Fwd: Life in El Retiro and related matters

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2022 at 17:31
Subject: Life in El Retiro and related matters
To: Alex Donald <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>

Hi to all,

There is so much happening in the world at present.

So, we will begin with our Colombian doings and follow with our own view of the world and the challenges which surely will follow in the future post Chinese Virus environment

It's been a while - over 2 months in fact - since the last blog and much has happened since then.

Life continues in El Retiro. However, it has been unseasonably wet with rain nearly every day - usually from around 3pm onwards. And it's been cold - 2 blankets and an eiderdown on the bed! We hope that the seasons get back to somewhere near normal soon, otherwise we would have to question whether the decision to move here is sustainable in the medium term - especially as we get ever older. However, as the summer becomes more entrenched now, it is warming up a little thank goodness.

But the place itself and the people we have met have compensated in a big way. We have received much assistance with all sorts of things from many people. 

Our NZ orchid breeder friend, Andy is not happy as the often overcast days are severely impacting the blooming of the flowers which no doubt makes it difficult to assess the commercial acceptance of a new orchid. We meet Andy on a fairly regular basis at a local restaurant called La Liebre (the Hare) on Sundays for breakfasts and their omelettes are to die for - better even than the Kamo cafe we used to visit before we left Godzone! We discuss all sorts of things and usually the conversation turns to politics upon which we agree on most issues. 

On-line payments of accounts are a bugbear at the moment and it's not just a language difficulty, although that does complicate things. A typical situation is that we received the latest monthly invoice from Empresas Publicas de Medellin - EPM - pronounced aypayemi. This covers water, electricity and gas (reticulated natural gas). Our monthly cost has risen - mainly because most nights we run a built-in gas heater to counteract the cold. Typically we are now paying around 420,000 pesos per month ( approx. NZD162) for all 3 services. However, our gas consumption has risen of late because belatedly EPM discovered a gas leak. Doesn't seem to matter whether it's on their side of the metre or ours!! This has now been fixed. But in all the confusion we were late paying last month's bill. So, when this month's arrived, it was showing a total for 2 months. In our naivety we assumed that we could just go to the branch of Bancolombia where we have been paying most things and pay the new balance. But NO - this is Colombia with its own brand of logic. The bank was unable to vary the amount of the payment from that stated on the invoice, so we had to pay 2 months which means that we have now overpaid 1 month and when the next invoice arrives it SHOULD be showing a credit balance! That remains to be seen!! 

The accounts situation is now better, but we still haven't competely come to grips with on-line payment. Local websites are in the main DIABOLICALLY complicated. It's also complicated by the fact that often there is no "paper" invoice - either electronically or delivered - or that you get an invoice in some months and not in others. And you are expected somehow - by telepathy? - to know when some account is due.

The car situation remains the same as the B200 is still not finally repaired. At least we now know the problem. We are currently weighing up the viability of obtaining the necessary parts from either the US or Mexico. The US one is new, whereas ex Mexico they are used. But then we also have to find someone here who is competent to fit the parts in a CVT automatic transmission, and even then we don't have any guarantee that the problem will be fixed. Every time that we ask anyone we get conflicting "advice". So, the poor car sits in an underground carpark in Medellin while we wrestle with the problem. Increasingly we are thinking we just need to scrap it to avoid putting good money after bad. which would be very sad as it is a good car, apart from the transmission. Good engine (only 78,000 kms) etc etc. But we are approaching in transmission repair costs an amount equal to the original purchase cost. Still, if, and it's a big IF, it is 100% repaired, we can then sell it and recover much cost, even if it does leave us licking our wounds. We must say at this point that our friend, Rodrigo, who went to Bogota with Jim to purchase the elderly W124 Mercedes, has been a tower of strength and we are indebted to him for all the assistance he has provided in trying to solve the problem of the B's transmission.

The good thing is that the 29 yr old 300E we bought in Bogota is going well apart from a few minor issues, but we are gradually getting on top of those. Laboriously writing out instructions in Spanish for mechanics is time-consuming but we get there in the end. The Spanish is slowly improving as a result of all these interactions!! At least the 300E has NO COMPUTERS!!!

On an amusing note, we often buy Muzlos de Pollo (chicken legs) and have commented on the size. We have therefore concocted a new theory concerning the Moas (extinct in NZ). We believe that when the Maoris arrived in NZ only about 900 years ago, the Moas observed the slaughter that was unleashed upon them and decided to emigrate. With their long legs they were very good swimmers and many made it to South America - hence the Moa legs we buy today. What with interbreeding with local chickens, the result is very tasty and tender - and large - legs, which are more than a meal in themselves. One rare reason to be grateful to these NZ Maori immigrants, who never conserved anything in their lives - note NOT Tangata Whenua!!!! For those of you not familiar with the Maori language, Tangata Whenua means "People of the Land", but 900 years of occupation and rape and pillage does NOT justify this description incorrectly bestowed on half-cast people who now only comprise 16% of NZ's population at best. 

Our building extensions have been proceeding in earnest since the 3rd. (13 working days so far), and we are very pleased with the standard of work and surprisingly, the efficiency. The contractor's name is Humberto and he employs a relative, Ivan, and his son, Ricardo. Keeping it all in the family is common here and works well. Basically we are extending the living area by 12 sq.metres, although about half of that was already under an upstairs balcony. And we are building a 6 sq. metre separate laundry, although attached to the house so that we can shift the laundry out of the kitchen which will make for a much more workable kitchen space. And 2 new windows in the kitchen which is not well served for natural light at present. These extensions have involved the digging up and demolition of existing paved areas which has mostly devolved to the son, Ricardo - it is backbreaking hard work. Jean wanted to recognise his hard work, so asked Humberto if we could give him 20,000 Pesos plus some Colombian chocolate. The gesture went down very well. Everything seems to be done the hard way by hand, although in the limited space it would have been next to impossible to bring in any mechanical assistance. Humberto and his team arrive at 7am every morning so we are having some long days. The language can be a bit frustrating at times, but Google Translate really comes into its own and we have managed to organise things quite well so far.

We are indebted to Peter English, a retired English/Italian expat, who has lived here for 19 years and who speaks fluent Spanish. He introduced us to Humberto and at our first meeting Peter was here to translate. We had written out everything we wanted to discuss (3 pages in Spanish) and the meeting went very well. We will have some progress photos at the end of this blog. EVERYTHING is produced in Colombia - concrete, bricks, tiles, window glass and aluminium extrusions, wiring, light fittings, kitchens, benchtops, and appliances. So NO supply chain issues and everything is so reasonably priced. For the work so far we were quoted 22 million Pesos (approx. NZD 9,000). That doesn't include fairly extensive windows for the new living room or the laundry glass roof, but it's at an affordability level unheard of for years in NZ, or just about anywhere else.

But not without what seem to be typical Colombian frustrations. For example we went down to Medellin (Ideo Mall in Itagui) and bought tiles. Some to be inset into a polished tinted concrete floor and others for a small outdoor patio. We chose them all and were pleased with the selection. Todo hecho en Colombia como siempre. We arranged for the outdoor tiles to be delivered as they were too heavy to take in the car, especially up 2,000 feet in 20kms! But when we took the car around to their cart dock, ALL the tiles were there! We reminded them that delivery for some (about 300 kilos!) had to be arranged and they took that news in bad grace. Colombians for the most part don't like to be corrected! Then they said that the delivery to Retiro would be 220,000 pesos (NZD88), so we told them to cancel the order. We'd already paid the total by credit card, so they refunded us in cash! We took the smaller tiles and now have to look again for the outdoor tiles up here. Similar story with a gas wall oven we chose. Brand is Mabe (made in Mexico, although there are also other brands made here). We decided on the particular model at the Mabe shop in Ideo and then wanted to pay with credit card a couple of days later, but they said in order to do that we had to be there in person! So we cancelled that order too and will have to source the same thing up here. We cannot be leaving here all day just to pay by credit card with all that is happening right now. These frustrations just drive you mad, particularly because they are usually sprung at the last minute with no prior warning. Anyway, in the end the final result will have been worth all these tribulations.

We have been unable to put our old girl in the carport as it's being used for storage of building materials, so we obtained from the US an excellent car cover and she now resides under that outside in the visitors' carpark for the duration. All seems well.

Yesterday (the 17th.) we went to Homecentre in Rio Negro, which is the local Bunnings/Mitre 10 equivalent. We were armed with everything we needed to purchase written out on paper and it all went swimmingly. We bought a natural gas powered wall oven (last one of those that Jim had was in Birkenhead in Auckland before 2004, and as the burning gas gives off moisture, the food is kept nice and moist). a new larger (10 litre) gas califont water heater because we haven't got room for a cylinder, more tiles  which we like better than the ones we earlier had chosen in Itagui, and a long folding ladder which will enable us to clean our glass roofed carport roof and which, as it folds into 4 parts, can be used for a number of purposes including as a scaffold for painting walls for instance. We also managed to get an extendable 3 metre washing brush for said roof and some varnish for a wall of natural brown stone inside. We saw the same stone at a restaurant in Cartagena which had been varnished and the effect was much enhanced.

We have to comment on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which of course has been underway for some 3 months now. We have been wrestling with the Russian motivation for this action. We think we now understand. The reasons for the invasion are many and varied, and the Russian President has been tight-lipped. But thanks to Glen Beck, a conservative US broadcaster, we believe that basically it comes down to an ideological conflict between Nationalism and Globalism. The latter is the playbook of Socialism, hence the growing opposition to Russia from the EU and the US. And now we are seeing the increasing involvement by NATO and the US which seem to be running an increasing risk of provoking a nuclear conflict with the Russian Federation.

In no way are we attempting to justify Russia's actions with all the loss of life and destruction of property that has occurred. It is NEVER justified to invade another sovereign country - no matter how justified it may seem to be at the time. Suffice it to say that Vladimir Putin may also wish to expand Russia's borders back to the old USSR positions which would mean invasions of more countries, but there's this other already mentioned ideological reason. Putin probably quite correctly regards Biden as a liability, not just to the US, but to the world. And, despite all the scare-mongering, the so-called alliance between China and Russia is likely to be somewhat of a myth. There are now very disturbing reports coming out of Ukraine to the effect that a number of bioweapon labs - similar to the Wuhan lab. - are widespread in Ukraine, and it seems very likely that these labs are and have been funded by the US - Fauci et al - all in the despicable name of "gain of function". This simply means that viruses, usually fairly harmless from natural sources are "enhanced" to the point that they become extremely dangerous and possibly could be used as bio-weapons, or create another Covid - or worse. Then there is the Chinese Virus "vaccine", but untested and imposed upon a totally scared world with all the consequences, financial and human, that we have seen. 

This is a scandal yet to be fully revealed, but one could be reasonably sure that it also involves the corrupt Bidens (Hunter and his corrupt father - the current President of the United States). This is probably why the US is making a lot of noise as they would not want these types of revelations ever seeing the light of day. And why Putin is pressing on so that he can be instrumental in destroying the corrupt "deep state" by exposing these vile operations.

Having said all that, THERE IS NEVER ANY EXCUSE FOR ONE COUNTRY INVADING ANOTHER WITH ALL THE ATTENDANT HUMAN SUFFERING AND DAMAGE.

It is interesting to compare Biden to Trump. When President Assad of Syria attacked his own people with chemical weapons supplied by Russia, Trump didn't hesitate. He attacked the airbase from where the chemical missile attack originated with over 70 Tomahawk missiles. Then he rang Putin and told him "don't ever do that again". "If you do, the consequences will be worse". Now there are strong rumours that Putin, after having viewed Biden's weakness, is likely to do exactly that again. This is the very dangerous path down which the corrupt Biden is leading the United States, and by extension all of us down this slippery slope..

We can't wait for the mid-terms in November this year so that the resultant GOP controlled Congress can press ahead with impeachment of the worst and most corrupt president in US history, followed by criminal prosecution of him and all his criminal co-conspirators for their determined treasonous attempts to destroy the oldest democratic republic in the world.

There is an email just to hand from Jonathan Otto of Covid Secrets which quotes US "official" Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System - VAERS, published by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC). It is estimated that the following figures only form 1% of the actual adverse effects, simply because of the lack of accurate reporting. Reportedly there are 28,000 deaths directly attributable to the vaccines, and of 1,261,000 "adverse events", there are 155,000 hospitalisations, 129,000 urgent care cases, 52,000 permanent disabilities, 41,000 severe allergic reactions, 40,000 Myocarditis/Pericarditis cases, 31,000 life threatening reactions, 14,000 heart attacks and 4,600 miscarriages. And bear in mind again that these figures only represent 1% of the real totals. There have been so many lies and deliberate misinformation, coupled with draconian lockdown rules often enforced in the most brutal ways. The overall human and financial costs of the Chinese Virus have just been made many times worse by these deliberate attempts to suppress and control populations. There are so many people that should be held to account, but of course never will be.

One interesting matter concerning Ivermectin that we have read from a usually reliable source is that it is now thought that it has anti-cancer properties as well as the well proven preventative effect on the Chinese Virus. All those sceptics who mocked it can put their arguments you know where.

In NZ's case it seems from recent polling that Ardern and Co are on the skids - and not before time. But we should not be complacent. 

The damage that has been wrought on our fair land has been massive and will take years to recover from. And possibly the saddest thing is that people have been changed forever. They are no longer the caring easy-going people that we all once knew. The Chinese Virus "rules" have pitted people against one another, perhaps forever. We can only hope that over time we may get back to that happier time. It is certainly ironic that Ardern in NZ and Biden in the US (and others elsewhere), put themselves forward as "uniters" and promulgators of fairness and harmony, but exactly the opposite has been the case. In NZ the race card has been played blatantly in an effort to steal assets and governmental control on behalf of self-interested and corrupt Maori tribal interests from what used to be a benign democracy. Let's hope that it's not too late to stop these evil machinations and exact justice from these criminals.  

To be fully aware of these anti-democratic attempts to subvert our system of government which has operated now for over 180 years, please, if you have not already done so, listen regularly to Leighton Smith's weekly podcasts which have been a beacon of common sense and fairness for many months in these benighted times. And also please read Dr. Muriel Newman's weekly NZ Centre for Political Research newsletters. She, probably more than any other single person, has exposed the underhand and criminal attempts to subvert our democracy - most notably by the "3 Waters" scheme - and others, of which we will not go into in detail here. Read the NZCPR newsletters and find out how NZ is systematically being destroyed.

It is instructive to compare the "active case" numbers in Colombia and NZ as we speak. Colombia has just over 26,000 "active cases" in a population of 51 million, whereas NZ currently has over 54,000 "active cases" in a population of 5 million. If nothing else will, surely this MUST illustrate the evil and wilful futility of NZ's "elimination strategy" which has been an absolute abject failure. NZ of course isn't alone in this, but it does expose the malign incompetence that has characterised much official response to the Chinese Virus.

Two further news items concerning deception and scandal in the US which just came to light today - 16/05. First, there has been much comment about the shortage of baby formula on supermarket shelves. It turns out that huge quantities are being and have been shipped to the Mexico border for months to be given to all these massive numbers of illegal aliens who have been flooding across the border. This story is corroborated by a GOP congresswoman who has just been to the border and photographed warehouses full of this baby formula. One more example of the criminal lying that the Biden crooks have been doing with impunity.

The other is concerning Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter - now on hold. This is because questions have been raised concerning the genuineness of the numbers of active accounts that Twitter actually has. It now looks increasingly likely that there could be as many as 90% of these "accounts" which are actually fake and are activated by robots. If this is true, then Musk certainly will NOT be buying Twitter - or definitely not for anything like the 44 billion dollars initially proposed. This is just another example of the lying and deceptive nature which characterises everything the left is involved in. 

They rig elections because that's the only way they can win and in the case of NZ they took advantage of the Covid panic to push through their racist agenda below normal parliamentary scrutiny processes. The left are CROOKS through and through.   

You may have read of the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion from the Supreme Court on the subject of Rowe v. Wade which deals with what to date and since 1973 has been unfettered access to pregnancy abortion. The Court it seems is likely to devolve this matter to individual states whose policies are usually directly related to their own voters' intentions. Having said that though, there are states right now who permit abortion right up to full term and it is even proposed in some cases that an infant could be "aborted" up to 30 days after birth. We have never heard of anything so barbaric in our lives and would also comment that, while it may up to a point be a woman's right to decide "what happens to her own body", there are actually two bodies to be considered in any pregnancy - not just one. This is a right to life of a new human being which is routinely ignored by these rabid abortionists who are now picketing the private homes of the Justices. It is actually illegal to attempt to influence ANY judge's deliberations by threats of violence which is exactly what has been done, but the Socialist Biden Administration is just ignoring all that and taking no action.

Financial markets are declining drastically as the belated realisation of Biden's Socialist policies are finally taking hold. Since the beginning of the year:

The NZD against the USD has declined 7.3%. This will to a large extent affect the price of anything imported into NZ, especially fuel, which of course directly affects just about everything else.

The NZD against the AUD has declined 4.1% - same comments apply

The NZD against the Colombian Peso (COP) has declined 7.2%

The USD against the COP has remained exactly the same

The NZ stock exchange (NZX50) has declined 13.6%

The Australian All Ords has declined 4.5%

The broad US index - the S & P 500 has declined 18.2%

These stock market figures probably indicate the start of a much larger decline which in turn could be the start of a recession. Many commentators are confidently predicting that this will happen, if not already. It is always surprising that, considering how many USD's have been artificially printed over previous months, the USD is increasing in value against many other currencies as well as the NZD. It seems that many people regard it as a safe haven , but of course it is anything but. The world is crazy and events to come are unpredictable.  

Here in El Retiro life is relaxed compared with just about anywhere else, and we feel so thankful that through a series of coincidental events over the last 11 years or so, we have eventually settled here. Everything that one is likely to need is here and, if not, Llanogrande is only 15 kms away or Rio Negro 30 kms. We can only add that we feel so incredibly lucky that our often unconventional travels and experiences encompassing 10 countries since leaving NZ in 2011 have led us here to this delightful part of the world. The Chinese Virus is a thing of the past, but we continue to take Ivermectin on a regular monthly basis. Our only concerns are that the weather should revert to being somewhat warmer and sunnier and that we do not get saddled with a Socialist President in 2 weeks time. We can only hope that sufficient of the population realise the possible consequences of such a change and vote accordingly. Elections have consequences. Unfortunately the extreme right-wing government of Duque/Uribe continues to take undemocratic actions in order to illegally attempt to keep the left from taking power. They've just illegally sacked the Mayor of Medellin because he was perceived by them as being Socialist and helping the Socialist Presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro - a former guerilla terrorist!! But they'd have been better to leave the Mayor alone, at least until after the elections, because people are neither blind nor stupid and these authoritarian actions can possibly influence undecided voters to swing left - one has to wonder just what planet the current government is inhabiting. Fingers crossed.

Well, that's about it for now. Next blog whenever we have finished our building alterations. Probably in about 6 weeks. In the meantime we hope that people are well and picking themselves up after the draconian Chinese Virus nonsense............

Cheers and lotsaluv from us in El Retiro, Antioquia, Colombia

Jim and Jean

P.S.

Herewith photos of the alterations to date -