Lima Marks Fourth Major South American Destination for JetBlue
April 29th, 2013By Narayan Ammachchi
U.S. low-cost carrier JetBlue has added new flight routes to South American destinations. In a statement issued last week, JetBlue announced new daily nonstop service between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Chavez International Airport (LIM) in Lima, Peru.
Lima will be JetBlue’s fourth destination in South America. “When you look at Lima’s wonderful offerings, including its rich culture, cuisine and great people, we believe both Florida and Lima residents will benefit greatly from the flight, whether visiting friends and relatives, vacationing or on business,” said Scott Laurence, vice president of network planning for JetBlue Airways.
Destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean now make up almost one-third of JetBlue’s route network. In South America, JetBlue also offers nonstop service between Bogota and both Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, as well as nonstop service between Cartagena, Colombia and New York’s John F. …
Tracing Shakira’s Roots to Back to Barranquilla
April 17th, 2013
By Patrick Haller
Fame didn’t exactly greet Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll at her family doorstep in the middle class neighborhood of Barranquilla where she was raised. Born in 1977 to a Lebanese father and Colombian mother in Barranquilla, Shakira discovered her talent when she started writing poetry at age four. By the time she was eight Shakira wrote her first song, “Tus gafas oscuras” (“Your Dark Glasses”) inspired by her beloved father who wore dark lenses for years after one of his sons, Shakira’s older half-brother, was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Disappointment and Determination
After being rejected by a local choir director because her voice “sounded like a goat,” Shakira continued to write her music and sing; never giving up on her determination to become an international star. “I knew I had to work real hard to conquer my dreams …
Level 3 Begins Construction New Data Center in Bogota
March 20th, 2013BY STAFF REPORT
Level 3 Communications Inc has announced that it had begun building a new data center in the Colombian capital Bogota to meet growing demands for IT services and storage in the region.
The new 500 square-meter data center is likely to be operational sometime in the second half of this year.
“The Colombian market shows a growing demand for colocation, housing, hosting and value-added services,” said Luis Carlos Guerrero, senior vice president for Level 3′s Andean region. “The trend to outsource these services to a trusted business partner – one that will support the customer in its expansion strategy – is crucial for companies today so they can focus on their core business.”
The company stated that it might build more data centers in Latin America and elsewhere in the world as part of a ‘strategy to meet the burgeoning worldwide demand for …
Medellin Declared Most Innovative City in the World
March 5th, 2013By STAFF REPORT
Colombia’s Medellin, once dubbed the “murder capital of the world,” has notched yet another important accolade on its way to become a completely transformed city. The newest award: “the most innovative city of 2012.’
The recognition is the result of a competition organized by the Urban Land Institute, Citi Financial Group and Wall Street Journal Magazine. Interestingly, Medellin has outshined Israel’s Tel Aviv and New York to emerge victorious in the final round of the contest.
In the competition, there were cities like Chicago, Singapore, London and Sao Paulo. Analysts say this is an extraordinary transformation of Medellin from being one of the most violent cities in the world to become a global benchmark of good urban planning.
The organizers said they took into account eight factors on their way to choose the most innovative city and some of these factors include environment, culture and …
Colombia’s Linio Raises $20 Million From Summit Partners
March 1st, 2013BY STAFF REPORT
Venture capital firm Summit Partners has announced that it had invested US$20 million in Colombian e-commerce firm Linio, known locally as the “Amazon of Latin America.”
Linio is the Latin American subsidiary of the German internet firm Rocket Internet.
The company stated that it would use the money to expand operations into other markets in the region. The e-commerce company currently has operation in Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela.
Founded in the spring of 2012, Linio has become a popular e-commerce company in the region offering a wide range of products, from cosmetics to toys to consumer electronics.
Tengelmann Group and JP Morgan Asset Management have also invested in Linio helping the company reach out to more customers in a short space of time.
Summit Partners has invested more than 15 billion U.S. dollars in 365 companies around the globe.
Is Bogota Going to Build a Second International Airport?
February 14th, 2013BY STAFF REPORT
The Colombian government is reportedly contemplating building one more airport in Bogota as the capital’s newly inaugurated El Dorado International Airport has already grown overcrowded following an increase in air travelers in the Latin American country.
The El Dorado Airport was designed to handle 15 million passengers annually by 2014. But, according to Colombia Reports, over 21 million passengers passed through the airport in 2012.
The new international terminal, inaugurated in October 2012, has almost the same number of gates as the old terminal.
The government is also contemplating shifting to a new venue – at the Colombian military’s transport command (Catam) at El Dorado – so it can free up more space for air passengers.
According to reports, airlines have to land on remote parts of the airport and bus their passengers to the terminal. (Editor’s Note: Does anyone notice how Avianca flights are processed more rapidly than JetBlue …
Panel: What Cloud Will Do to the LATAM Outsource Model
February 13th, 2013Excerpts from a Outsource2LAC “Outsourcing in the Cloud” panel featuring Brad DeMent of Scott Madden and Andrés Rozo of IBM. (In Spanish and English)
Carnival of Barranquilla: The Best Kind of Cultural Immersion
January 17th, 2013
By Tatyana Orozco
Every year, 40 days before the traditional Catholic celebration of Lent, thousands of people gather in Barranquilla, a colorful port city in Northern Colombia near the Caribbean Sea, to celebrate a uniquely Colombian version of Carnival. This is the festival of joy and celebration, and gives Colombians a special platform to show off their artistic talents. (This year the event rolls through town February 9 – 12.)
Carnivals are popular throughout Latin America and are believed to be among the biggest folklore festivals in the world. UNESCO has declared the Carnival as “a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of humanity”.
During the upcoming rolling and dancing and singing festival, Barranquilla decks itself out to receive thousands of national and international tourists, and join typically jump in and join the city’s inhabitants to enjoy four days of …
First Person: Our New Global Culture is Held Together By I.T.
January 17th, 2013
By Maryori Vivas
It’s January, 2013 and I just finished a skype conversation with a fellow Telemedicine colleague. He is not a MD but an IT expert. I did not grow up with Facebook or Skype and still don’t have a clue what chat means. I used to listen to music with a tape recorder and the classical long play records and, like many, became witness to the astonishing developments, and societal influences, of information technology.
Different social groups also have different access to resources and knowledge, and societies with easy access to information technologies seem to achieve faster rates of equality and inclusion.
How Do LATAM Software Builders Stack Up Against Eastern Europe’s?
January 7th, 2013An established software creator looks to expand in the region, but is concerned about a few key shortcomings.
