Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

This week we get to talk to Erin Donaldson of the widely read website www.openmindedtraveler.com and learn about her quite extraordinary life in Colombia.

Have you ever traveled off-grid, but really off-grid where the journey takes five hours over rutted and potholed roads in a chiva bus before then having to continue on a motorcycle before alighting and then finding a horse to take you the rest of the way? I thought not. And if you have, did you do it with a baby on your lap? Erin wins hands down and I have to say that I am quite envious of her lifestyle!

We talk about the region of the Choco, her life in Colombia, childbirth, in fact, almost nothing is off-limits and Erin responds in kind in a careful and relaxed manner that you would associate with a cowboy character as if plucked from a novel by Louis L'Amour.

It's no exaggeration to say that Erin may well be one of the most independent and adventurous people we have had on Colombia Calling and I am thrilled that she shared her insights with us.

Be sure to tun in to Episode 124 and find out why Erin travels down a notorious cocaine transshipment highway with some regularity.

In this first episode of 2016 (no.123) we take a look at the key events of 2015 with regards to Colombia and how thes might pan out and affect this country in the coming 12 months.

What of the peace dialogues with the FARC guerrillas, will a final agreement be reached with the rebels to be signed in March? What are the probabilities of this and hear me explain that a final agreement does not mean peace in Colombia....yet.

Will tourism take up the slack on a faltering economy? Can it? With the Dollar at roughly 3200 pesos and the Pound at almost 5000 pesos there may never have been a better time to be a traveller or visitor to Colombia. Will oil prices continue to affect the country?

And finally, an update from Mompos and what is going on in my corner of paradise where I am running my little hotel (www.lacasaamarillamompos.com) over the high season before returning to Bogota to pick up my pen and pad and write more articles and indeed start on a new adventure of pursuing a PhD.

Can you imagine an experience as enriching as taking a secondment from your 9 to 5 grind in an office setting in London and moving to Colombia for six months to work with an NGO?

This is precisely what Briton Sarah Hornby has done and through her job at GSK she now finds herself nearing the end of a six month stay in Colombia which has seen her travel into some of the most remote and off-limits parts of Colombia to aid local communities with Save the Children.

Telling her story and sharing her effervescent love for Colombia one wonders how easy it will be for Sarah to return to London after an experience such as this. Tune in and find out about some of the projects that Sarah has been involved in here in Colombia.

How does a young man from Bonn in Germany end up in Colombia, living in Bogota and starting up a new internet platform to facilitate the purchase of real estate here in Colombia for international investors? Well, this and many more are the topics for a lively conversation with Michael in Episode 121.

The idea behind Hallo Casa (www.hallocasa.com) is to create a space where people can get in touch directly with vendors and indeed real estate agents and then rate the quality of service provided. I for one have seen a need for some new blood and new ideas in the property market here since international investment is increasing, yet, the way real estate is brokered on the whole, remains very folkloric. This is where Michael comes in!

So, if you are interested in hearing Michael's story and indeed are interested in the Colombian property market, this is a show for you.

In this Episode 120, the English voice of Colombia, Richard McColl, takes the opportunity to share some thoughts about some worrying situations afoot in Colombia. First, McColl discusses the plight of US-Colombian citizen Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, the star of the documentary "startup.com" who has been jailed in Colombia for accusations of security fraud in the US and is awaiting extradition to NY in the horrific conditions of Bogota´s La Picota jail.

And then secondly, McColl challenges the Mayor elect of Bogota Enrique Peñalosa to make good on promises, explain to the people why he will not be investing in an underground metro system which the country´s capital is so desperately in need of, and ask him how he plans to improve the city´s security situation.

McColl has declared that "he will eat a hat shaped cake" if Peñalosa is able to turn the fortune of Bogota around.

How comfortable would you be signing up to a list, paying a fee and dining with 10 other strangers? Well, there's a new culinary and social movement which is opening up private homes as venues for dinner parties. This is exactly what Sara Lisa Orstavik (a one time employee for the World Food Program) in Colombia is doing.

So, tune in to find out how Sara Lisa - with her Italian and Norweigan roots - came to be in Bogota and creating the underground dining event known as BogotaPopups.

If you are curious and want to know further details, of course tune in, but also check out the website at www.bogotapopups.com

Netflix's hit series "Narcos" chronicles the rise of the Medellin Cartel and the U.S.-led manhunt to bring down its notorious kingpin, Pablo Escobar. Finally, as a foreigner living in Colombia I grew tired of the show and that's when I read Steven Cohen's excellent piece for the New Republic magazine.

Cohen has spent time in Colombia, two years in Medellin working for the Colombia Reports news site, and has clearly seen the damage done by this perpetuating of the Escobar myth and so it is a breath of fresh air to read and enjoy a coherent article about the series.

Listen to the show and read the article

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123287/what-narcos-gets-wrong

In Episode 117, I am well out of my depth talking with the renowned Art Advisor and Curator Sandra Higgins who has recently moved to Colombia from London to pursue various projects here for the next six months.

Sandra is an expert in the field but exudes a humility unbecoming of someone so professional and well-known. Check out her websites here: http://sandrahiggins.com/
http://www.discoverartnow.co.uk/

We discuss the influence and techniques used by many artists here in Colombia and some of the issues they face working in a country in conflict and heading towards a possible peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas.

Be sure to tune in to learn more about contemporary Colombian art. Just one more thing, there's not one mention of Fernando Botero!

This week we shake things up a little and talk to marketing expert and entrepreneur Viviana Cardozo de Rubiano a Bogotana who moved from her home city with her family to Los Angeles a little under a year ago.

We explore how Viviana has adapted as an expat in her new home and how she is faring as a location independent business owner. Check out her businesses (www.edu4kids.co and www.hablaingles.com.co) designed at improving English levels in Colombia.

Viviana makes for a great interviewee and she talks openly of the challenges that she has encountered in the USA and what she misses from home and hopefully this interview will appeal to our Colombian listeners who are now living far from home.

Viviana's professional website is: www.vivianacardozo.com

So who is Brian Ward and why is this current resident of Sacramento, California writing a book about his experiences in Colombia? Episode 115 offers a frank and at times revealing chat about Brian's new book available on Amazon: "48,000,000 Colombians Can't Be Wrong: Finding Love In The Land of Shakira, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Fernando Botero and Sofia Vergara."

Brian comes up against up it in Bogota in his quest for true love, he falls into work as an extra in some Colombian soap operas, travels some of the country and from what I could tell, plays a fair amount of ping pong in a downtown hostel before he meets a young lady from Cartagena who becomes his wife.

Tune in to hear a tale of do's and don'ts in Colombia and check out Brian's book.