Busy, busy, busy!!!

We were up and out at 8am this morning and set off to El Peñol, it took us just under an hour and a half, so we were half an hour early for our appointment, and stopped in the town, for a walk around and a coffee.

We then drove on, the location, was about two miles further on towards Guatapé, where we found the owner waiting on his motorcycle at the bottom of the access road.

I have to say, it was not what we were expecting, the house was in a cluster of five or six, set in an idyllic location overlooking the Reservoir, the access was precarious, being very narrow, as you approached, and to be honest to access the main gates, you would have to do a fifty point turn, unless you had a compact car.

On arrival, we were taken to the house opposite, which we were told was new, well in comparison with the others, it was, and it was in the better location, had a small plunge pool, and there was decent access, but the house itself, had been built for Colombians, none of the rooms connected, they were all accessed from outside, and the woodwork, had not been preserved, and needs urgent work. There were three bedrooms, two small and one big, all had to go outside to access their respective bathrooms. In effect, it wanted gutting and starting again, so it was a non-starter.

We then went across to the house we had gone to see, as I said the access would have had to be changed, and inside the main gates, was a medium sized open sided garage, a small plot alongside, and a small lawn, in front of the house, the photos were deceiving, it looked a lot bigger. To have a workshop, I would have had to demolish the \’garage\’, and start again. From the lawn, was a steep sloping garden of about 1500m2, filled with fruit trees of all descriptions, leading down to the waters edge of the Reservoir, so you had the opportunity to have a boat, if you so wished. This would have had to be completely landscaped, to make it safe to negotiate, and put in a series of gravel paths and steps, it could certainly be a lovely garden with a lot of work, and money spent on it.

On our return to the house, we had a coffee, a Marcela asked a lot of local questions, and didn\’t leave much uncovered, and to our satisfaction. This just left the house, the original part, had five rooms, that were described as bedrooms, one of which, I am not sure you could have even put a single in, but would have made a good walk in wardrobe, non were particularly big, double bed, wardrobe, and room for nothing else, no good for the planned extra large bed I have planned, to give me some room… what is it about women, that however small they are, they always manage to leave you on the edge of the bed!?

The kitchen, was more of a galley kitchen, and again would have had to be gutted, the sixth bedroom, was situated in an extention, that did not look that safe, this part was on two levels,  downstairs was a tool shed, and bathroom, upstairs, accessed by a DIY welded spiral staircase in the garden, and described as an apartment by the owners, all the flooring was wood, but not floor grade, and I am not sure, how long it would be before it all came down. The reason for this was confirmed later, in the Campo, no one applies for building permits, they do what they want, and unfortunately it showed. So as nice as it could have been, it needed too much work, and too much money spending on it, so away we came.

Back home, I took Pépe for a walk, we made a few enquiries, then Pépe returned to his muzzle, and we left again, first having some lunch, then back to Medellin, this time the Kawasaki I was after was outside on display, but it didn\’t take long to realise that the KLR was not for me, there was absolutely no chance I was going to get my leg high enough to mount the bike, the only way was to stand on the peg whilst it was on it\’s stand, not a safe way to start.

So after looking at what else was on offer, I settled on a black 2008 Suzuki V-Strom 650, cheaper than the others I had looked at, but in excellent condition, with new exhaust and tyres, and considering it is a second vehicle, a good choice, more to the point, I can get both feet on the ground.

Suzuki

Sorry, not a very good picture, the showroom was narrow to say the least, I\’ll update it, when I get it home, all being well on Friday.