Having a birthday!

Wow...didn't realize how long I had gone without a blog post! This must be remedied. Sept. 19 was my birthday...I was determined to have a nice one this year in Colombia.  Last year, I had only been here just a few weeks and it was quiet and a little bit sad.

Thank you everyone here for making it such a terrific day.  It was a non-spot celebration and I feel good...even the day after!

Started with dinner the night before with my good friend Ernesto Robles, the wonderful photographer from Puerto Rico  We went to one of my favorite restaurants, La Fabricca en Parque #93. It was delightful.

Then the next day -- the actual day of my birthday began with a walk to Hotel Casa Dann Carlton for greetings from my wonderful trainer and exercise coach, Aldo.  Went next to the hair salon where Azusena came through with a cepillada and maquillaje.  I looked beautiful!!  Then home to change and lunch with Sofi in Macarena at Donostio where we had the best fresh tuna ever.  Home again to work with Gladys to get ready for a small gathering at home with Gail, Inez, Nat and Ernesto. Shared some food and wine and good conversation before heading to my favorite club, bar, restaurant -- San Sebastian.  About 14 of us there -- Cristina and Pia, Diego, the five of us from home, Luz, Pam and Mike Farley, Magdalena, Natalia, Jim and Ana and of course owners and hosts, Roberto and Martica.

And throughout the day, being remembered by all my Facebook friends in force.

Thank you everyone for making it such a special day!!

Another Visit to Medellin

OK – this should have been posted weeks ago…but really, there is just never, ever enough time.

This trip to Medellin was at the beginning of the month.  Between then and now, the day I get ready to post this – the very last day of May –I have made my way to Armenia, Laguna de Tota and Paipa en Boyaca and Cartagena, all of which merit separate entries.

As does the work in Bogota with the El Tiempo crime map and the Consejo de Redaccion corruption map, two of the projects I am doing as a Knight International Journalism Fellow here And let’s not forget about the development of the Bogota chapter of Hacks Hackers, something else I have been instrumental in establishing as part of my work here.

But quickly back to Medellin –

I made my way there for an event to mark World Press Freedom Day.

FundaMundo, the new foundation formed by the owners of El Mundo newspaper, a 40-year-old daily in Colombia’s second largest city, hosted the observance. Irene Gaviria, a lawyer and editor of El Mundo said a decision was made last year to change its business model and become a non-profit.

Her family has held most of the stocks in El Mundo since its founding.  She has taken over most of the management from her aging father. And she adamant about maintaining independence and objectivity in her coverage of the city where her brother was recently elected mayor.

Ok, yes, it’s complicated.

Irene is someone who doesn’t wait for things to happen – but strikes me as someone who sets out to make them happen herself. She took advantage of the World Press Freedom Day activities to officially announce the debut of FundaMundo.  I spoke briefly about ICFJ and our activities in Colombia, there. We also heard from Carlos Cortes on Internet freedom. And of course, about 200 members of Medellin’s media world learned about FundaMundo.

I got into Medellin the day before the event and went to a meeting with the Medellin and Antioquia controllers to learn about project working with student controllers.  Could they be possible participants in a citizen journalism effort?

I could go on – I won’t.  But one more thing to add to the Medellin mix that has nothing to do with journalism is the nature park that you get to by riding the metro up the mountain. Spectacular ride, spectacular park with a spectacular few hours spent there. 

Mother's Day in Colombia

Wish I had the pictures, but my camera didn't accompany me today. But we made our own day and it was delightful.   My friend Rosalba and I had a Mother's Day spree, taking ourselves out.  She is a delight -- always a smile, always good cheer, but not a Polyana, just out to enjoy life. She is a good influence. 

We started out at a local hotel -- five star -- that offers a free Sunday of cultural activities every Sunday -- generally kicking off with mass (very Catholic Colombia) an artisan fair,  a musical performane of some kind, and jugglers, clowns and more for the kids (and the adults, too).  It was an unusual day in Bogota -- no rain, which got things off to a really good start. So an outdoor mass was very appropriate. I even sat in on it -- as a good non-Catholic, nice Jewish girl, but it went with the territory and it felt right.

Then wandering around the artisan fair, got myself a pair earrings -- dangling ones which I can now wear again...A glass of wine in the hotel restaurant where we had intended to stay for lunch, but the service was terrible, thank goodness, because we left and went to Usaquen for a totally different experience.

Katmandu -- a little bit of India/Nepal/China/Marrakesh/Iran tucked away in one of Bogota's oldest colonial neighborhoods. Walk into the restaurant and you are walking into a different world. The sounds, the scents, the lighting, the ambiance, the way the tables are arranged and the dancers and musicians. A belly dancer and a drummer from Cordoba (Colombia) who accompanies her, but dressed for the part, looked more like I could have found him on the streets of anywhere but here. He played the darkuba, the drum used for bellydancing, like he was born to it. He wore the robes, the head gear, the earrings like a second skin. And they played to each other as she danced and he played.  Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, the food was great, too! 

Icing on the cake -- not just the dessert -- but they had gifts for all the mothers. Before we opened our  bags, we imagined they had given the moms chocolates. But it was even better -- two bars of scented soaps from Indonesia.  Yes, if I forgot to mention earlier, Mother's Day is a very big deal here. On every street corner, there was someone selling roses.  Wherever I went in the days leading up to My Day/Our Day, everyone wished him a happy mother's Day.  I am not going to make snide remarks here, but just take it at face value. It was nice.

P.S.  There is some hope for the pics, if Rosalba downloads them and sends them to me. And I will post them because we both look like real mamacitas. And that I do want to shre.

East of Bogota

La Minga...Choachi, and La Laguna Ubaque.  Three jewels literally within shouting distance of Bogota, about 50 miles east and a quick getaway from the "trancones", concrete and general stress of urban living in the city of more than 8 million we call home.

The dozen women who took the AWC - organized trip in April ended up with much more than we bargained for -- in the most positive of ways.  The way up was winding road. And we kept going up and up and up -- in fact so far up that we could look down on Monserrate.

Our hosts were the delightful couple who manage the property that is home to La Casa Gestante en La Minga en Choachi when founder and entrepreneur Pedro Molina is not there. Embarrassingly, I misplaced my notepad with their names.  But we got the full tour of what is an amazing piece of architecture and an equally amazing concept –where everything is ecologically sound and environmentally friendly.

All the structures are made of natural materials with construction based on three techniques -- bahareque, which uses timber, bamboo and mud; tapia pisada or stepped walls and adobe. Fruit and vegetables are grown on-site; there is a true roof garden and an ecological refrigerator. The building has a sauna, decks with amazing views surrounded by land that has a running brook, small waterfalls and lush vegetation.  

What makes the place so special is the philosophy behind it -- a belief in a real community give and take. We showed up just a few days after a “treque” where people trade what they have for what they want. Rural neighbors brought vegetables, fruits and plants they had grown, fresh cheeses and more; city visitors brought electrical goods, sporting goods, toys and used clothing. Everyone went away happy.

OK, enough.  The idea is just to give you a sense of the day. From La Minga, one of our organizers had the idea to make an already perfect day even better by driving to the nearby Laguna Ubaque and Choachi.  The lagoon is one of Cundinamarca's best-kept secrets. Those who can have weekend homes. Those who can't are happy with a half hour spent gazing out at the lagoon and in our case, sharing a bottle (or two) of wine.  The day included a quick stop in the town of Choachi, where even in the main plaza you could almost hear the silence.

Bogota's Feria de Libro -- A Celebration of the Written Word

There were almost as many people as books at Bogota's 25th annual book fair -- considered one of the biggest and most important celebrations of the written word in Latin America.

Books were launched, books were sold, authors spoke, entertainers performed -- as thousands of people made their way to Coferias, Bogota's place for trade shows and exhibits. Coferias is huge -- about a dozen pavillions,  food courts, stages and more.  Think World's Fair.

Digital age or not -- if the crowds on hand the day I visited the Book Fair are any indication, books still rule.  On Book Night (when fair organizers made statistics available) almost 35,000 people visited in a single evening.

And if you think people aren't buying books, think again. Once again, Fair organizers pointed to sales of more than $20 million.  And at this writing, the book fair still had three days to go -- with a holiday to come on closing day!


We pay so much attention to the Internet, pay walls, Kindles, I-Pads and the utilization of mobile devices for our reading pleasure (and our obligation) -- it was a bit mind-boggling to see so many people gathered in support of the written word.  Not even Bogota's consistent, ever-present rain nor time-consuming traffic jams kept people away.  (It took me an hour to get a taxi out when I was ready to leave -- forget the buses!)

One thing that makes the fair stand out is the way author readings and conversations are interspersed with the main business of the fair -- which of course is sales.  The lines to hear from Colombian author Fernando Vallejo were so long, I just gave up.

I made it to two readings. Clara Rojas, who had been held captive by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group from 2002 to 2008, launched her book, "Letters to Emmanuel."

Photojournalist Stephen Ferry, talked about his book, "Violentology" at the book fair and a separate event that evening at an art gallery in Bogota's Macarena district. If I can brave the crowds, I will attend one more reading and launch to be given by friend, poet and novelist Bella Ventura.

For me, going to the fair was not just about buying some books, but having the opportunity to interact with authors. And it was uplifting to actually see (by the number of books on display) that digital devices do not signal the demise of the PRINTED word.  Hooray!! 

Colombia is well-known and respected as an interntional cultural and literary leader.The 25th annual Feria de Libro  once again proves this is so.

Getting to Know About Pablo Escobar

Probably the two best known sons of Medellin --are Fernando Botero and Pablo Escobar.  Botrero is an internationally acclaimed artist; Escobar achieved notoriety as a drug trafficker who terrorized Colombia for much of the 1970s and 1980s. He was the head of the Medellin Drug Cartel, considered by some to be the world's greatest outlaw whose life of crime also made him, at one time, the seventh richest man in the world.

I traveled to Medellin one weekend in April to learn more about this past. I got interested in the Pablo tour after another friend and colleague wrote up a story about it. My trip developed out of a dinner conversation with Jaime Velez, dean of one of Medellin's journalism schools following a journalism conference in Bogota. We got to talking --Velez grew up in Medellin and waited tables at some of the restaurants frequented by the narcotraffickers during the drug war years.  "Why don't you come to Medellin and I will show you around," he said. So I did.

Velez enlisted his longtime friend and companion,  Luis Bernardo Cano, who goes by the nickname El Mono, in the venture.  "El Mono really knows a lot," Jaime said. "He worked in the communications office of Envigado while Pablo was in La Catedral."

La Catedral?  No, not a cathedral. But the luxury prison Escobar built for himself and his companions on the outskirts of Envigado, is at the end of a long, winding road -- and you can't drive up it without being seen from the top -- which I guess was Escobar's idea when he agreed to accede to a government demand in the early 1990s to serve a prison sentence.  Pablo ran the show from there.

El Mono used to go up there every week to bring the payroll from the mayor's office for Pablo to sign off on.  Pablo paid the guards. And the cost of the food and drink that was brought up to the prison to feed Pablo and his crew.  El Mono said he would go up to the prison about once a week with the paperwork for Escobar. Sometimes he saw him, sometimes he didn't. But Escobar, he said, was always gracious.  And good to the people around him, as long as you were not perceived as a threat or an enemy. And then...well the then, probably needs no mentioning.

We visited the grounds of what was La Catedral. Of course, the prison is no longer there and many of the buildings are in ruins. But you could still get a sense of the grandeur of what was. La Catedral is not a site open to the public. It has been taken over by an order of monks and the city of Envigado for use as an old-age home. No one is living there yet, though.

 The view of Medellin on the way up and once there is nothing less than spectacular.  Pablo of course had the best vantage point to see the sights and of course, the best room. A wall still stands that is decorative, rather than any attempt to keep someone in -- or someone out.



There is a soccer field still standing. It is said that some of the drug lord's wealth (cash) was buried on these grounds. So, it is also said were the bodies of some of his enemies. And there were also plenty of soccer games.

As Jaime and El Mono reiterated, Pablo Escobar was a man who hid in plain sight. There were times when everyone looked for him, but no one could "find" him, even though he showed up at parties, nightclubs and soccer games.  Life at La Catedral wasn't bad -- complete with the big screen TVs, back in the day when having a big-screen TV was a big deal.

But one day the government had enough. They sent up hundreds of troops to send Pablo to a "normal" prison.  But Pablo wasn't buying. Somehow he made his way past hundreds of troops and escaped to the hills. It was another year and a half before Escobar was found and killed -- on Dec. 2, 1993 in a house in Medellin. It is said that a phone call to his son allowed authorities to track him and gun him down.  An added aside -- according to Luis Bernardo, the man who killed Pablo Escobar is now in prison himself on drug charges.

 We visited the house in the Las Americas neighborhood where Escobar was killed. It looks normal and like any other house in the neighborhood. But it is for sale now, and so far there are no buyers.

We went to the cemetery where Pablo Escobar is buried, alongside his mother, who died in 2008, his father, who died in 2002 and other family members. It is the biggest plot in the cemetery, next to the cathedral and very well-tended.  There was a mourner there when we were present. Luis Bernardo said it was one of Pablo's brothers -- but one who was not involved in the drug trade.  No, he did not talk to us.

We also went to some of the buildings where Pablo either lived or worked during his Medellin prime. The Monaco apartment building, one of the homes he occupied with his wife and two children, was destroyed by a car bomb placed outside by the Cali drug cartel. Pablo wasn't there at the time, but his family was. They were not hurt, but it is said either his wife or daughter (or both) suffered some hearing loss form the explosion.  The building has been occupied for government offices from time to time, but not lately. A lone police officer stands guard.

The commercial center in Envigado where Escobar had his fist office is busy. It overlooks the plaza and there is normal, every day commerce there now.

A few of the buildings look like the Bronx in New York with heavy graffiti, like the multi-story building on Avenida Poblado, one of Medellin's main drags. " It bears the legend, "Pablo lives."  Many people think he does. 

At La Catedral, the caretaker,  who was there when Escobar was in prison, believes Escobar never died. "The pensions he began paying old people and those without jobs in Engivita are still being paid. Where is that money coming form?" she said.  And then recalling how much money Escobar had -- "of course he paid off someone to take his place and he had surgery."

Maybe?  Who knows?  Not I?  But if Pablo's death is not immortalized in the hearts of all,  there is a painting in the Medellin museum by world-famous artist and native son Fernando Botero that is a take on the photograph that shows the body of the man identified as Escobar.  And that picture is worth a thousand words.

Rain, rain go away

Bogota. Gray. Rain. Depressing. More rain. Depressed again. Will the sun ever shine again. Rainy season in Bogota..pull the shades, close the doors, get about about 50 books and as many movies.
Some bottles of wine...Wait two months, maybe then the sun will come out.

Will perhaps not as terrible as I am making it sound here ... but ...
You know the advertisement for American Express ... don't leave home without it. Here that cute little tag line applies to your umbrella. DO NOT LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!