Back to Work!

Yes, I know, you haven’t noticed any difference, but this time I have an excuse, on July 8th we went on Holiday to Cartagena de Indias, for ten days, I didn’t mention it before we went, for security reasons, we left my Mother-in-law on her own, caring for the house and dogs, and there are a few people that might have taken advantage of that.

Did we enjoy our holiday? I have to say, I was disappointed with Cartagena, we flew from Medellin, it was just under an hour, and then took a taxi to a Studio Apartment we rented in a Tower called “El Nuevo Conquistador”, in El Laguito, which was a taxi ride out from the center, and that was our first mistake, we should have done as in the past, and booked into a Hotel.

The apartment itself was nicely decorated

Unfortunately, despite the Owner’s assurance the glass windows and doors were only tempered glass, not anti-noise, and for four nights of our stay, I hardly slept a wink. To add to that she had the mattress covered with a plastic protector, nights were like a sauna, I ended up having to put towels on the bed to give some protection from the plastic. The building was that old, it needs a lot of money spending on the structure, there were 24 floors and over 400 apartments, with four decrepit lifts to service everyone, not good, cockroaches were regular visitors! Saying that the Staff who worked in the building were very friendly, and helpful when needed.

The closest beach was only over the road

It wasn’t crowded unlike the main beaches, and for $20000 a day, you had shade and two chairs. Just lying on the beach on your towel wasn’t an option, as it was crawling in ants. But for them parking two Commercial ships offshore on one day, and two warships on another, which wasn’t the best tourist view, I actually enjoyed the beach more than I thought I would.

Marcela visited the Building swimming pool one day, and ten minutes later she was back, saying that most of the kids were in the adult pool, which in one corner had a pile of foam, which looked suspiciously like something you didn’t want to swim in.

Day two we decided to take the City Sightseeing hop on, hop off, open top bus Tour, and use it as a tool. I made my way up to the top deck, and using my Ricoh Theta V 360° camera videoed the trip, only ‘hopping off’ to have lunch. We then decided where we wanted to return during the week, and surprisingly it worked.
I had wanted to visit the Castle, but on seeing it, and local advice, it was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to negotiate the inclines. Likewise also decided where we did want to visit.

Here is a link to my 360° video, you can play around within it, and see everything we saw!

Following this Bus tour, the following day, we used it again, as it was a two day ticket, but this time as transport, we jumped, or in my case, hobbled off, at the Torre de Reloj,

walked around the area, and bought the local sweets to give as presents when we got home, nearly all contained coconut, and a multitude of flavours,

they were lovely. Having walked around and had lunch we headed back for a siesta, before going out for dinner.

Finding Restaurants wasn’t a problem, there were some for Specials, of which we had a few, and others for a daily visit. We didn’t actually prepare any meals in the apartment, we had a basic breakfast in a cafe nearby, and depending on our plans, either had lunch a short walk away, followed by a special dinner, or vice versa.

We did most of our trips in the morning, when it was cooler, and rested in the afternoon before venturing out again, it worked well.

The Trip to Getsemani was very colourful

The day at the Historic Center was entirely different, you couldn’t help but be impressed with the architecture, ableit most of it is related to Churches, and that is not my thing, so admired from outside! Although we did find a sculpture by Fernando Botero

Supposedly if you stroke her breast, you are blessed with good luck, Marcela was touching nothing, the masks only come off for photos, we are still on covid mode, as for me… do you think I am that stupid!? ha!ha!ha!

That brought us to the end of the holiday, and then it was back to reality! I have been gardening to get the place looking something like tidy again, I had a Medical appointment with the pain specialist, I think she felt a bit guilty, as it was on her order the other Doc did the knee nerve block and damaged my hip muscles, so she has given me another order for a nerve block in my hip, but by a different Doc!

Yesterday, we finally had landline phone and internet installed, going from 6Mb to 200Mb, but it didn’t go without incident. The Office computer was fine, because it is ethernet connected, but the wifi, on the phone and Smart TV’s was going haywire, one minute Marcela had full speed, I had none, then vise versa, I was ready to rip it out, then I worked out the problem, they had set it up for 5Ghz, previously we had 2.4, we asked them if they could change it, which they did, and for now, all is well, the speed has dropped a bit, but we have full coverage, and that is important.

I think that about brings me back up to date, so time for a siesta after the marathon!