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Atrevido has written 120 posts
Bill´s Wristband
In this week´s (May 5, 2008) international edition of NEWSWEEK magazine there is an article about and black and white photo of Bill Clinton. The photo shows him in a presidential suit but also clearly shows him wearing a woven cloth wrist band. Being black and white of course you can´t see the colors but I wonder if this is the band he was given in Cartegena so many years ago and he is still wearing it. ...
Paramo Del Duende
Antone been to El Paramo Del Duende near Trujillo-Valle?
Rambo Eat Your Heart Out!
Did anyone happen to follow the storey of the taking down of the brothers Victor Manuel and Miguel Angel MejÃa Múnera better known as los Mellizos? Hollywood only needs to look to real life goings on in Colombia to find it’s best blockbuster action movie material. So the police decided to go after los Mellizos the most dangerous narcotraficking organization to date. A captured henchman gave up the coordinates of Victor Manuel´s secret rural hideout and informed that Victor made a habit of s ...
Too Good To Be True Exchange Rate?
I´ve been trying out my new fee free TD Ameritrade debit card and the results seem too good to be true. According to Yahoo´s currency converter yesterday´s (May 5) dollar-peso exchange rate was 1758.50 but according to my Ameritrade statement I got 1766.94 on an atm withdrawal. With my other cards I was being charged an “international service fee� plus another fee which came out to about $3.25 per withdrawal. So it appears I´m being charged zero fees and getting better than published exc ...
Colombian Nikita
http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?idArt=110374 Interesting story here about a British photographer who took up with a 22 year old colombiana he met on a bus only to discover later that she was an accomplished assasin who´d killed nine people while they were novios. ...
Fine For Overstaying Visa?
How much is the fine for overstaying you visa and does it increase with time? I heard something about it being a salario minimo.
What Is Chavez Plan?
Why is he amassing weapons? Why is he getting as many Latin American heads of state as possible "on his side" (including through campagn contributions)? Does he expect to unite all of South America in one great Bolivarian revolution with himself as chief and are those weapons to be used against Colombia in order to subjugate it to his cause? Could Isreal be persueded to send a commando unit to take him out? ...
Jane´s Defence Projection
According to SEMANA Janes´s Defence Weekly has published an interesting projection regarding the FARC. It suggests that more and more guerrilla will seek refuge in the neighboring countries from intensified Colombian military attacks. At some future point the neighboring governments will swing right and find themselves with their own guerrilla problem. ...
Moral Dilemma?
Colombia faces a bit of a dilemma. Should the government indeed pay the reward money promised for delivering one of the FARC secretariado or should guerrillero Rojas be tried for murder. If it doesn’t pay and castigates Rojas in some form then the incentive for turnining in FARC bosses evaporates. If it does pay and Rojas goes free it opens its self to some pretty intense criticism. http://www.eltiempo.com/politica/2008-03-10/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3997368.html ...
Holy Moly Another One Bites The Dust
"A top rebel leader was killed by his own chief of security, who gave Colombian troops the leader's severed hand as proof, the defense minister said Friday." Adios Ivan Rios.
Dissappearing Posts?
I could swear I just posted about Uribe´s debt of gratitude to Chavez a half hour ago and the post is already gone. Was it something I said?
Uribe Owes Debt Of Gratitude To Chávez
Turns out it was a telephone call from Chávez to Reyes that allowed Colombian intelligence to pinpoint his location. It just gets better and better! http://www.elpais.com.co/paisonline/notas/Marzo052008/llamadachavez.html ...
Chavéz Really Wants A War?
Or is this for home consumption? He has announced he is sending ten batallions to the border with Colombia and is withdrawing his ambassador from Bogotá which reminds me. I wonder if the the embassador´s flight will leave on time what with those radar problems at the airport. ...
Revista SEMANA on FARC Problems
Interesting article on how the FARC have had to reevaluate and restructure their strategies as a result of the Colombian army’s new efficiency. Among other things the subject of the storey, a FARC deserter (after seventeen years in their service) commented that somebody supplied extremely precise coordinates that allowed the bombing and killing of the formerly “untouchable� Negro Acasio. Other “complicaciones�: after the arrival last year of troops in key areas of Vichada department n ...
Safest Barrios in Cali 2007
http://www.elpais.com.co/paisonline/notas/Febrero262008/cali04.html El Pais lists the 76 barrios in Cali where there were no homicides in 2007. The Department of Municipal Planning recognizes 327 barrios in the city. ...
Johny Cacao Seed Killed By FARC
Miguel Daza who convinced hundreds of families to plant cacao instead of coca in the south of Bolivar was murdered by the FARC. http://www.eltiempo.com/nacion/caribe/2008-02-19/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3964573.html ...
The Next Hostage Release
Some days ago the FARC were "about to" release three more hostages.Were they released and I missed it or did it stall out?
Coronel Byron Carvajal Declared Guilty
Coronel Byron Carvajal and the fourteen soldiers from the High Mountain Batallion under his command accused of massacring the ten drug police near Jamundà were finally declared guilty today after a fourteen month trial. The time they will serve however won´t be announced until April 21st. ...
New Travel Advisory?
There have been killings at four US schools and colleges in the last week. Has the US Embassy in Bogotá issued a new travel advisory yet?
Banana Thief
For several weeks I´ve been putting out bananas to attract tanagers but a thief comes in the night and steals them:
Potus flavus megalotus (the Colombian subspecies) ...
Betcha I´m The Only One...
...on this forum whose had one of these crash into his window. Amazingly both bird and window survived!
Sickle-winged Guan ...
Minimum Pension Requirement
What is the minimum pension income requirement for 2008 for the Visa Pensionado? I couldn´t find it anywhere on the MRE site.
The Finnish Spanish Student
A Fin named Jaakko spent a couple of years studying Spanish before making a trip to Cali. He thought he was pretty fluent but getting into a cab at Alfonso Bonilla he saw a copy of El Caleño with the headlines: CHIRIPASO DE IGUARAN EN EL CAMPIN. Sh*t! he said in Finnish I haven´t learned a thing! So he went back to Finland and studied harder. Thinking now he should be able to talk to those caleños he returned. Again there was a copy of El Caleño in the taxi and the headlines ran: ENCANAN A P ...
How to move to…(insert any small city)?
The post below about Manizales reminded me. Not interested now but when my wife and I looked into moving to Loja, Ecuador and later Manizales the problem we faced with these small cities was a lack of rental listings either in the clasificados or through the few inmobilarias. In both places we found that in a given week only four or five rental listings appeared and if none interested you your only option was to hole up in a hotel and wait for the next weeks listings. I suppose one way is to hir ...
President For Colombia
Which of the US presidential candidates who remain standing after super Tuesday do you think would be in Colombia´s best interests?
Photo Test 2
Ok now I got it. Here are some photos from Playa De Huina and BahÃa Solano.
Photo Test
Didn´t work.
Refugio Mr Jerry
I just spent a week staying at the guesthouse Refugio Mr Jerry at Playa De Huina just outside BahÃa Solano on the Pacific coast. Did some hiking on jungle trails and snorkling in the ocean. If anyone is interested in heading that way you can contact the guest house owner at his Cali number: 3309562 ...
Nuqià Kidnap Updates?
I haven´t been able to follow the news. Have there been any updates on the tourist kidnapping near Nuqu�
Changing Canasta Familiar
According to SEMANA magazine the canasta familiar of ten years ago had things like matches, candles and chalk and services like shoe repair. Today it includes prepaid phone cards, energy saving light bulbs, flat screen plasma TVs, DVD players, internet, hamburgers, frozen foods and bottled water. Speaking of which I hardly ever see water sold in plastic bags anymore. ...
Credit Card For Salario Minimo Earners
From El Pais today: Western Union is teaming up with La 14 to offer credit cards (for use in La 14 stores) to strata 2 & 3 minimum wage earners. Those who sign up for the card will get 10% off their first purchase and every six months will earn a rebate of 3% on purchases they´ve made. Repayment can be extended to three years and no mention of course of the interest rate. The article says the people who couldn´t before will be able to take advantage of promociones or acquire their electrodomes ...
Will Oliver...
...Stone film the release of the hostages?
Colombian Artist Doris Salcedo
I think it´s pretty cool that Time magazine listed Bogota sculptor Doris Salcedo´s installation Shibboleth at London´s Tate Modern as # 9 of the ten biggest arts sensations of 2007. She´s also written up as one of the ten personajes de 2007 in edition 1338-39 (current issue) of SEMANA magazine. She´s been recognized since the early nineties for her work referencing Colombia´s desaperacidos. ...
Directions For Tuluá Botanical Garden
Anybody know driving directions to get to the Tuluá Botanical Garden from Buga?
Salario Minimo 2008
It looks like once again the govt. will have to set the minimum wage since the business sector and unions can’t come to an agreement. If no agreement is reached by the deadline the govt. has stated the number it will use is 6.1%. It was 6.29% in 2007. Although the annual increase has been dropping over the years (it was 21.1% in 1994) it still seems to me to be inflationary. A typical cost of living adjustment for a US pensioner for example is 3-4% ...
Lodging at Nevado De Ruiz?
Anybody know if there´s any kind of dormitorio or other lodging for visitors by the entrance to the park or other places part way up the mountain?
Colombia: New Tourism Hot Spot
According to the BBC anyway. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7120906.stm
Aires:Cali To Medellin Not Rionegro
Just saw an ad in El Pais saying Aires will have three flights daily Cali-Medellin direct. Depending on the schedule that could make trips from Cali to Bahia Solano/Nuqui/Capurgana a lot easier!
Hummingbirds At The Gold Museum
Anybody familiar with the displays at the Gold Mueum? I´m trying to recall. Some years ago when I went one of the displays showed some small gold hummingbirds and I think the explanatory sign above said something about hummingbirds having an some sort of evil conotation to the Indians of the time. Can anyone elaborate on that? My memory of it foggy. ...
Old News About Tanja
I see on Yahoo´s news page there´s an AP story about Tanja Nijmeijer, the Dutch girl who joined the FARC. This story was thoroughly written up in SEMANA magazine oh about two months ago. So AP combs old issues of foreign magazines to come up with storys for Yahoo?! ...
Rufous-tailed and Heliconia
...in Trujillo Valle:
From Alcalde To Presidente...again?
What will happen to Uribe´s clamp down on the FARC if Sergio Fajardo the current mayor of Medellin wins the presidency in 2010. He has been full of good social works for the city but will he fight the FARC or will Colombia´s inter city highways return to the days "pescas miligrosas"? ...
Quatromotos at Exito?!
Used to be you´d see 100cc motos for sale at Exito for around three miliones of pesos. Now they´ve got $10,000.000 all terain quatromotos. Are caleños poor?
What is Piedad Córdoba thinking?
I don´t get why all the hoopla with dragging Chavez into the picture and Córdaba running around the US. Does she really think the FARC can be distracted from their demand for Florida and Pradera on the outskirts of Cali? Or alternatively that the Colombia govt. will permit the FARC to militarily occupy those towns in order to fascilitate their drug trade and resupply routes? This whole thing seems like yet another excersize in futility. ...
Rapido y Furioso!
Saw an ad in Semana today for a 2008 BMW 320i available for immediate delivery. It comes with a 1.995cc motor that packs 150 HP and gets to 62 mph in a blazing 9 seconds. All this for only $101.920.000. Final ad blurb: SuspensÃon para topagrafÃa colombiana. ...
Work With Pension Visa?
When I applied for my Visa Pensionado it was very clear somewhere in the instructions/requirements that a foreigner with that visa was not permitted to work in Colombia. My wife believes that only applies to emprezas and that giving private English lessons for example would be legal. Que opinan? ...
Cocain Prices In The Economist
It looks like Canada is the second best place to by your cocain. UN numbers from 2005 per gram: Australia $250 Japan 245 Norway 155 USA 110 Britain 90 France 85 Germany 80 Isreal 65 Canada 60 Colombia peanuts ...
Hotel At Chipichapi
Looks like construction on the hotel at Chipichapi in Cal´s north end has come to a grinding halt.
Palos De Moguer?
I understand this micro brewery/restaurant/movie house in Cali closed for remodeling some time ago. Has it reopened yet?
References And Field Guides For Colombia
The discussion of hummingbird feeders below reminded me that there are PBH readers with an interest in Colombia’s fauna and flora who would like to be able to identify what they see. Here’s a small collection of references and field guides I’ve run across: For birds this recently published two volume set is the most authorative, up to date treatment covering Colombian birds. I don’t own it. In English and available in the US: The Birds of Northern South America by Robin Restall et ...
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