El Piloto has left 171 comments
Comments:
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El Piloto comments on Things to see in Bogota? Haven't been to either yet but will be in BOG next week and looking to try at least one of those spots for dinner.
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El Piloto comments on Things to see in Bogota? Estrella de los Rios is also in La Macarena. http://www.estrelladelosrios.com/el-restaurante/
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El Piloto comments on Things to see in Bogota? Bogota for Foodies Questions: I see a couple recommendations for San Isidro atop Monserrate. Is the food really that good or is it a place that people like because of the setting and views? There's a general rule here in the States that the higher in elevation a restaurant, and the more it revolves, the worse the food! Has anyone been to both Leo Cocina y Cava and Estrella De Los Rios to compare the two? Am curious if you were to do one high-end modern Colombian dinner which of these you would pick? Both sound amazing.
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El Piloto comments on Transmilenio: Museo del Oro - Centro Andino No shame in taking Transmilenio even if you do have the money to shop at Andino. I don't like paying a premium to sit in a taxi stuck in stop and go traffic. At least Transmilenio moves thanks to its reserved lanes. It'll be nice though when Bogota gets a proper Metro. The preliminary plans for the future Metro look really cool.
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El Piloto comments on information on hotel near airport medellin Hotel Las Lomas is AA's crew hotel for MDE so that says it's at least passed the basic standards required by AA's pilot and F/A union contracts.
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El Piloto comments on Bogota Routes and culture museums dates and activities (spanish) - Activities for each day of September Embassy Suites is at Cll 70 #6-22 http://embassysuites1.hilton.com/en_US/es/hotel/BOGESES-Embassy-Suites-by-Hilton-Bogot-Rosales/index.do
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El Piloto comments on MUST SEE's in BOGOTA? The Donacion Botero is probably one of the better small art museums in the world - and the price can't be beat (free!). The museum includes not just Boteros but works by numerous other great painters that he donated. A nice little survey of late 19th/20th century art. Right next door to the Casa de la Moneda which is also pretty interesting if you like art (mostly Colombian) and money! Also free.
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El Piloto comments on ATM cards from US not working on Plus network Hey speaking of ATMs are there any banks whose ATMs dispense COP50K notes instead of COP20K notes?
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El Piloto comments on ATM cards from US not working on Plus network My US ATM card has NEVER worked in the ATM of any "Colombian" bank. It only seems to work at the Spanish banks (BBVA, Santander) in Colombia.
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El Piloto comments on domestic flight checkin I don't know about Aires since they use the Domestic terminal at El Dorado whereas Avianca uses its own Puente Aereo terminal but I found Avianca domestic check-in at Puente Aereo to be a breeze. Maybe a 10 minute wait in the check-in line and then less than 5 minutes to clear security. Arriving an hour early seems to be a good target (no comment on Av. Eldorado traffic, I'm talking about once you get to the terminal). Coming back from CTG was even better. I got to the ticket counter way early for the flight I had booked but about 15 minutes before departure of an earlier CTG-BOG flight. Got on the earlier flight as a standby; no line at check-in, none at security. Arriving about 15 minutes before the flight left I was still in my seat with a few minutes to spare before pushback. Carry-on luggage only, of course. So, an hour seems like good advice for the non-pros but frequent flyers should have no problem cutting it closer.
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El Piloto comments on THE INTERNET IN LATIN AMERICA, Colombia is the third-largest Internet market in Latin America. Isn't Colombia the third largest economy in Latin America? Brazil, Mexico, then Colombia? I guess the following wouldn't be a very sexy headline though: "Size of Colombia's Internet Market is in line with its GDP"
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El Piloto comments on "Mysteriously" disappeared from radar. What's so mysterious about disappearing from radar? It's what airplanes do when they get below radar coverage. We've probably got either garden variety drug running here or, more likely, just a couple of planes out for a nice relaxing leisurely VFR flight around the hills and valleys. Guess it's reassuring that Colombia even has such good primary radar coverage that this could even stand a chance of making the news (although what a slow news day it must have been). I'm assuming that this was based on primary (metal being reflected) radar and not secondary (transponder interrogation) radar? I've often wondered when flying into Colombian airports as a passenger just what type of radar service ATC is providing.
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El Piloto comments on What is considered rude? To what was "Never mind, it was nothing" a response? Depending on to what you were using this as a repsonse it could be from impolite to very rude. Not a cultural thing either. As a norteamericano I'd find that response exceedingly rude in many contexts.
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El Piloto comments on Wow, Floored tonight by Finale of SIN SENOS NO HAY PARAISO! She sure is. That's going to be worth watching!
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El Piloto comments on Wow, Floored tonight by Finale of SIN SENOS NO HAY PARAISO! The RTI/Telemundo remake for the US & Mexican market just ended Monday night here in the states. The novela did drag on a couple months too long. But Carmen Villalobos is hot! If you could combine the face and hair of Carmen Villalobos with the body of the actress who played Ximena in Sin Senos you would really have something.
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El Piloto comments on I want to visit friends in Columbia Columbia, South America? Never heard of it.
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El Piloto comments on I want to visit friends in Columbia Well since this is summer right now I recommend British Columbia instead of Columbia, SC. Much better weather in the summer. Beautiful mountain scenery and fresh salmon. Fewer Walmarts too!
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El Piloto comments on Planning a trip to Tayrona N.P. How many of you have gotten vaccinations before going to Parque Tayrona? Seems like everyone is recommending vaccinations for yellow fever, typhus, etc. for that part of the coast but wondering how many people really heed that advice...
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El Piloto comments on Colombia Vs. Australia Hey manINred the Aussies may edge out the Kiwis when it comes to beer but those Kiwis sure can cook. NZ probably has the best food in the world: venison, lamb, green mussel, fish, fresh local vegetables... NZ is a gourmet's paradise (not that there aren't tons of trendy restaurants in SYD/MEL) Beers not bad there either - Speights from the South Island was darn good. Love me some Victoria Bitter too (my favorite Ozzie beer so far). NY Bombero if you can spend a couple weeks across the Tasman in NZ you might save heaps of money by renting your car one-way NORTHBOUND. Tons of tourists rent one-way AKL>CHC/ZQN or CHC>ZQN so if you can fly into a city on the South Island and out of AKL (North Island) you may save lots of money on your rental car. Or within the S. Isl. it works too: for me renting oneway ZQN to CHC was cheaper that round trip out of either. Back to SYD, be sure to eat a meat pie from Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Wollomooloo!
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El Piloto comments on Colombia Vs. Australia That's my dream - live 1/2 the time in Australia and 1/2 the time in Colombia! Although if you're going to be down under for two months you should cross the Tasman and spend a week or two in New Zealand as well. In my experience the three countries in the world with the greatest diversity of scenery are USA, Colombia and New Zealand. As a place to live though I'd give the edge to Oz because NZ's biggest city is nowhere near as cosmopolitan as SYD or MEL. I need a huge, diverse cosmopolitan city... Sometimes! Back to tourism in Oz I have only been to NSW and Victoria so can't comment on Queensland which most tourists seem to love (barrier reef and all that). Hope to get to Adelaide and the outback someday. Close to SYD I would rent a car and spend a couple days in the Blue Mountains and a couple days in the Hunter Valley (wine country). I did day trips to each and felt like I needed a lot more time to explore. I stayed in the heart of town at first but then moved out to the western suburbs once I rented the car and entered the daytrip phase of my trip. Much easier to get around by car if you're not staying in the CBD...
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El Piloto comments on Why Colombia’s ETF Is Rocketing Higher But CIB didn't fall nearly as far as the U.S. financials did. My point was more about GXG - that much of its nice gain from inception in Feb could be chalked up to the fact that it may be massively weighted in just two stocks, Bancolombia and Ecopetrol.
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El Piloto comments on Why Colombia’s ETF Is Rocketing Higher Bancolombia's NYSE traded ADR (ticker symbol CIB) is up from below $19 to around $31. If this ETF is market cap weighted I assume it's just one huge bet on Bancolombia and Ecopetrol...
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El Piloto comments on Yet another job opportunity in Colombia (if you're into apples) How you like them apples?
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El Piloto comments on The Brilliance Of Bogota Theflatline - what happened to trolleys in Bogota happened in nearly every U.S. city too. Talk about corruption on a massive scale - GM, Firestone and Chevron wrote the book and it was happening here in the states not in Colombia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_City_Lines As for the Wharton conference it wasn't even a whole week at a stage managed academic conference. It was two days! I should know; I was there. But despite the fact that Mr. Kramer's writing sucks and calling oneself a "serial entrepreneur" is the height of pretentiousness (he's not tenured faculty at Wharton by the way; seems only loosely affiliated), the Wharton conference in BOG was still a great event and it did put a good face on a city that deserves some good international publicity. It ain't Disneyland (and in fairness Mr. Kramer didn't claim it was) but it is overall a nice place, a much improved city, and an important business capital in Latin America...
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El Piloto comments on Cartagena - Santa Marta Any other good (upscale) hotel recommendations for Santa Marta?
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El Piloto comments on American Airlines to Cartagena AA has never flown to CTG and I doubt they'd start service now that NK flies there. Low yield leisure markets with low cost carrier competition are notoriously unprofitable for legacy network carriers like AA.
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El Piloto comments on Good news for Northwest Airlines Worldperk Members And right now they are offering a bonus of 500-1000 miles for linking your DL and NW account numbers. DL miles can be used for redemption on AV domestic flights.
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El Piloto comments on Hooters Medellin Sí. A paisa Hooters girl in an authentic Antioqueño hat might just be enough to tempt me to enter the place and eat their crappy overpriced food...
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El Piloto comments on Any private pilots here? Anyone flying in Colombia? My business is corporate aviation consulting. I have a trip to BOG coming up in 2009 where I'm going to try and make some FBO/charter contacts. Untapped market for corporate aviation; there are a whopping 4 bizjets registered in Colombia!
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El Piloto comments on Is there a duty free in BOG airport ?? Yes, there is plenty of duty free booze available in the terminal at BOG and yes the prices suck. Complete rip-off. Plus since you'll be buying booze airside (past security) you will have issues if you are flying to the U.S. and making a connecting flight thanks to Security Theatre as practiced by TSAholes and their relentless War on Liquids. 4 hours before your flight??? Major exaggeration there. Between DAS passport control, regular security and the secondary security search of carry-on you'll likely still have plenty of time to get price gouged by shops in the airport. It took me well under an hour to clear all of the above at BOG (actual time once having received my boarding pass at the airline ticket counter to being at the gate/AV lounge was probably closer to 30 minutes than 60). The various friskings by overzealous Colombian guards still beats the TSA's Shoe Carnival, War on Liquids and other forms of generalized harassment of travelers...
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El Piloto comments on Americans Required to Register or Notify reg Marriage Agency Brides Scary interference by government into peoples private lives. Having to disclose to the government how a couple met? Un-freakin-believable. Looks like the bill that passed this had bipartisan support - that's generally a sign that it's bad legislation! The more Senators and Representatives that vote for a bill, the better the chance it will take away your liberty AND your money!
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El Piloto comments on Any private pilots here? Anyone flying in Colombia? I posed the same question a while back. http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/general-aviation-in-colombia/ If I ever wound up spending a lot of time in Colombia I would definitely look into getting current there, getting a Colombian PPL, etc. (I know that while many countries require you to "convert" a U.S. PPL into the local equivalent, the process can be pretty painless; doubtful that you would have to start from scratch and build up 60 hours in Colombia, for example...)
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El Piloto comments on Colombian Christmas Party in Austin Yes, I drove by Casa Colombia (it's on 7th St east of I-35) in Austin once by accident. Have also eaten at a more upscale Latin fusion restaurant in downtown Austin under the same ownership, Doña Emilia's. Doña Emilia's was o.k., not great. I'm planning on trying Casa Colombia on a future visit to Austin. Casa Colombia appears to be a small low-key neighborhood kind of place.
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El Piloto comments on Huge Avianca discount available Airline vouchers are generally NOT transferable. Buyer beware on this.
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El Piloto comments on Field elevation at the in-town airport (EOH/SKMD) is 4940 feet or 1506 metres.
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El Piloto comments on Colombia to Cuba flights I think the issue/way that Treasury finds out about people having been to Cuba has nothing to do with passport stamps and everything to do with airline manifests, credit card/banking transaction records, etc. My gut feeling is that they won't send you a nastygram and threaten fines unless you have multiple trips but if it's important for your job/security clearances/etc. I would definitely play it safe and operate under the assumption that the U.S. gov will find out... ...or fly Cubana (doubt they're sharing their data! although who knows how safe their Tupolevs are) and pay cash for everything!
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El Piloto comments on Colombia to Cuba flights The Department of Treasury OFAC has been known to send nasty letters threatening fines to U.S. citizens that have traveled to Cuba multiple times, even those that thought they were doing it in an "under the radar" sort of way. Be very careful with this if you're a U.S. citizen. Also U.S. citizens please write your Congresscritters asking them to support legislation ending the travel embargo to Cuba. It's an outrage that our government deprives us of the liberty of being able to travel and do business where we want.
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El Piloto comments on Cartagena #8 from today's CNBC web-page! Beach at Playa Blanca on Isla Baru about an hour from CTG by boat is great. I did it as part of a trip on a small launch that also included a stop at the Oceanario in the Islas del Rosario. We had about 1 1/2 hrs at the aquarium, then about 2 hrs at Playa Blanca in the late afternoon (I could have used more time there). Cost was COP70k per person including lunch at Playa Blanca. How much have you guys paid to hire a small launch privately and just go to Baru/Playa Blanca for the day skipping the touristy stuff in the Islas del Rosario?
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El Piloto comments on Spanish classes in La Javeriana University -- HORRIBLE I much prefer group (small group) lessons to one-on-one instruction. I've been to two language schools in South America, two weeks at Academia Latinoamericana de Español in Quito and one week at Nueva Lengua/EIA in Medellín. The school in Quito was a group of 4 students (tested so that all of us were at approximately the same level) while MDE was all one-on-one instruction. Night and day the quality of the experience. The Quito small group program was better by leaps and bounds. Where groups are bad are when they are too large and the experience/proficiency level too different. I've tried to continue my Spanish studies here in Dallas through the continuing ed. program of a major university here. The classes suck. Terrible. Groups of 15 students most of whom are beginners at best but in intermediate classes. Waste of time and money.
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El Piloto comments on taking liquor to the USA Just be careful that airline ramp employees or TSAholes don't steal the booze out of your checked luggage.
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El Piloto comments on Not nonstop but of course they sell plenty of NYC-MDE tickets involving a connection in Miami.
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El Piloto comments on Frequent Flyer tips CG - I use the same rule of thumb for all my miles. Mine come from a mix of flights taken, credit card purchases, car rentals, etc. so once posted to the airline account they're all mixed together. Look at it as opportunity cost - there are enough opportunities to redeem miles for 2.5 cents or better that redeeming for much less than that (even the miles that were earned for "free") represents lost opportunity in the future. Different Mileage Runners have somewhat different thresholds for redemption value and how cheap miles need to be before they'll take a pointless trip just to earn miles but for me I personally find the 1.5 vs. 2.5 cent rule of thumb works pretty well.
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El Piloto comments on Frequent Flyer tips I've redeemed AAdvantage miles for award tickets USA-Colombia and the taxes and fees have not been more than $100. A general rule of thumb for those of us that play heavily in frequent flyer programs is to shoot for at least 2.5 cents worth of value out of every mile redeemed. Example if you save $500 by using 30,000 miles instead of paying cash for a ticket to MDE, you are getting 1.67 cents worth of value for your redeemed miles and you are better off just paying cash to buy a ticket. If, instead, that 30,000 miles is getting you a ticket that would otherwise be $900 in cash, then that's redemption value of 3.00 cents per mile and an attractive use of miles. Similarly, if you can "buy" miles cheaply enough, you should consider doing it. I've been known to take unnecessary trips solely for the purpose of earning frequent flyer miles. If I can earn miles paying less than 1.5 cents per mile, I do it. Those of us crazy folks that arbitrage ("buy" miles for less than 1.5 cents, redeem for more than 2.5 cents) FFPs in this way are known as Mileage Runners.
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El Piloto comments on Luggage Embargo, Travel ALERT! on A.A. from November 29 to January 10, 2009 to Cali or Medellin This is nothing new. Holiday season extre bag/box embargoes to Caribbean, Central America, Northern Rim SA destinations have been in place for many years on AA. BOG might be excluded from the list due to the MIA-BOG flights being A300s which have a lot more payload and space available for baggage/cargo.
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El Piloto comments on Some of the places on that list are downright hilarious - a market in Harare, a BUS STATION in Corpus Christi... Gimme a freakin' break.
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El Piloto comments on Spirit/// all but confirmed Medellin - Ft lauderdale How is this possible? Aren't all of the US-Colombia frequencies allowed under the bilateral agreement already allocated and being used by other airlines?
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El Piloto comments on Medellin to Buenos Aires - by boat? Any liner services still have passenger cabins avilable? Back in the day Delta Line used to carry a few passengers on its South America ships.
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