Shit no!!!

Another 2 weeks in Colombia (mostly in Pablo Escobar's home town of Medellin) then 3 weeks in Blighty catching up with the youngest sprog (my yearly sojourn to keep my promise of a yearly visit).

expensive sprog

Usually around $5K each year. Happy to pay the freight.

Onto the latest trials and tribulations in Colombia.

After a pleasant morning we checked out in Bucaramanga at midday and headed to the airport. Minimal fuss and bother, plane on time and arrived safely in Medellin. I actual said to Anita what a great day it had been and jokingly said "I wonder what will go wrong".

Didn't take long to find out. We got the usual crazy cab driver from the airport. But he was special. He was playing poker machine gambling on his phone mounted under the rearvision mirror. I was shitting myself, sure that we were going to arse-end someone for sure. After a hairy ride we arrived at our accomm. but in my hurry to get the fark out of that mad cab, my phone apparently* fell out of my pocket.

I went to grab it as we got to the front door to look at my screen shots with the entry instructions. Frantic patting of pocket revealed no farking phone.

Lots of farking about later, Anita remembered that I had sent her our host's number so we were able to call her and get in to our apartment. But no phone meant a shitload of drama. All the apps that rule this trip were no more. I had lots of hard copy but I needed my apps.

The phone can be easily replaced but the info inside was critical to our trip. Then Anita remembered she had been taking shots through the cab windscreen, and sure enough, she had captured the cab number. Her cousin then went to work and tracked down the driver. The customer after us found my phone and gave it to the driver. He brought the phone to us. I suitably rewarded him even though his farken driving caused the problem!!

Colombia - never a dull moment.

All's well that ends well.

You’re lucky to get the phone back. I accidentally left one in a cab in Sydney years ago as I jumped out; called it from a friend’s phone 5 minutes later. The cabbie answered it, told me he’d bring it to my hotel … I never saw it again. Wasn’t a great phone but it did of course have photos, not backed up, on it. In those days it was just a phone and camera, these days there would be financial access implications.

Totally agree. Couldn't believe I saw it again.

I don't know whether to chastise myself for becoming a little phone dependant (as a Boomer luddite) or accept the fact that I've become a little more tech savvy but farked up by losing my phone.

Anywho, after the phone miracle, we had a pretty good week in Medellin. There was still lots of "I hate this farking country" from us both, but all-in-all it was a pretty interesting week with lots of sights and sounds experienced.

No 1 on the list was a visit and tour of Comuna 13 (Community 13 of 21 gang regions in western Medellin - the heart of Pablo Escobar territory back in the 90s), which in 1991 was deemed the most dangerous area in the most dangerous city in the world. This was when Pablo Escobar was waging war against the government in Colombia. 1000s of innocent people were killed over a few years, mostly in Medellin. Remarkably, many were from stray bullets in battles between Escobar's "soldiers" and the government military.

Fast forward 33 years and Comuna 13 is a vibrant, colorful place that is a haven for tourists. It is the no. 1 tourist destination in Medellin. Amazing transformation achieved by the government and the people. The catalyst was Escobar's death in 1993. Slowly but surely the place was turned from most dangerous to most loved. Inspiring shit.

We have now ventured to Guatape for a few days, a beautiful little town a couple of hours from Medellin on the shores of a giant reservoir created in the 70s to produce hydroelectric power for Colombia. 45% of all Colombia's power comes from this reservoir. What a delightful, colorful and charming place this little pueblo is.

Guatape is the best place we have visited in Colombia. It is clean, relatively quite, trouble-free and delightful. The colour of the place is simply vibrant. All residents treat their places as highly representative of this beautiful place. If the paint is fading, they repaint to keep up standards. Everyone here is very keen to maintain the high standards of this place.

It easily the cleanest place we have come across in Colombia. The streets are completely free of litter and garbage. The drains are clear. There is no sewage stench coming from drains. Such a change from every other place we've been to.

We have a German-Colombian couple who are close friends back in Australia, and they say this is the place they'd like to retire. I can understand their sentiments.

We had a fantastic 3 days here.

We have had 4 fun days with my partner's cousin and her two boys.

We've done lots in and around Medellin as well as out in the rural areas.

Our 5 weeks in Colombia is coming to an end. Anita returns home and I fly on to London to catch up with the youngest daughter.

Sitting in a bar at Bogota Airport drinking double shot rum & cokes with view to getting some sleep on the flight to London.

My shitfight of a holiday continued on my arrival in the UK to see the sprog. The hire car I had booked and was due to pick up at a car park in London city never showed up. I couldn't find an EE shop (my UK phone is locked to this provider) so was forced to beg for use of a phone. Fortch a lovely man in a Superdrug chemist helped me out, but no luck trying to call the hire car company as it was now past 5 pm. Ugh.

So I had to catch the train from Liverpool St station (not close by) to Colchester. So a £16 cab ride to the station and a £36 train ticket to Colchester later I could finally relax into my UK visit.

Been here a week, largely doing repair and odd jobs around the sprog's house. It's good to see her again. We are off to Cronwall next week for our annual UK road trip. Maybe I'll slip on some mayonnaise and be helped up be Demmy!!

Check out Port Isaac, Penzance, the Minack Theatre if you get a chance. Lands End isn’t much itself but the roads in and surrounding landscape are special.

Cheers Mr bucket, we'll do our best.

At Michael McIntyre's show at the O2 Arena in London for the sprog's birthday.

Back from Cronwall today. The weather was a bit foul but we saw all the sites and sights albeit a little misty.

On the plane tomorrow morning after 2 months away.

Always good to get home.

Home safely in Sydney. Great to see the lights of the city as the plane approaches Sydney Airport.