Source: http://worldcityweb.com/home/MIA/publications/magazine/6/562/

Sky Warrior

by Mary Dempsey

Marta Escotet is South Florida’s link to the Swiss-based Avina Foundation, which gets businesses and civic leaders involved in sustainable development in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Escotet worked in Avina’s Miami office until 2003, when the foundation shifted its operations to Latin America. Now she does much of the same work, including some documentary filming, as a consultant to Avina. She logs some 150,000 air miles annually.

In addition to working for a multinational foundation, we understand you’re a bit of a multinational’ yourself.

I was born in Colombia, but raised in Venezuela. I’ve lived in the United States for some time now. My nationality is Spanish, through my father, who is from Spain. I’ve lived in eight countries.

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Where are you most likely to travel on business?

Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, San Jos, London.

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And your favorite among them?

I went to college in London so the city has a special place in my heart. I love its cosmopolitanism and eccentricity. When I’m there, I try to make time to get together with old friends and check out the entertainment. I agree with Samuel Johnson’s remark: “A man who was bored with London was bored with life!”

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Are there restaurants you always dine at while on the road?

In Santiago, I never miss a visit to El Huerto in Providencia. It’s a vegetarian place with imaginative dishes and it changes its menu every season. In the summer I order not one, but two bowls of the gazpacho. Mouthwatering! I adore Turkish food, so Sofra in Covent Garden is a must when I am in London. In Buenos Aires, it has to be Cabaa Las Lilas in Puerto Madero for the juiciest steak in town.

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What cell phone service do you use when traveling?

Entel PCS from Chile. It works in most Latin American countries and the U.S.

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How do you kill time at the airport?

People-watching is the most fascinating activity an airport can offer. It is wonderful to witness how a relatively small space assembles such an astonishingly mix of nationalities, religions, economic backgrounds, cultures … all of us there for the same purpose. We imagine what the dress, mannerisms, attitude and behavior of fellow travelers say about them. Then we wonder how inaccurate we might be.

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Do you have a favorite airport lounge?

LanChile’s VIP Lounge in Santiago International Airport. It has a friendly staff. It’s very comfortable, has plenty of working space and it has some nice Chilean wines.

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Is there an airport you really dread?

Any one where my flight has been seriously delayed.

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What’s the craziest thing that’s happened on a business trip?

Running from a street gang in the slums of Buenos Aires while filming a documentary. We got out OK, but the next day we doubled up on police.

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What’s the hardest thing about your work travel?

The frequency of it.

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The best thing about it?

Managing diversity, unpredictability and change and returning home with a mental suitcase full of new ideas, new perspectives and new problem-solving strategies. Also, I love the fact that I don’t have to cook dinner.