Fwd: Miami y Regreso a casa en Medellin

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jean Tallentire <jean.tallentire@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2020 at 16:27
Subject: Fwd: Miami y Regreso a casa en Medellin
To: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>

Hola

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>
Date: January 1, 2020 at 3:10:12 PM GMT-5
To: Alex Donald <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>
Subject: Miami y Regreso a casa en Medellin

Hola a todos nuestros amigos y familiares, y espero que todos esten de color rosa como siempre. Te deseamos un Prospero Ano Nuevo y que 2020 es todo lo que deseas...........

Well, what a year. We hope that everyone had a Happy Christmas to round out a roller coaster year and an unpredictable, but no doubt volatile year ahead.

On that note, since we finished our last blog with politics, we'll start this one the same way and then mercifully it will all be out of the way. And all in a much shorter vein than our last blog which was almost 10 weeks ago. Don't know how you've all managed to get on without the wise words from "Tiare Taporo III" for all of that time!!

Colombia - things are still uncertain and disconcerting here. Mainly because after recent street protests, the president (Ivan Duque) appeared to be becoming a little more conciliatory, but since then has reiterated that he will not talk to any opposition at all and so the protests will only escalate and the governance of the country will suffer with more adverse economic consequences. Colombia has a relatively recent history of violent political conflict with "La Violencia" between 1947 and 1958 when up to 300,000 Colombians were killed, up to 700,000 wounded and up to one million evicted from their homes. "La Violencia" was a conflict between Conservative and Liberal political factions. Then in the 80's and early 90's there were the "Narco" years with more land theft and lethal violence. No-one wants to see a return of those days, and it seems extremely unlikely, but it also seems that there is always that fear, and when leaders will not talk or compromise, it always raises the chances. Having said that, Coca production has never been as high as it is now and once again, this government seems paralysed by inertia and sheer unwillingness to do anything to curb the narcotics trade. They pay lip service to controlling it and one can only speculate as to the reasons for this, but in reality it all comes back to money and corrupt politicians.

Still, when one experiences the progressiveness of cities like Medellin, it is hard to imagine a return to those really bad days.. And our discussions with various investment managers and others who have lived here all their lives are totally re-assuring. But if only the politicians would settle their differences and work together, Colombia has far more potential than has ever been realised. It has oil, gold, emeralds, platinum and much more. It is also the 2nd. largest cut flower exporter in the world. It also has a very diverse horticultural industry with the best selection of fruit and vegetables at very reasonable prices that we have ever seen and is self-sufficient in dairy and meat - with one notable exception - lamb!  We do not regret our decision to live and invest here; we just hope that the politicians - as everywhere - can work for the betterment of their people.

New Zealand - life there has been marred by the recent tragic eruption of the White Island volcano with many people who were part of a tour group from a cruise ship berthed in Tauranga, killed or horrifically burnt. We feel so sorry for those so affected and their families. Questions have been rightly raised about whether tours to an offshore island which is an active volcano should ever have been allowed, but no doubt the usual whitewash will ensue and it will all just be neatly pushed to one side. Haven't anything to say about politics, because as usual it's been very ho-hum, except that we feel that the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Simon Bridges, is very underwhelming. 2020 is election year.

And while we are on the subject of large scale political and ethnic genocide, let us not forget that Colombia is not alone in that. In New Zealand between 1835 and around 1860 a warlike group of Taranaki Maoris (living in Wellington) decided to go to the Chatham Islands which lie about 500 miles east of the South Island. Once there, during that period they systematically slaughtered 2,000 Moriori people who were an offshoot of the original Maori settlers of New Zealand and who had evolved over about 300 years of isolated island living into an entirely separate and distinct people with their own distinctive language. The Moriori had also developed a system of peaceful living called Nunuku and so were a walkover for the Maoris who arrived with guns and clubs. Some of the slaughter was horrific with women and children being "staked" on the beach until they died in unspeakable agony. A form of crucifixion.    

And on the island of Tasmania, Australia, when the British first arrived during the 1820's, as many as 1,000 local Aborigines were systematically hunted and killed with the remainder driven into the remote south west of the island so that the new settlers could take over the land for their own use. 

And there are many other examples - our ancestors in Scotland were driven from the highlands during the "clearances" by the British. When Jim's great grandfather emigrated to NZ around 1860, his family lived in Inverkeithing, a small town just west of Edinburgh on the Forth River. His father was a house painter. They had been "crofters" (sheep farmers) in the highlands many years before that when the British came.

With stories like these (and countless others), it makes one less than proud to be a member of the human race.

But, briefly back to current politics -

The UK - a very pleasing result from the recent General Election with an overwhelming (at last) majority for the Conservatives. Just very sad that the Brexit Party, after all of Nigel Farage's work over the last 25 years, did not win a single seat. There is no doubt whatsoever that the Brexit Party, by standing in traditional Labour held seats, particularly in the north east, took votes from normally Labour voters. Thus allowing the Conservative candidate to sneak in - often with very small majorities. Those voters would never in a thousand years have voted directly for the Conservatives. And selflessly, but erroneously in our opinion, the Brexit Party gave up the opportunity to stand in seats already held by the Conservatives for fear that they might split the Conservative/Leave vote and allow the LibDems/remainers in. All this becomes very speculative, but the main thing is that the Conservatives now have a workable majority to allow immediate work to leave the EU. We just hope that the PM doesn't just offer up a re-heated version of Mrs. May's obnoxious and undemocratic "deal" with the EU which was rejected by the Parliament 3 times. Finally we'd also have to say that we hope that Nigel Farage is offered a well deserved knighthood as has been suggested, but we doubt that he'd accept it.

The USA - the Impeachment charade is almost played out, but the Democrat Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is withholding the 2 articles of Impeachment from the Senate until she is assured of a "fair" hearing!! After the grossly unfair treatment that the House Dems meted out to Donald Trump, she's got a bloody nerve and the hypocrisy is unbelievable. In many ways a full Senate trial would be the best as it would fully vindicate the President and with subpoenas being issued to the likes of Shifty Schiff and the corrupt Joe Biden and his son, would finally expose the Dems for what they truly are. Then there is the Durham investigation which may not be complete until about March. This will further expose the Dem liars and their corrupt cronys such as the former Directors of the FBI and CIA. One thing absolutely for sure coming out of all this is that it will ensure a landslide win for President Trump and the Republicans in November 2020. And hopefully a few well deserving characters will finish up in jail where they belong.

And now to the real business of this blog -

On October 29th. Jim and the Schnorcedes delivered Jean to Jose Maria Cordoba International Airport for her trip to Miami to see Perry, Tracie, Carter and Nash. She would be just in time for Halloween 2 days later. Perry had organised an appropriate witches costume complete with pointy hat and broomstick!! But in some ensuing sword fight, the broomstick got broken!! They went trick and treating and a good time was had by all. In the meantime Jim organised a few things back in Medellin (including a visit to our new tax consultant) and delivering the car to Alemautos S.A. for replacement of engine mounts and front shock absorbers before departing for Miami himself 17 days later on the 15th. All our flights were with American Airlines codeshared with Latam.

Perry and Jean met Jim on the evening of his arrival and it was great to see everyone again. Then, on the Monday we had arranged to hire a car from Hertz for a week to see a bit of the west coast. We arrived at the Hertz office by Uber at Sunny Isles just north of Perry's place and proceeded to pick up the car - an unexciting Toyota Corolla. The original contract had been in Jean's name and we wanted Jim to be able to drive as well, but Hertz insisted on an extra $13 per day for an extra driver. So we told them to cancel the contract and simply make a new one in Jim's name. Then there was the issue of GPS - an essential aid for navigation in strange places. They wanted something like an extra $30 per day for this, despite earlier saying that there would be no extra charge. But we had no choice so we acquiesced but the unit they supplied was old and very difficult to use. So for the first 24 hours we managed with our cellphones and the inimitable Mrs. Waze! All this took about 2 hours so it was just as well that we didn't have far to go the first day. We drove to Naples through the Everglades, which was the most boring drive imaginable. We had imagined pretty waterways with alligators and trees on riverbanks, but it was nothing like that. However, Naples was quite pleasant and we had found a good motel (Lighthouse Inn) on Booking.com. It was an old-style motel one block back from the beach which these days is fenced off by an endless row of high rises. Typical of a lot of places and quite disappointing. Still, the Lighthouse represented "old Naples" and is probably one of the last survivors of that era. It was very comfortable and clean. Reminded us of old Mt. Maunganui (NZ) and Coolangatta in Queensland. 

The next morning we visited the local Hertz office and they were horrified at the piece of junk that the Sunny Isles people had palmed off onto us. So finally we were back in the 21st century and much happier with our new navigational aid. We then headed north to Sarasota past Fort Myers which was far more pleasant and welcoming than Naples and stayed at the Super 8 by Wyndham - cheaper too. We walked to a seafood restaurant for dinner, but that, like much of American food, was only so-so. The next morning we were on the trot once more, although this time only a short distance to St. Petersburg. The drive was spectacular though and very reminiscent of the much longer drive down to Key West a couple of years before. The road was excellent and was mostly overwater between small islands and over huge humpbacked bridges. Quite magnificent with all these feats of engineering.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn - unexciting but again very clean and comfortable. Wanted to swim in their supposed heated pool, but it was still too cold.You don't think of Florida being cold, but it was winter and the nights are cool. The highlight of the trip for us was meeting our friends Lee and Richard who we had first met at Krabi Boat Lagoon, Thailand when we were on our respective yachts - "Tiare Taporo III" and the s.v. "Before" 5 years earlier. They had, by a great coincidence arrived very recently from Seattle where they originally hailed from. They had made the momentous decision to sell up there and move to St. Pete in Florida and were looking for a new abode - maybe just north of St. Pete. We met at our hotel and had a great discussion and catch-up. Much talk about Trump and very refreshing to find others who also thought he was doing a good job. As usual we got along like a house on fire!! They had found a seafood restaurant - "Dead Bob's" - and so we all repaired there. They came with us in our car and showed us the way. It didn't disappoint and the food was for a change wonderful and inexpensive. Jean had a pound (lb) of prawns for $9.95!! It was a great night and we hope that once they are well settled, they might pay us a visit in Medellin. 

The next day we were due to leave and go across to Melbourne on the east coast which is a longish drive. However, Jean wasn't well with difficulty breathing and generally feeling quite unwell. We had been due to meet an old friend of hers there, but unfortunately had to cancel and stayed in St. Pete for the day. Her friend, Ruby, is Samoan and Jim had been looking forward to talking about Samoa in the 60's and 70's when he used to go there on business. But that will have to wait for another time. We explored a bit in the afternoon and found a so-called farmers' market where we had a meal, but it was all very plastic. Had another meal at Dead Bob's and then an early night.

The following day we had to start heading back towards Miami so we decided to travel the relatively short distance to Lake Okeechobee. The drive was for the most part through flat dairy country - so similar in appearance to the Hauraki Plains that one had to pinch oneself and remember to drive on the wrong side of the road!! Closer to Okeechobee there were extensive orange orchards and as we were on a secondary road - like the "state highways" in NZ with one lane in each direction - , there was more opportunity to see around. We eventually rolled into Okeechobee thinking there must be a town centre of a sort somewhere, but no - it was just a very spread out collection of small buildings. Some large commercial retailers but quite uninspiring. Thanks to the GPS we found our accommodation on the side of a canal giving access to the lake but we couldn't actually see the lake which is the largest freshwater lake in Florida and also is the 2nd largest lake entirely within the contiguous 48 states of the continental US. During our time there we only had glimpses of the lake but the impression was certainly large with the far side disappearing below the horizon - a natural phenomenon not entirely unknown to us!! 

The next day we were off again down the eastern side of the lake and back to Miami. Again almost no view of the lake which was disappointing - totally unlike driving down the eastern shore of Lake Taupo in NZ for example. The traffic became heavier and the roads wider as we approached Miami on I-75. The driving was hairy to say the least with frequent lane changing at up to 80 mph. (mph - not kph!). No wonder there are some massive pileups on these interstates. However, the faithful GPS managed to get us into the correct lanes for exits etc.

It was a pity that we had to keep moving as we did but time was limited and at least we have seen something of the southern part of the west coast of Florida, but as usual nowhere near enough time to explore properly. We arrived back on the Saturday (23/11) and returned the car the following Monday. Hertz still had not refunded the 1st contract in Jean's name - although they assured us that it would happen, but as all payments are processed through their office in Oklahoma City, we would have to wait. In the event all refunds did come through, but Hertz was so difficult to deal with that we would never deal with them again.

It was Thanksgiving on the 28th. and also the date of Perry's 50th. birthday, so the plan was, as they had been invited for Thanksgiving to friends, that they would have the party for Perry on the Saturday following (30/11). We went about 30 kms to the house of their friends who were a family of Syrian descent with one sibling working in Miami in IT. Further extended family had flown in from London where they live for the celebration and it was a very pleasant occasion. Very nice people and interesting to talk to. Then on the Saturday Perry used his birthday present from Tracie - a pizza oven - to good effect feeding all and sundry. Again a very pleasant night and lots of interesting conversation. Quite a social whirl for us!!!

In the midst of all this Jean certainly had not been well and slowly getting worse it seemed so, amid much protest (!) we decided that she should visit a local clinic to get examined by a doctor. This we duly did and after much beaurocratic toing and froing, we finally saw a doctor - a Puerto Rican. He seemed very professional and after 10 minutes examination, diagnosed Pneumonia - the walking kind fortunately. No idea how this came about; Jean thought she may have had a deep seated chest infection for some years, but why it should suddenly manifest itself just then we don't know. Anyway, she was given some antibiotics, which she hates, but did take them kicking and screaming!! They seem to have worked up to a point but she is still getting bad coughing fits a month later and so we are going to seek an appointment with a Thoracic surgeon who may be able to throw more light on the problem. 

There were bike rides with the children and accumulating all the health products that she had been buying through Amazon to bring back here. One thing Jim was disappointed about - he had been intrigued with Hillary Clinton's description of Trump voters as "deplorable, irredeemable, smelly Wall Mart shoppers" and he had been keen to get a T-shirt identifying him as such, but after a visit to Wall Mart couldn't find any such item, so maybe will have to buy it on-line. If he does manage to get one, he will wear it with pride!

All too soon it was time (03/12) to leave after a very pleasant and busy stay. We were overweight with everything (incl. 4 bottles of malt whiskey which was extremely well priced compared to NZ or certainly Colombia). Had to pay about USD50 but that was cheaper than paying our agent in Miami to have it shipped. Perry took us to the airport at 6 am in a Uber (a large GMC) and got us into the priority lane for booking in which certainly eased the stresses. Had a good breakfast at the airport and then a good flight. We flew over Cuba and the Caymans and then as we came into Medellin, the country looked so green and inviting, we really felt that we were returning home. A good feeling to have.   

Sergio met us and after a bit of a struggle getting all the bags into his car, delivered us safe and sound back to Envigado via the new Tunel Oriente which is 10 kms long and cuts the transit time from the airport by about half. Costs 16,900 pesos each way, but worth it.

During December settling back into life in Medellin - meeting our tax accountant again and having our lawyer, Astrid, to dinner and our neighbours, Clara and Memo for drinks. All very pleasant and great conversations. Our accountant told us she was going to Australia for Christmas where they have family and going diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We told her to watch out for the Irukandji jellyfish which can be lethal. Not to mention crocodiles.Cheer germs indeed. Also setting up our Christmas tree and decorations. We also took delivery of our new bookcase from the furniture maker at El Retiro and it is wonderful. A good Christmas present to each other. We collected the car from Alemautos and it seems that they have done a good job, but there is still another job to do before it will be perfect for Ushuaia! Alemautos were celebrating their 10th. anniversary and they invited us to a celebration meeting with many and varied MB's near the airport. We took our neighbour, Janet, with us and had a very fascinating time, although Jim probably derived the most fascination through being amongst all the vintage MB's on display. There is a photo of a 1953 "Adenauer" 300 which is something Jim has always lusted after. Never seen one in the flesh before and had to come all the way to Colombia to see one!! 

Perry and Tracie gave us a great present for Christmas - an electronic device on which you can post photos and then they scroll automatically. So far we only have a few but will gradually get lots more. 

For Christmas we had decided to go to a country hotel about 40 kms from Medellin and about 1500 feet higher. Apart from the actual Christmas dinner, which was actually awful and was served on the 24th., it was a pleasant stay and on Christmas Day we went to El Torrito - a restaurant at La Fe - for lunch. Great meal and a total contrast to the meal the night before.

Still sorting the remnants of photos etc and the new bookcase is proving wonderful. At last somewhere to put things.

We hope that everyone had a Happy Christmas and that 2020 brings you everything that your heart desires!

A few photos that you might find interesting - 

825 the Grand Vizier and #1 wife on our first visit to Turkey in 2016!

818 Charlotte and Jim at Charlotte's "coming out" ball some 25 years ago. Note the Scottish dress!

656 The "Adenauer" MB referred to above

816 Jean and Carter about to go on a bike ride together

993 Jean and Nash in characteristic pose!

Cheers and with lotsaluv

Jim and Jean

 

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