Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Outselling any other guide on the market, the Lonely Planet is the go to resource for anyone thinking of travelling to Colombia. This week we sit down with three-time LP Colombia guide author Kevin Raub (http://www.kevinraub.net/) and talk about the latest edition that he is currently working on and hear about some of the "new" locations to be included in 2015's version. Raub brings his inimitable style to the interview, perhaps becoming of a journalist formerly in the employ of Rolling Stone Magazine and of course positively brims with positivity about Colombia as a fantastic destination for the traveller, be it top end or backpacker. Tune in to hear about Raub's take on the security situation in-country and a few priceless anecdotes.

Kidnapping is down in Colombia but other issues continue. This week we sit down with Security and Risk Management Expert Benjamin Hockman and discuss the dangers and realities in the country. How should you prepare before planning a trip to Colombia, who is potentially at risk, what is the state of play in various parts of the country? And it doesn't end there, we talk about Colombia put in the context of Mexico and neighboring Venezuela. We learn about how Hockman came to be in this industry and what it means to work in this field. Not to be missed for an informative and fascinating insight into Colombia.

Since Colombia’s peace talks began in November 2012, 14,000 people have been forcibly displaced within its borders each month. This week we talk with journalist Jessica Weiss (http://www.jessicaleeweiss.com/) about this horrendous situation and her new project launched on the crowdfunding platform Beacon Reader where, should the pitch be successful, she will publish an in-depth article per month regarding those affected by Colombia's armed conflict. Weiss is a freelance journalist and writer based in Bogota, Colombia, where she is learning about a society in the process of emerging from conflict and writes for The New York Times, Fast Company Magazine, World Affairs Journal, the Associated Press amongst other publications.

A 12 year veteran of Bogota and Colombia, floridian Andrew Dier is now the author of the most recent guide to Colombia on the market, the first edition of the Moon Handbook to Colombia (www.moon.com) and we love the end product.

We get together with Dier in the chic environs of the upmarket Juan Valdez cafe in Rosales, Bogota and speak about the guide book, the writing process and indeed his first venture in Colombia, “Colombia Diversa” (www.colombiadiversa.org) promoting gay rights in the country. With his knowledge of the Colombia and having set up this well respected foundation, Dier is clearly the right person to be speaking about Colombia and it is a great pleasure to have him on Colombia Calling talking about all things Colombian.

Had you asked me during my university years whether I could see myself in the future living in Colombia, the ready answer would be "of course not", I can only assume that this is what Lottie Lawrence a young British lady must be thinking now as she is charged with the awesome responsibility of bringing lacrosse to Colombia, setting up a league between private schools and participating in international tournaments. Hers is an adventure that has taken her from teaching in the coffee region to coaching lacrosse in Bogota and accompanying a team to the world championships in Denver, Colorado. It's both heartwarming and exciting to hear of projects like this coming to Colombia and actually coming into fruition, tune in to hear a good news story.

When you reduce the interview with Christopher Kirk to its most basic elements, it’s a love story and the blindness that this can produce when an individual is so deeply wrapped up in it all. Listening, you’ll understand what I am getting at, basically, I let go and allow Christopher to chat away sharing with us the details which he sees fit to air, and even if he is self censoring, it’s hard to tell as the story is so gripping and involved. Hear about Kirk's love story with a mysterious Colombian lady named "V", an escort, prepago, drugs mule or misenterpreted entrepreneur and the subject of a newly released documentary "I Touched All Your Stuff".

“The Mick” is an Irishman named Christopher who got started in crime early in Dublin, Ireland. A case could be made that sexual abuse by Catholic priests or his IRA family connections contributed to his path. But he’d admit it all came down to rebellion and love of drugs and alcohol. How did he end up in Colombia and why is he still here? We talk to writer Colin Post (http://www.expat-chronicles.com/) of St Louis, Missouri to find out more about “the Mick”, his story and of course hopefully give Post a boost on his crowdfunding campaign to get the novel about Christopher, “This Mick’s Life” published. The resulting Colombia Calling show is a rollercoaster ride through Bogota’s underworld and its characters. Not to be missed!

Briton Carl Meek met his Colombian wife in London some years ago. They decided to move back to Colombia set up businesses and start a family, tune in to find out why, after several years, they ended up moving back to the UK. With two incredibly successful Colombia-inspired ventures, Meek talks to Colombia Calling about his coffee importation company and independent coffee shop in Milton Keynes (http://bogotacoffee.co.uk) and his project with the Gladney Center in the US bringing adopted children from all over the world now resident in the US down to Colombia to interact and spend time giving back at an orphanage here in Bogota (http://adoptionsbygladney.com). Tune in to what is both an informative and inspiring interview.

Have you ever imagined yourself kayaking along Colombia’s most iconic river? With the dynamic team from Awake Adventures (www.awakeadventures.com) this is now a reality.

In August Awake Adventures have an amazing opportunity to take you kayaking from Tamalameque to El Banco – to coincide with the Cumbia Festival here – then on to the town of Guamal and then my stomping ground of Mompos. They are looking for bloggers, journalists and so on who want to sign up and come along with them to record this fantastic adventure. Hear about their other plans in Colombia, Cano Cristales, Mavecure, the Pacific Coast and so on. Awake Adventures are strong believers in geotourism and are young Colombians keen on making a difference.

Websites come and go and blogs are a dime a dozen and can be an infuriating medium to research but, due to Colombia’s total divorce from international tourism for almost 30 years, some enlightened souls have seen fit to create informed, clean and up to date websites to provide the traveller with the information needed, one of these is Josian Chevallier’swww.off2colombia.com . We speak to Frenchman Chevallier about the inspiration behind his website, charity work in Colombia and his latest and perhaps most exciting project, a web portal for the region to rival the traditional sites calledwww.viajala.co . So, if you are researching a trip to South America and need an alternative and are looking for something new, check out this page.