The Journal

Stories of becoming

Training, nutrition, Colombia and the 1% philosophy — editorial notes from the Phoenix Initiative.

Backlit close-up of a solar panel resting at an angle in tall tropical grass, sky and palm fronds mirrored in the dark glass.

How You Power Thirty Hectares Without Leaning on the Grid

Colombia runs largely on water, the equator gives a solar year with no winter, and heat quietly steals output. The physics behind an energy plan for a remote estate in Huila.

June 9, 20266 min read

Unfinished open timber and bamboo roof frame standing in a hillside clearing, no walls, green Andean valley and morning mist beyond.

The Oasis

The Gym With No Walls: Designing a Pavilion for the Tropics

Near the equator, a training space does not need walls — it needs a roof, a breeze and a floor that drains. How an open-air pavilion is designed, and why the climate writes half the brief.

June 6, 20265 min read

Freshly cut giant guadua bamboo culms stacked in a forest clearing, warm golden light raking across the pale green nodes.

The Oasis

Why the Oasis Will Be Built From a Grass, Not a Tree

Guadua grows ten centimetres a day, resists like steel for its weight, and has its own chapter in Colombia's building code. A short course in the plant that will carry the roofs.

June 4, 20265 min read

Backlit close-up of clear spring water spilling over dark volcanic stone into a split bamboo channel, droplets suspended in golden light.

The Oasis

Where the Water Will Come From, and Where It Will Go

Springs, waterfalls, thermal water and rain: the three kinds of water on thirty hectares in Huila, the permits Colombian law requires, and how a rural estate treats what it uses.

June 2, 20265 min read

The Oasis

The Land of Six Waterfalls: Walking the Future Phoenix Oasis

Six waterfalls, three freshwater springs and one thermal spring across 30 hectares in Huila, Colombia. Discover the land where Phoenix Oasis is being built.

June 2, 20264 min read

Aerial view at low golden sun of a green hillside estate in Huila, a stream threading through tropical canopy with patches of red earth.

The Oasis

Thirty Hectares, Zone by Zone: Reading the Masterplan

What a masterplan actually decides: where the water goes first, where silence sits, which zones are fixed and which are still proposals two years before the 2028 opening.

May 31, 20265 min read

A curtain of rain sweeping across bright green Andean foothills while low golden sunlight breaks beneath dark storm clouds.

Colombia & Surroundings

When to Visit Huila: Two Rains, Two Dry Spells, No Seasons

The upper Magdalena has no summer or winter, only a bimodal rainfall calendar. Month by month, what the rain really does, and how altitude beats the calendar every time.

May 29, 20265 min read

Foundation

Sport as Social Impact: What Movement Changes in Rural Communities

What actually shifts when a rural community starts moving together? How sport programs support confidence, connection and opportunity — and why the Phoenix Initiative bets on movement.

May 27, 20264 min read

Detail of a whitewashed rammed-earth wall with a deep wooden window and terracotta roof tiles casting a hard diagonal shadow in late golden light.

Colombia & Surroundings

Reading Colonial Architecture in the Towns of Huila

No ramparts, no postcard old town: Huila built in rammed earth and clay tile. How to read a wall, why Timaná matters, and which churches are far younger than they look.

May 27, 20265 min read