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Hi to all,
Once again we hope everyone is in the pink!
First, a brief summary of events since we last left you on Sept.24th. with Jim's less than salubrious arrival in Santa Marta. Since then, he managed to find his way around and fell into a routine. Much of the first week was spent watching Fox News and the Kavanaugh hearings. Along with the disgraceful and unproven allegations against Judge (now Justice) Kavanaugh. It is truly frightening when fraudulent and totally dishonest claims of sexual impropriety can be leveled with absolutely no proof at someone who has an impeccable record of public service in a blatant and partisan attempt to derail an honourable person's nomination for the highest legal position in the land - that of Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Not to mention the effect that all these lies had on his family - his wife and two lovely young daughters.
Much happier once the lying Dems' shenanigans were exposed and Justice Kavanaugh is now confirmed to the Supreme Court. Congratulations to the US Senate's Judicial Committee's final vote to confirm, and in particular to Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins' reasoned and thoughtful speech in which she explained her final support for Judge Kavanaugh's nomination. But it appears that the Dems are up to their "win at any cost and to hell with the law" MO once again in Broward County, Florida after the midterms with voter fraud almost a certainty. A whole truckload of ballots totally disappeared, ballots illegally destroyed and who knows what else.
But at least the result of the Midterms was nowhere near as bad as it might have been. Increased GOP majority in the Senate and only a small majority in the House for the Dems. Hardly a "blue wave"!!
The Airbnb studio was not so bad. It was well airconditioned and there was private access via a spiral steel stair (down 2 stories) to a small swimming pool which was kept quite clean and in the other direction a descent via a longer narrow stair via 2 locked gates to the street. So, security was good. The studio had a basically equipped kitchen and private bathroom, although no hot water which took us some time to get used to. Not that it mattered much for the shower as the outside air temperature is above 30C, but in the kitchen was not so good. All it meant for us is that much more water was used for dish washing as well as dish washing liquid, because in typical Colombian custom, there is no plug for the kitchen sink. On that note we must mention the on-going criticism of Jim using excessive water and the aforementioned that has occurred for years by 2 previous wives (and others!!) and more latterly on the boat!! He now feels entirely vindicated for these past 50 years of vilification in the dishwashing department!! Found reasonable supermarkets - Jumbo and Carulla and was able to stock the apartment with the basic necessities including the all-important Scotch!! (Whisky Escoses). Also the odd bottle of Dubonnet which went down very well - especially when chilled. The first time yours truly tasted Dubonnet was in Tahiti in 1960 and it was a favourite of his mother until she passed away in NZ in 2010 at the age of 89. The Queen also likes it apparently mixed with gin for lunch.
The only negative aspect of the apartment was that during a particularly heavy thunderous downpour late one afternoon, water poured under the pool access door and across the kitchen due to poor design of the door. So, Stig (the Norwegian owner) arrived with mops and towels and we stemmed the influx and then kept the bottom of the door more or less watertight with the permanent use of the towels.
We also must refer to the extraordinary Airbnb requirement that before they would accept a critique from us of our accommodation experience (which would have been largely complimentary), they insisted on us agreeing to accept a critique from the property owner!! We were the customers and we regard this as a BLOODY GREAT CHEEK!! They need to revise their attitude to customers if they expect to get recommendations now or in the future. Not Stig's fault - just the crazy and authoritarian attitude of Airbnb.
Jim explored Santa Marta over the ensuing days in the historical centre and it was at the same time frustrating and dirty and very run-down although a few buildings quite well restored. The Spanish arrived there in the early 1500's, but there were certainly no buildings dating back to that time - nearly all the "old" heritage buidings would have been late 1800's at best, with some notable exceptions. Not to say that many were unattractive and there was a museum housed in the former Spanish Customs House which housed a fascinating account of the pre-European period dating back at least 2,000 years with gold and copper ornaments which had been manufactured by pouring the molten metal into clay and wax moulds which were then fired. The most important of these earlier civilisations were the Tayrona who resisted the Spanish invasion for around 100 years before wihdrawing to the higher hills to avoid on-going depredations to their people. As a result they survive to the present day. The Spanish in the meantime plundered and murdered with impunity and largely destroyed most of the ancient Indian civiliisations.
After Jean arrived from Miami (via Bogota) we went to the Simon Bolivar centre at Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino in Santa Marta. Simon Bolivar was the main orchestrator of the revolution against Spanish rule in S America. He was born in what is now Caracas, Venezuela in 1783 and died 47 years later in Santa Marta in 1830 a broken, impoverished and disappointed man. He was born to an aristocratic and wealthy Spanish family but his parents died relatively young and he was largely brought up by militaristic governors and governesses. He went to Spain for higher education and was also in France when Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France at Notre Dame in Paris. His contacts with French revolutionaries shaped his attitudes to Spanish colonialism in S America and this led him to eschew his background and become involved in ending what was to become apparent as the appalling record of Spanish colonialism on the continent. He also married the love of his life in Europe but tragically she died less than a year after arriving in Caracas of Yellow Fever which was rampant in those days - and usually fatal. There were no children and he never married again. There were various battles ( you can read all the gory details on Wikipedia!) and finally in 1819 at the Battle of Boyaca which is still celebrated as a national holiday in Colombia, the Spanish were decisively defeated He declared the formation of New Granada which comprised present day Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia - the latter of which is named after him. The seat of government was Bogota. But the new federation was riven by dissension and was falling apart when Bolivar resigned his position as Presidente de Gran Colombia and he decided to retreat to retirement in Europe. He travelled overland to Santa Marta (no mean feat in those days as Bogota is at 8,000' and SM sea level as well as all the tribulations of travelling overland through extremely rugged country), but he died of TB at a sugar estate in SM before he could take passage to Spain. There is a museum at Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino and is fascinating to read all about Bolivar's life. The bed that he died in is there too! His name is revered throughout these countries as El Libertador. A little bit of an exaggeration, as he was intending to be a dictator President of Gran Colombia, albeit no doubt a much more benign ruler than the Spanish whom he ousted. But not truly independence and this was probably the root cause of his eventual demise. But he certainly put in train events which after many more battles and skirmishes led to the present political makeup of northern South America.
Santa Marta has a modern airport in a spectacular location right on the Caribbean seashore and also has a small but modern container port. The area is also where most of Colombia's considerable oil exports are shipped from. When we went to the airport to leave we counted 10 tankers waiting offshore. Reminded us of Singapore when we sailed Tiare for 9 miles through anchored LNG and oil tankers before we arrived in Johor, Malaysia in late 2013.
In the meantime Jean had had a great 2 weeks in Miami with her family and in particular, los nietos. They all travelled north to Legoland for a weekend for everyone. It was an eye opener to a dedicated resort where everything is built of Lego - even the hotel made to look like Lego. Jean enjoyed again being with Rosa (their Mexican nanny) and then of course there was Carter's 5th. birthday back in Miami the following weekend. This was a great success with around 50+ people present. A great time by all accounts was had by all. However, Jean contracted what seemed to be a severe allergic reaction to something with her sinuses badly affected. This is only now starting to slowly improve. We wondered whether this was as a result of the "red tide" which is an algal bloom normally affecting only western Florida, but this year also prevalent on the east coast as well. It's waterborne but can also become airborne in strong winds and apparently many susceptible people have become quite ill. Jean has been worried that it may be a return of the nasal polyps that we had removed in Johor, Malaysia in 2013. She doesn't want to undergo another operation.
Jim was greatly pleased to see Jean again when she flew back from Miami to Santa Marta via Bogota and she duly arrived with nearly 30 kgs of health products which hopefully will keep us alive for a little while longer!! MSM sulphur powder which helps the joints which God knows him himself can sorely do with, vitamin C & B, Chlorella powder, Spirulina powder, Chlorophyl liquid, liquorice, among others. Typical of Colombian officials - she was given incorrect information by a guy who plastic wraps baggage. He apparently said that her bag was too heavy and so Jean and Perry (who was also flying somewhere else) bought another bag and transferred some of the offending weight to the new bag. Just as well they had plenty of time! Anyway, later an Avianca employee said the original weight was OK, but of course it was too late to take the new bag back. So now we have another bag. Gave Jean via Whatsapp detailed information as to how to find the apartment in the taxi from Simon Bolivar Aeropuerto, and all went swimmingly. The grey-haired old whatsit was waiting on the side of the road gesticulating wildly and was duly spotted! Getting 30 kgs of health products 2 floors up a narrow stairway was a bit of a mission in the SM heat but we were soon duly installed. Jim had done the laundry and changed the sheets and towels that morning so no adverse comments!!!
Jim had found a couple of quite good restaurants by trial and error so we ate quite well - other times we cooked in the apartment. Limited as to what we could cook due to the lack of an oven, and in the end after 2 more weeks we were glad to have left SM after a month in total. But the apartment was otherwise quite good and served a purpose as we waited out the notice period for the Envigado apartment.
During our stay we also decided to experience a night in the hills 700 metres above Santa Marta at a resort called Casa del Pozo Azul on the outside of a small village called Minca. We were given totally false information as to the accessibility of the property because we were persuaded to take a "safe" motorcycle ride which frankly turned into a nightmare - terrifying and dangerous as the "road" was deeply rutted with liquid mud puddles and also covered in nasty rock outcrops. Way worse than riding pillion in Kupang, Indonesia in search of a fuel pump for the boat engine! Never been so relieved to get anywhere in our lives - and that includes some hairy moments on the boat!! We insisted on a 4 x 4 the next morning because yours truly flatly refused another terrifying motorcycle ride at 71 years of age. The Booking.com website is very remiss in giving totally false information and we have gone on their website and told them so in no uncertain terms. The food was sincerely but amateurishly prepared and they also suffered from a cashflow problem (at their admission), so the food was compromised from the start. In addition, to rub salt into the wounds, there was no hot water - and while that didn't matter so much at sea level at 11 degrees north, it did matter at that altitude. It was chilly at night and we had NO shower during our stay which thankfully was only for one night - NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!! We also thought, being in the Colombian jungle, that we might have seen some wildlife - even snakes - but not a skerrick. No birds. Back in SM there were more birds, including a white Egret which flew very gracefully up and down the river. And even back in Medellin we see all sorts of coloured finches and sometimes humming birds.
Flew back to Medellin on 24/10 and surprisingly had a good flight with Viva Air on a near new Airbus - unlike the flight from Medellin a month previously - refer the previous blog!!! We were still about a week away from moving back to our apartment in Envigado, so we had booked a small hotel in Itagui which overlooks the Mayorista Mercado which is a wholesale fruit, vegetable and fish and meat market which supplies the whole of Medellin and the Antioquia Province. The hotel is pretty much brand new and provides a great view of the market which reminds Jim so much of the old Auckland City Markets pre 1972 which was his old stamping ground at Produce Markets Ltd. Much of the goods handling, while coming in on modern semi-trucks, is still by hand, no doubt as a result of comparatively cheap labour. Anyway, there are great retail shops selling all sorts of health and other food products which are also cheap by our standards, and just walking around amongst the crates and barrows was so nostalgic.
One thing though - and we still can't put our finger on it, but we had constant on and off stomach/digestive issues while staying in Itagui. Although the hotel was OK, we were glad to have left and be finally ensconced in our home.
As an aside, we are constantly seeing the name, "Kiwifruit" on those little ubiquitous brown berries with the green interiors. Here they are all from Chile. Not many people know that the name was coined by Jack Turner, the Managing Director of Turners & Growers Ltd. in Auckland at the time, but they failed to legally protect the name and so it is seen all over the world these days with no-one having the faintest idea of its origin. And in addition, NZ in a fit of commercial naivety, supplied many Kiwifruit plants to Chile where they have flourished in the same growing season as NZ!! Now they are our major competition world- wide. We are now doing the same thing with our dairy production expertise in Colombia since we have opened the NZ Embassy in Bogota. Will we ever learn? As a complete aside, Jack Turner also coined the name "Tamarillo"for the old tree tomato as a marketing exercise. Tree tomatoes have always been grown extensively in their native S America and are still known by their old name of "tomates arbores". They are wonderful and so much cheaper than in NZ and usually very much larger. We always have at least one each plus passion fruit etc. for breakfast here where the fruit is glorious and CHEAP!!
We have in the past few days been opening a bank account with Bancolombia and also going through the bureaucratic hoops with changing our account with Tigo UNE to our names and getting our cellphones included, rather than having to remember to "top up" all the time. This latter is also the account for cable TV and phones. The utility account (EPM) we will have to deal with later. This latter one covers gas (cooking and hot water), electricity and water and usually is under COP 200,000 (NZD95) per month. So, costs of living here are very affordable.
We are gradually finding the best sources of fresh food. Language is always a difficulty and good meat is hard to find. But we found a good butcher at the Mayorista market so will be going back there in the future.
Jean has been still having digestive and nasal problems but she has been to an osteopath friend of Astrid's (our lawyer) - Marguerita. She is also a fully trained doctor. Jean is slowly improving and has found that Cayenne Pepper dissolved in water is very helpful for stomach ailments.
So, all is good and it's onwards and upwards in our overall settling in routine. Hopefully we'll be in NZ for a few weeks in April/May next year. We'll see many of you then.
Lotsaluv from us here in Medellin.......................
Jim and Jean xoxoxoxo
