Hacker Beach Episode 8
Hacker Beach #8, in January 2020, brings us back to the Caribbean Sea for the first time since episode 3. We're going to experience the beautiful nature of the Sierra Nevada in Colombia's North Coast region.
Location
What to expect
https://kosmos.social/@hackerbeach/101187541935745175:
- Hacking, not cracking
- FOSS creation and contribution galore (non-programmers welcome)
- Also get your day job done if you want/must
- Fantastic weather
- Outdoor activity options like e.g. hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, surfing, and floating down the nearby river
- Explore the wider region, esp. before/after your time at the official location
- Whatever you want to make it. Hacker Beach is just people.
Getting in
- The local airport is Santa Marta (SMR), which is a 2-hour bus ride from Palomino
- To get to Santa Marta it's easiest to fly into Bogota, then take a short local flight. You can also try other major cities like e.g. Medellín.
- Alternatively, fly into Barranquilla or Cartagena, then take a bus to Santa Marta
- TODO add information for private cars/taxis/buses
Mobile Internet
Claro
- Claro Colombia is pretty expensive (~15 USD for 2.5GB), but provides fairly decent LTE in Palomino. (Nobody tried another provider yet.)
- You can buy top-ups from local shops (look for "recarga" signs), or e.g. via BTC/LN from Bitrefill
- USSD code for subscription management is *611#
- You cannot add more data to an existing plan, and nobody has found a way to check for usage so far. So make sure you wait for an SMS that tells you that you used up all data before buying a new plan
Other options
- Google Fi and T-Mobile roaming should work for 2G-ish speeds
Power sockets
- Power outlets use the standard outlet from the US, possibly without ground pins for a lot of older electrical outlets
Accommodation
...
New Year's Eve
- Some people will be in Santa Marta for New Year's Eve: bkero, raucao, ...
Sessions
Session topics, locations, and times are usually planned rather spontaneously. Watch the usual spaces/channels.
Photos
...
Questions?
As always, ask on IRC (#hackerbeach@chat.freenode.net), the fediverse (Mastodon), or Twitter.
Invite-only XMPP chat for participants
We have a more private communications channel for people who are definitely coming to Hacker Beach. It's an XMPP group chat at hackerbeach@kosmos.chat. Please ask someone to invite you, in case you don't have access yet.
As a mobile client, we can highly recommend Conversations for Android for example.