Invisible Paths
23 May 2007
18 May 2007
The World’s Most Extreme Emerging Market
Colombia’s improbable journey from crime capital to investment hot spot
Multi-media coverage
Article 1
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Multi-media coverageArticle 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
16 May 2007
this is the closest thing to crazy
2 weeks ago I was not even thinking about it
10 days ago I downloaded the application
9 days ago I sent it
6 days ago I had the interview
1 days ago I heard about it
in 12 days I leave Colombia
in 13 days I arrive in London
in 16 days in Rotterdam
my calendar for June looked completely empty, now I know that it will overflow. Not just for June.
2 weeks ago I was not even thinking about it10 days ago I downloaded the application
9 days ago I sent it
6 days ago I had the interview
1 days ago I heard about it
in 12 days I leave Colombia
in 13 days I arrive in London
in 16 days in Rotterdam
my calendar for June looked completely empty, now I know that it will overflow. Not just for June.
09 May 2007
PA201: Principles of Patacones
Step 1:
peel the platains under running water. It's easier that way, and they do not turn brown.
Step 2:
set to simmer a few chopped tomatoes and an adequate amount of chopped spring onion. Season with salt and a hint of chilli. If the tomatoes are too sour, add a sprinkle of brown sugar. This is what will come to be known as hogao.
Step 3:
Cut the raw platain in 3cm long pieces and fry them in very hot oil until golden. (not pictured)
Step 4:
Take each piece of pre-fried golden platain, place it in-between a plastic bag, take a heavy flat item (pictured: cutting board, but also works with the base of a big plate), and flatten each piece of platain.
Step 5:
Repeat step 4 until you have a plate-full of beautiful thin pre-versions of patacones. Make sure you do not forget about the hogao simmering on the stove (step 2 above!)
Step 6:
Fry each of the flat pre-patacones into crispy-golden patacones! Make sure the oil is very hot, that way the patacones do not suck in the oil and become crispy! (don't forget about the hogao that is still simmering on your stove from step 2 above!!)
Step 7 (optional but highly recommended):
Scrape the inside of one maracuya per person into a mixer, add some water and sugar, put through a sieve, and add some ice (if you are not in Bogotá, that is!)
Step 8:
Enjoy your patacones with the hogao you made, just with salt, or add some lemon or orange juice. Or Suero for the caribbean feeling!
peel the platains under running water. It's easier that way, and they do not turn brown.Step 2:
set to simmer a few chopped tomatoes and an adequate amount of chopped spring onion. Season with salt and a hint of chilli. If the tomatoes are too sour, add a sprinkle of brown sugar. This is what will come to be known as hogao.Step 3:
Cut the raw platain in 3cm long pieces and fry them in very hot oil until golden. (not pictured)
Step 4:
Take each piece of pre-fried golden platain, place it in-between a plastic bag, take a heavy flat item (pictured: cutting board, but also works with the base of a big plate), and flatten each piece of platain.Step 5:
Repeat step 4 until you have a plate-full of beautiful thin pre-versions of patacones. Make sure you do not forget about the hogao simmering on the stove (step 2 above!)Step 6:
Fry each of the flat pre-patacones into crispy-golden patacones! Make sure the oil is very hot, that way the patacones do not suck in the oil and become crispy! (don't forget about the hogao that is still simmering on your stove from step 2 above!!)Step 7 (optional but highly recommended):
Scrape the inside of one maracuya per person into a mixer, add some water and sugar, put through a sieve, and add some ice (if you are not in Bogotá, that is!)
Step 8:
Enjoy your patacones with the hogao you made, just with salt, or add some lemon or orange juice. Or Suero for the caribbean feeling!
07 May 2007
I have never...
felt so good.
So crazy. So confused. So excited. So alive. So sad. So attached to a group of people. So fortunate. So sorry. So intense. So grateful. So loved. So scared. So curious. So emotional.
all at the same time.
felt so good.
So crazy. So confused. So excited. So alive. So sad. So attached to a group of people. So fortunate. So sorry. So intense. So grateful. So loved. So scared. So curious. So emotional.
all at the same time.
04 May 2007
Mira, ve!
Cali smells of burning sugar cane at sunset, and takes me back to when I lived here almost three years ago. I walked past my old house, the small shack selling empanadas and assorted sweets and randomness is still there in all its shackness. But behind a flourishing business developed: potted flowers of the most incredible kind (the kind that would die in any other climate). And the business centre where my office used to be has lost non of its dubious 70s charme. Cali is Cali, a feeling more than a place, an emotion more than anything else. I note more of its chaos now than I did then. Is there more chaos now, or have I grown more critical, used to other Colombian cities?
03 May 2007
City of Eternal Spring
another bus ride that should have taken several hours less, but at least I was with Pipe. Through the stunning coffee region, along rivers, and I could stretch out in the last row of the bus, even though I sometimes bounced up and down when we hit a random pothole.
In Medellín straight to EAFIT, where Lucas and I prepared and ran an amazing meeting for all project people. I could see my 
work of the year come together. I could work with over 50 amazing people full of ambition, drive, and passion. And I had to really control myself when I spoke the closing words of that three-day conference.
work of the year come together. I could work with over 50 amazing people full of ambition, drive, and passion. And I had to really control myself when I spoke the closing words of that three-day conference. ... more rumba every night, and the DreamTeam girls´ birthday party. What will I do without my DreamTeam?
Many many things are happening these days, and I am taking decisions with the stomach.
Disfruta el momento...
02 May 2007
random travels and DreamTeam love
but once in Armenia, the guys cooked delicious pasta, and I made an appearance on a radio programme, talking about AIESEC and my experience in Colombia.
the trip to Armenia was above all characterized by incompetent bus companies. Translates into everything that well-versed Colombian travelers know all too well: breakdowns, change of bus, random movies at top volume, siberian temperatures inside the bus, no footrest, stops in the middle of nowhere, lost tickets...
but once in Armenia, the guys cooked delicious pasta, and I made an appearance on a radio programme, talking about AIESEC and my experience in Colombia. and just a day later my Pipe arrived, just in time to take me to eat cake in the centre when some 90% of the country suffered an "apagón": no electricity for about 4 hours! In the picture we show our true face as "esposos"...
And coaching was even more fun with Pipe there!
garden city
bucaramanga is definitely the garden city of Colombia. With amazing temperate climate and inmidst some of the finest mountains, it is a pleasure to walk around during the day and at night.
bucaramanga is definitely the garden city of Colombia. With amazing temperate climate and inmidst some of the finest mountains, it is a pleasure to walk around during the day and at night.Again, living in the house of AIESEC members has giving me new insights into Colombian family life of very different people. social status, believes, convictions, life situation, personalities.... blend into the fabric of a family.
before that bus to Bucaramanga
we obviously went out in the old town of Cartagena (more rumba). And since it was almost my birthday, all of AIESEC Cartagena convinced the DJ to put on a happy-birthday Vallenato so that they could congratulate me in true Costeño style... 
we obviously went out in the old town of Cartagena (more rumba). And since it was almost my birthday, all of AIESEC Cartagena convinced the DJ to put on a happy-birthday Vallenato so that they could congratulate me in true Costeño style... 
01 May 2007
colombia in 16 days
in Medellín now, with a purring siamese cat on my lap. He woke me up at mid-day, after a good 8 hour sleep (rumba, rumba, rumba), by jumping on my bed and curling up next to me, purring like a little engine.
I started this trip in Cartagena, dazzled by the discrepancy of 36% extremely poor inhabitants of the city, and the beautiful colonial inner city and lavish cruise ships with respective passengers. My wonderful hosts taught me how to make arroz con coco, served me huge plates of fruit, and enveloped me in their true caribbean spirit. Until I covered myself against the over-airconditioned overnight bus to Bucaramanga, passing through Colombia towards the Venezuelan boarder.
I started this trip in Cartagena, dazzled by the discrepancy of 36% extremely poor inhabitants of the city, and the beautiful colonial inner city and lavish cruise ships with respective passengers. My wonderful hosts taught me how to make arroz con coco, served me huge plates of fruit, and enveloped me in their true caribbean spirit. Until I covered myself against the over-airconditioned overnight bus to Bucaramanga, passing through Colombia towards the Venezuelan boarder.
