Amberley Davis

Comfort Pig in Colombia •

How Not to Prepare for Salento

Salento is a small town made up of colourful colonial houses, steep sloping streets and a lively plaza. It is also a popular gateway to the surrounding coffee zone, with its rolling fertile hills and iconic hikes. I invite you to learn from my shortcomings in this how-not-to guide. Along the way, you should also get a taste of the main activities on offer here – coffee farms and the famous Cocora Valley hike.So, here’s how not to prepare – and why.I might be forgiven for omitting a warm layer wh...
Comfort Pig in Colombia •

One-upping Day Trippers on a Rosario Island

The Rosario archipelago is a slice of Caribbean paradise only a short boat ride from Cartagena. This makes these coral islands popular with day trippers from Colombia’s vibrant coastal city. In this national park, you’ll find charming crescent beaches, turquoise waters and cocktails during the day. But these islands have more to offer when you stay overnight. Bodies fill every sunbed, drinking cocktails and nattering over the daytime playlist on the speakers. In the sea, groups are gossiping in...
Patient.info •

Living with fibromyalgia - Jenny's story

Over the phone, Jenny's sunny Californian accent fills with warmth as she describes her family and her canine sidekick, Petra. For Jenny, nature walks with Petra have at times been her lifeblood, whenever she feels constrained,
misunderstood, or like she isn't enough.

Jenny has spent almost 30 years living with fibromyalgia, a condition which causes her daily pain. But over three decades, Jenny has discovered ways to cope and calm her symptoms - and she wants to spread the message that you can have fibromyalgia and thrive.
Patient.info •

Plastic free July: should we be worried about microplastics?

What do testicles, clouds, beer and arctic ice all have in common? These are all places you might find microplastics, if you were a scientist with the right equipment to detect these tiny pieces of plastic, measuring below 5 millimetres. Over the last 20 years, microplastics have been discovered all around us, and now inside us too. It's thought we consume around 5 grams of microplastic particles every week - equivalent to the weight of a credit card. But what does this mean for our health? Here's what we currently know.
Comfort Pig in Colombia •

I'm Happy I Found This Charming Rum Bar

Pedro Mandinga Rum Bar is one of those places that feels very cool but also very warm and cosy. Stepping into the colonial Caribbean decor, I’m pleased with myself for finding a date night bar that feels so, well, Latin American - not a given in the sprawling urban landscape of Bogotá.  Actually, it feels a little like a Grandma’s sitting room – in a charming but trendy kind of way. My husband and I have reached the small, lob-sided space on the third floor, with its heavy use of wood, patterned...
Comfort Pig in Colombia •

Storia D’Amore Has Bogotá’s Best Tiramisu

Storia D’Amore aims for young, energetic and eclectic. Owners Alejandra Reyes and Juan Camilo Acosta were just 25 when its doors opened. So, I'm not greeted with the table clothes, candles and mood lighting found in many Italian eateries here.  Instead, I pass through a neon heart-shaped entrance into a brightly lit space with soft blue-green hues, quirky hand-woven furniture, and a contemporary vertical garden. This is the popular Italian’s Calle 122 location, in Bogotá’s foodie Usaquen distric...
Comfort Pig in Colombia •

How I Missed Most of the Food at a Food Festival

Full of ice cream, we head back toward the entrance. We pass colourful plastic pop-up stores that are largely empty. Except for the odd carnival-style game, they seem to be there mainly to fill up space; perhaps to help mask the fact that this food festival doesn’t offer a great deal of food. As I'm ruminating on this, we come across a footpath that leads to a tucked-away part of the park – and most of the cuisine. Crap.  Bogotá Eats is the city’s biggest gastronomic festival, bringing together...
Comfort Pig in Colombia •

Head Above the Clouds

As we sat facing the Andes, two friends were fretting over whether we’d brought enough beer. Overhead, heavy cloud smoke toppled the mountains and smudged their peaks. While half my brain calculated if we had the correct tonic-to-gin ratio, the other half was thinking about how impossibly large the scene before me was - and how even my Specsavers-sponsored eyes could look upon all of it at once: peaks and valleys, a thread-like wisp of a waterfall - the tallest in Colombia up close - and bare cl...
Comfort Pig in Colombia •

Beanbags, Cheesecake and Bottle-necking

All I knew was that I was visiting a market in the El Chicó district of Bogotá. Cycling the 30-minute journey from Cedritos with my new friends, all fresh Colombian expats, I picture the typical scene: rows of modest, white stalls showcasing local arts and crafts, small business sauces and condiments, and the street vendors I'd come to expect – corn-on-the-cob, arepas, and meat-on-sticks. Instead, we’re greeted with an unapologetically pink pop-up village. The entrance, guarded by staff in pink...