rosselli steers his 1966 Land Rover to the Catholic church on the central square and snaps the mandatory picture. “I send the photo to someone so there’s proof that I made it," he explains. Rosselli is recognized throughout Colombia as a neurologist, author and affable professor.
At 66, he is quickly gaining a very different sort of reputation, as a single-minded wanderer determined to drive his relic to every single town in Colombia and photograph it in front of the church anchoring each plaza. “It’s become an obsession," says Rosselli. “Many out there say I want to sell something, get rich with this.
But I’m getting poor! I’ve financed this with my own money." For the past 20 years, whenever Rosselli isn’t at Javeriana University in Bogotá or presenting at an international confab, he’s been on the road to one of the hundreds of municipalities that make up a country three times the size of Montana. Some are on the well-worn gringo trail: the walled colonial gem of Cartagena or bustling Medellín, popular for its exuberant vegetation and nightlife. But Rosselli has also turned up at hamlets on indigenous reservations, jungle communities that take several days to reach on bone-jarring roads, and no-go zones such as Argelia in southwest Cauca province, now in the midst of fighting between troops and drug-trafficking groups.
Crossing checkpoints set up by armed gangs is sometimes on the itinerary. “Who am I competing with?" Rosselli asks with a smile. He takes a moment before he answers: “Well, myself!" Rosselli, his wavy hair gone snow white and now balancing himself on a walking cane, had made it to 1,098 municipalities as of
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