Cheap perfume: In all shopping centres here you have little stalls that sell knock-off copies of expensive perfumes. They have these little leaflets listing all the brands and names (CK, Chanel, Hugs boss etc) that they've got but it says there are merely 'inspired' by the scents of these designer ones. Not sure that would be an acceptable legal loophole in Europe but I like the fact that I can spend £4 instead of £40 for perfume that basically smells the same.
Postobon manzana or uva: Colombian fizzy drinks in a variety of fruit flavours with my favourite being apple or grape. We need this in Europe!
Pandebono: Bread balls made with powdered cheese, delicious warm!
Bonbon Bum: Now, this may look weird in English but is actually these lollipops that have bubblegum in the middle. I am discovering the childhood I never had with these!
Mayonnaise crisps: Risadas do amazing mayonnaise flavoured crisps!
Crepes and Waffles: Banana and nutella waffle and the Pita Griega (a pizza-type thing with olive, artichoke, mozarella and tomato). Who doesn’t love this place?!
Arepa con queso: Colombian corn flatbread type thing stuffed with cheese!
Colombian cheese: Costeño is like a less rubbery less salty haloumi, Campesino is like a less salty less crumbly feta and what they call mozzarella but it’s just a hard yellow cheese - yummy.
Mostaneza: Hands down the best sauce ever. Mayonnaise, mustard and garlic – drool! They also do a smoky Ranch flavor!
Vegetation: The hotter cities here are very green naturally due to the climate and rainy seasons. You can always see some kind of colourful flower, tall palm tree or fruit tree no matter where you are and it's beautiful!
Mountains: Being in a valley means you can almost always see the mountains which makes city feel less suffocating and gives some stunning views. 
Birds: There are so many beautiful colourful tiny birds here, including humming birds!
Lizards: I love lizards and they are very common here. Just yesterday I turned around in the shower and one of those little guys was staring right back at me.
San Antonio: This is an area to the northwest of Cali which is the old colonial area on a hill with a church on top. It is a little run down but the houses are really pretty and all painted different colours, I will write a post about it as it deserves to have it's own spot on my blog!
El Peñón: Just down the hill from San Antonio is a nice area with bars and restaurants near big hotels. It is rather pricey though but it has a nice atmosphere.
Public holidays: Being a very religious country, apparently Colombia has an average of 18 public holidays a year, the most in the world! Now, this may mean less official holiday days off work, but I guess it all adds up!
Gloves to eat with: In Colombia, if you are eating chicken in a fast food chain or a more casual restaurant, they will always give you plastic gloves to eat with so that you don't get grease all over your hands. I think it's genius!

I thought I would use this platform to shamelessly advertise some fundraising I am doing on behalf of my partner. If you care about drug addiction, which is such a prevalent public health issue worldwide and has defined Colombia's troubled history, please donate to help my him study a research masters that will be the first step in a long career determining preventative solutions to addiction.

He already has an offer to study at Cambridge under Dr. Belin to assess brain functions in the development of addictions and ultimately wishes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Neuroscience. Please click on the link below for more information.

He has incredible potential but is unable to pursue higher education due to financial constraints and the fact that the type of masters he needs is not available in Colombia. He is currently finishing a BSc Psychology degree online from the University of Derby, UK, and is expected to graduate with First-class Honours (3.6+ GPA).

It might make a nice change from donating to anonymous causes where you do not see the impact of your money but I can assure you that this money would make a huge difference to his life and in the lives of thousands of affected people. All it takes is one person to get the right start in their career to make a discovery that will change the world. I am going to help him as much as I can but, of course, that would only be a drop in the ocean and I would really appreciate any generosity on your part. Also feel free to share it to your friends or tweet it to any famous people you think may be willing to donate. Thank you!

My blog has been mentioned in the one and only New York Magazine, which has millions of readers and covers topics such as culture, politics and travel. The article my blog was featured in was about what to do and where to stay on a short trip to Cali and was one of 3 internet resources chosen to help readers explore more about this city. I am extremely honoured to have been chosen and hope that this puts Cali on the map more and more as a tourist destination as well as raising awareness about often unreported issues here in the international press. Thanks again to New York Magazine and hello to any new readers I have as a result of this exposure! You can read the article here.

I recently got to go on a week-long work trip to Rwanda as part of the work I am doing with USAID (The US Agency for International Development). My team was made up of myself, my boss from CIAT, an independent consultant and a representative from the Bureau for Food Security in USAID Washington. Our objective was to talking to as many stakeholders involved in USAID's Feed the Future initiative as possible to assess whether any of what they were doing in Rwanda could be deemed climate smart, and to identify future potential for bolstering CSA.

Firstly, my impressions of Kigali, Rwanda's capital, were that it was a very safe, clean and relaxed capital city with an average temperature in the day of around 24 degrees. On our way to various meetings, we would see groups of 10-20 public workers walking in a line with their brooms or pots of paint over their shoulders going to paint or clean the roads and we always saw women weeding immaculately landscaped public areas. Although it is a very poor country, it does not have the problems of violence and lack of safety that Colombia has. In its post-genocide era, the society and government clearly made a conscious effort to create a more harmonious society. Below are some photos of the roads and landscapes in Kigali.

During the week, we had meetings with USAID themselves in the US Embassy, Feed the Future's implementing partners such as the World Bank and Harvest +, the Rwandan Agricultural Bureau and the FAO. The meetings were very insightful and although some projects were what we termed 'climate blind', others showed promising advances to address climate change and increase the resilience of the Rwandan farmers. All of this is in spite of the fact that they are not incentivised to do so under the current Feed the Future programming. On the whole, I found it very encouraging to see so many powerful entities so engaged with CSA and the government in particular seemed very organised and determined to make Rwanda a leader in green growth and CSA. This is due to the fact that Rwanda is a small land-locked country with the highest population density in Africa of which 80% work in the agricultural sector. Therefore, they will be significantly affected by the impacts of climate change and have very little marketable alternative to fall back on when crops fail. Moreover, Rwanda imports all of its fossil fuels at a very high price, so it is in its interest to ensure self-sufficiency in the years to come.

On one of our breaks in between meetings, we went to an Agricultural Fair and wandered around vast fields displaying the various seeds and foods available in the region, as well as new technologies available to farmers. It was really interesting and I particularly liked seeing the silk wormed attached to the silk machine! Below are some photos:

My next trip will be in Bangladesh, after which I will post a shorter update on what we found there!