end of stay in Medellin and now in Bogota

Hi again to all,

We finally left Medellin yesterday on the 12th. and felt much regret at doing so. We said a sad farewell to our apartment, which is in the capable hands of Noelia (our new property manager) and were then driven to the airport by our neighbour Janet. We had met her and her husband, Hugo, some time before and they are lovely people. He (Hugo) has lived in the US for 30 years and periodically goes back to work there to make sure he keeps his pension entitlement for when he finally retires. They are both Colombians, but in spite of applying many times as Hugo's wife, Janet cannot get a visa so he has to leave for 3 months without her. It seems ludicrous and is part of the US's paranoia about allowing people in - even temporarily.  

Another neighbour is Juan who is a young architect and who has lived in London and Switzerland. He has been a great help to us also and we had a farewell lunch with him at the Otraparte café which is part of a small museum about 15 minutes walk from our apartment.

We've been spending a lot of time with our lawyer tidying up the final loose ends with Wills, and the Civil Trust that we have created. This has meant much time at various Notaries to get everything correctly notarised - otherwise under Colombian law nothing is legal. For instance you cannot just go to a lawyer and get a Will drafted, signed and witnessed. It has to go to a Notary where there is a translator (which you pay for) and no less than 3 witnesses who are brought off the street - and also paid! A very convoluted business but of course made more complicated by the fact that our Spanish is still miniscule and certainly not up to the task of translating legal documents.

But everywhere we've been with our lawyer and without, we have found people only too willing to go out of their way to help. It's been instructive and a great experience - even if a little frustrating at times. For instance, before we could form the Civil Trust we had to make sure all the property tax on the apartment was paid to the end of the year. So we had to go to the Palacio Municipal of Envigado to do this and then, because a simple receipt is not sufficient, we had to obtain what is called a "Paz y Salvo" which also has to be notarised and is a legal receipt which is the only receipt which is legally acceptable. When we were at the Palacio Municipal at Envigado, we had written out instructions in Spanish as to what we needed, but there was still some confusion until one guy seated behind a glass screen decided to help in a most practical way. He left his post and said to us "come with me" and lead us off down the road to another office where he spent easily 20 minutes haranguing someone to do the necessary. Then he took us back to his office and we completed what we had to do. Soooo helpful and this was by no means the only example of people really going out of their way to help us. 

The matter with First American realty seems to have gone off the boil but appearances could be deceptive. The 2 principals of the firm are overseas and the staff have been instructed not to communicate with us! This has unintended consequences (for them) because we received an invoice from the internet/phone provider which was in FAR's name and which related to the earlier contract which we advised them we were no longer going to accept any responsibility for. So, we returned it to FAR and it appears that it may have been for a minimum of 12 months, so they can keep paying for nothing! They entered into it with no approval or agreement from us in any case. And they employed 2 contractors to finally fix some of the defects with the apartment and then had the contractors bill us direct!! We told them we were not paying but now one of the contractors has been contacting us in Bogota demanding payment! We have told them that payment is FAR's responsibility and to contact them direct. It is an extremely messy and convoluted business but no doubt in time it will all play out. At least with the Civil Trust no-one can touch the apartment and our lawyer will be alert to any attempts to sue us.

But in spite of all the above we have been continuing to enjoy life in Medellin - from our almost daily routine of 2 delicious Colombian coffees and Parsianita (for Jim)and Empanada Argentina (for Jean) at La Lolita Café at the La Frontera Mall just a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Lovely girls in the café and we have got to know them very well - even to the point of exchanging very basic Spanish. Usually COP16,000 which is NZD7.60.

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