ricardo_emp's blog

15 FARC Hostages Freed

ricardo_emp — Wed, 2 Jul 2008 16:38:41 -0500

Former Presidential Candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the three US contractors and 11 high ranking Colombian military officials have been freed from captivity by the armed forces in the eastern Colombian jungles.

Those free today

Contratistas estadounidenses

Keith Stansell...

Ingrid Betancourt Free After 6 Years

ricardo_emp — Wed, 2 Jul 2008 14:58:58 -0500

In case you have yet to hear, former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the three american contractors and 11 high ranking colombian soldiers have been liberated from the FARC.

After 6 and a half years in the jungles of Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt will be coming home.

More...

Musings-La Casa Amarilla-Exped Leading-Political Intrigue-Panamá

ricardo_emp — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:39:42 -0500

Like a broken man I have returned from leading a six week expedition through Peru and Bolivia. One that found me close the edge, considering murder – there is no extradition between Colombia and the UK…but there is to the US – and then led me to almost walk out on the job. I prevailed and am...

Back in Mompos

ricardo_emp — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:53:15 -0500

So, I am back in mompos after a six week job leading youngsters from the UK and US through Bolivia and Peru. Part of my journey can be found on MatadorTrips on my first piece for them - How To Trek the Inca Trail . The trip itself was beset with problems. On the Taquesi trail in Bolivia after...

Pisco, The Earthquake Zone - 9 months on

ricardo_emp — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:32:50 -0500

In August last year the town of Pisco some 4-5 hours south down the panamerican highway from Lima was pretty much razed to the ground by the effects of an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the richter scale. I find myself here leading another expedition through Peru and Bolivia and having not visited the town...

La Casa Amarilla Mompos, Colombia - Open and Running!

ricardo_emp — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:56:35 -0500

We are open, check that, La Casa Amarilla has been open almost a month and the backpackers and tourists are trickling through. Well, that was until Semana Santa when we struggled to find beds for eveyone. I would say that we are nowhere near, in my personal opinion, to being really...

Massive Worldwide Protest March Against the FARC

ricardo_emp — Mon, 4 Feb 2008 18:42:58 -0600

Early estimates are coming in and detailing that a figure in the region of 1 million people strode boldy through the Colombian capital Bogota's streets today in a massive march in opposition to the FARC guerrilla group. Marches have been held simultaneously in other Colombian cities and around 150...

Things Are Coming Along in Mompos

ricardo_emp — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:42:51 -0600

Yesterday we made the business cards for La Casa Amarilla and today we are putting the finishing touches to the flyers and I am relieved that this side of things, the publicity, is fairly inexpensive. Every day there are further costs, but ones that need addressing, there is no point in...

Weeks 1 and 2, Renovating the Colonial House in Mompox

ricardo_emp — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:40:12 -0600

When I finally find Eddy he is passed out cold on the forecourt of his house. My labourers are sitting calmly in the shade, they say simply: "Eddy likes to drink."

Eddy is in charge of refitting my roof to the requirements set out by the Colombian government, and as I have recently discovered, he...

Providencia - Colombia´s Idyllic Caribbean Pirate Island

ricardo_emp — Fri, 4 Jan 2008 21:36:21 -0600

Caribbean idyll in Colombia - please check out my piece for CNN Traveller on Providencia

I feel a bit slack of late not having written a real blog but things have not settled down one bit in the past few months. I am working tooth and nail to update a travel guide and co-author another one to Colombia,...

Colombia´s Internally Displaced People

ricardo_emp — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:36:11 -0600

Many of you will know about the state of the Internally Displaced Population in Colombia. The International Red Cross here is a busy organisation - please read here to see a recent article I wrote for the Independent regarding this issue

Colombia: A long way from home...

Buying a Property in Colombia - Family Feuds

ricardo_emp — Thu, 6 Dec 2007 08:16:14 -0600

So, it has been four months and counting since I threw my hat into the ring and decided to purchase a colonial house in Mompox, Colombia. My offer was accepted almost immediately and a friend of mine in Mompox - I currently reside in Bogota - has been overseeing all the negotiations and paperwork....

Some Shameless Self Promotion - My First Piece on the BBC

ricardo_emp — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:35:31 -0600

I couldn´t resist it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7024384.stm

Editorial Approval - What Say You?

ricardo_emp — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:24:21 -0600

Cali - Colombia.

Having just had an excellent day interviewing the people from the International Red Cross office in Cali - discussing their work with los desplazados - people displaced by the conflict - I spent the following day in the company of another NGO (which shall remain unnamed) and had the...

Cali - Building a New School in Monte Bello

ricardo_emp — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:55:05 -0600

You know how from time to time in guesthouses and on the road you meet the most incredible people doing the most worthy things...well, here in Cali (safely out of Buenaventura I hasten to add) I had the good fortune of meeting Andres Bappler an accomplished architect from Frankfurt. We shared a beer...

Buenaventura, Colombia....Enough Said

ricardo_emp — Tue, 6 Nov 2007 14:12:53 -0600

I write this from the security of my hotel room situated on the 10th floor of the building. From here everything looks idyllic, my balcony (I have a balcony!) overlooks the glimmering ripples of the pacific as it meets the freshwater flowing out of Valle del Cauca's mesh of tangled waterways. I can see...

Terrifying Hailstorm in Bogota

ricardo_emp — Sat, 3 Nov 2007 23:11:42 -0500

Today Bogota suffered, what some are calling, the most extreme weather in the city's history. Around 2pm a heavy rain began, nothing unusual for this time of year in the altiplano, then a hailstorm of apocalyptic and biblical proprtions struck. The photos on this blog are taken from the newspaper

Real Adventures in Colombia's Pacific Northwest

ricardo_emp — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:28:40 -0500

I have finally arrived back in Bogota and have internet and phone access and so much to do but I couldn't resist posting a blog about my last week and a half in Colombia's forgotten pacific region. Conflict, Cocaine and Adventure.

...so as you can well imagine there were few internet cafes in...

It Has Been A Long And Eventful Day

ricardo_emp — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:14:40 -0500

It has been a strange day.

Not surfacing until after midday as I was chained to my laptop desperately trying to meet a deadline I finally surface camera in hand to trawl through Bogota snapping photos of restaurants and hostels I am reviewing.

I got down to Carrera 7...

A Colombian Caribbean Paradise - Go to Providencia!

ricardo_emp — Sat, 6 Oct 2007 13:29:21 -0500

I have just returned from a week long jaunt on the Colombian caribbean islands of San Andres and Providencia. Located closer to Nicaragua and cause for a reasonable amount of strife between the two nations the two islands are very very different and it will come as no suprise that I preferred the...

The Colombian “Everyman” Heads to Europe in the Hope of Securing Support for a Humanitarian Agreement

ricardo_emp — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:55:50 -0500

So, Profesor Gustavo Moncayo left Colombia for Europe on Air France yesterday. He will by now have landed in France, a country that he has heard about, read about, seen on television and presumably mentioned in his classes in his hometown of Sandona.

Food for Thought - the Most dangerous Cities in the Americas?

ricardo_emp — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 20:21:50 -0500

A new article in today’s LP forum about the most dangerous cities in the Americas. Unfortunately the contributor did not source from where he lifted the facts and figures.

Reading today’s Lonely Planet Thorn tree forum on

We Do Love to Whinge About Public Transport

ricardo_emp — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 20:29:34 -0500

Right now, were I in my hometown of London and still commuting, I would be furious, spitting blood and most probably screaming obscenities at the striking tube workers. It is after all a national pastime to complain about such things. We are obsessed with it. If we cannot whinge about public...

Looking for Carlos Forero - Student Disappears in Bogota

ricardo_emp — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:00:31 -0500

I am flicking between this blog and between a new "group" page on facebook regarding the disappearance of a Bogota University student named Carlos Forero. The reason he has come to my attention - unfortunately to disappear in Colombia is a dire and not uncommon occurrence - is that he is...

A Trip Through the Macondean Wonderland

ricardo_emp — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:15:06 -0500

Having just returned from a week-long press trip along the Colombian Caribbean, I feel refreshed, re-invigorated, intellectually stimulated and well...pampered. The gig was put on by Colombia Es Pasion, an organisation set up to improve for the most part, Colombia's image abroad. What can I say, they...

"Accidents, Injuries and Fatalities" - Colombian Bus Trips...Getting to Mompox

ricardo_emp — Thu, 9 Aug 2007 14:56:31 -0500

I always find it rather disconcerting, perhaps I should say unsettling each time I stride into a bus station in Colombia. Not because I feel that I am going to be fleeced by tricky individuals intent of freeing a gringo of his possessions, sure these people are about, but as yet I have avoided them and...

Gustavo Moncayo - Resident of the Plaza de Bolivar - to Meet President Uribe

ricardo_emp — Thu, 2 Aug 2007 10:57:18 -0500

Gustavo Moncayo’s protest trek to the Plaza Bolivar from the distant southwest of Colombia has, at least, achieved one thing for the time being. He has succeeded in shaking the establishment and stoking the fight against indifference and acceptance of what is going on in Colombia.

Today as I pen...

Gustavo Moncayo Reaches Bogota -

ricardo_emp — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 19:53:42 -0500

The tale of one man, a teacher, Gustavo Moncayo from Sandona, Narino in the southwest corner of Colombia bordering Ecuador, who began an odyssey on foot 46 days ago on the 17th of June, walking from his home town to the seat of power, the Plaza de Bolivar in Bogota to demand a humanitarian exchange of...

21km Done...Bizarrely I Quite Enjoyed Myself... and a rant about FIFA

ricardo_emp — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:43:48 -0500

In a previous blog I mentioned that I would be making the potentially foolhardy decision to run the Bogota half marathon...yes I know it was only 21km as opposed to 42km, but all the same, for someone with little experience of distance running under his belt, this was quite an endeavour.

Besides,...

Death of a Former President and Quite Possibly the Worst Idea Ever

ricardo_emp — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:10:38 -0500

Yesterday as I spent yet another early morning at Candela Radio having the piss taken out of me and attempting to actually get some of my messages across, not least plug the recent Documentary about the Vallenato Music Festival that Joan and I have put together from our experiences in Valledupar a few...