Well, here we are again....

[SydneyRover]

Sounds really good Bob, interesting stuff, thanks for that, Syd.

[SydneyRover]

SBS did a prog the other night with Catalina Florez who was born in Columbia but maybe very young when she left.

''La periodista de SBS Catalina Florez presenta el episodio de Dateline “Grow Chocolate, Not Cocaine”, una investigación desde Colombia sobre el impacto del narcotráfico, los cultivos de coca y los esfuerzos por sustituirlos con economías legales como el cacao, en medio de la violencia y la incertidumbre rural''

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline

Hopefully the above is not rude, my Spanish is non-existent. It is a good idea but a long haul.

[BobG]

The bad side of Colombia...

Last night, around midnight, one of my friends, a woman, came back from time with her sister comemorating the death of their brother exactly one year ago. She chose to return on a 'moto'. They are small engined motorbike taxis. They provide a helmet. And they are cheap. But this is a hot climate. Girls wear very few clothes. You can guess what happened. The bike driver is in a bad way. That's his job and his bike gone and medical bills to pay even though the local insurance, if you pay it, covers 70% of the cost.

My friend was bloody lucky. She has three terrible tarmac grazes, but they all just missed vital parts of her body. She has no insurance. So playing nurse all day today. She will recover, but it's hurting like mad ATM. Problem is we MUST be at Bogotá airport by 3 am Sunday morning.... It's a dubious objective now but the alternative is a chuffing disaster. Awful scrapes across an inner thigh, a bad one across her stomach and a nasty one on an elbow.

And it's been pissing down all day so visits to the farmacia have all been sodden.

Great day...


As for the journalist lady she's suggesting growing chocolate instead of coca. Sadly, fat chance.

BobG

[Usher wide.]

I wonder if Usher ever made it out of Butlins. Keep the  the updates coming Bob

I’ve never been to Butlins in my life, I have however been right up to the Isle of Skye…..TWICE!

[SydneyRover]

Sorry to hear about your friend Bob and the moto guy, hoping for full recoveries.

Cacao is being grown, promoted and subsidised as a substitute crop by the government, the prog was fairly light on detail so unsure as to how successful the scheme is.

[knockers]

I wonder if Usher ever made it out of Butlins. Keep the  the updates coming Bob

I’ve never been to Butlins in my life, I have however been right up to the Isle of Skye…..TWICE!

Oo-er missus!

[Usher wide.]

I wonder if Usher ever made it out of Butlins. Keep the  the updates coming Bob

I’ve never been to Butlins in my life, I have however been right up to the Isle of Skye…..TWICE!

Oo-er missus!

Never ceases to make me smile.

[Reg of the Rovers]

I wonder if Usher ever made it out of Butlins. Keep the  the updates coming Bob

I’ve never been to Butlins in my life, I have however been right up to the Isle of Skye…..TWICE!

Oo-er missus!

Cockermouth on the way up?

[Nudga]

I wonder if Usher ever made it out of Butlins. Keep the  the updates coming Bob

I’ve never been to Butlins in my life, I have however been right up to the Isle of Skye…..TWICE!

Oo-er missus!

Cockermouth on the way up?

Frequent visitor to Shitterton, Lickey End and t**tt

[Iberian Red]

Think he's been to Anus in France ,but probably never Muff in Ireland or Clit in Rumanía Nudga 

[Nudga]

Think he's been to Anus in France ,but probably never Muff in Ireland or Clit in Rumanía Nudga 

Nearly spat me Bishops Finger out then.

[Iberian Red]

I had to look that one up Nudga! Got a Polish friend who told us that they called it strangling the penguin! I asked him why and he said no idea as there are no penguins in Poland.
He also told us that anyone that wore a combination of pastel coloured trousers/shirt combo was called a donkey f@£ker. Thought that was hilarious

[Iberian Red]

Bob,hope you had a great time. Check out the Andy Kershaw thread. I remember many years ago on a great forum that Carlos the Jackal and Muttley ran,I put you onto MC. He toured Colombia on a train when it was a far more dangerous place. The song you liked was about Maradonna.
All the best,
Cabron(that was my moniker back then!).

[Usher wide.]

Think he's been to Anus in France ,but probably never Muff in Ireland or Clit in Rumanía Nudga 

Nearly spat me Bishops Finger out then.

Loving this more than I ought.

Sometimes (well actually most times in the case of knockers & Nudga) you don’t even have to bait the hook, they just ‘jump out at your feet’!

Next one please!

[BobG]

Bob,hope you had a great time. Check out the Andy Kershaw thread. I remember many years ago on a great forum that Carlos the Jackal and Muttley ran,I put you onto MC. He toured Colombia on a train when it was a far more dangerous place. The song you liked was about Maradonna.
All the best,
Cabron(that was my moniker back then!).

Crikey IR! That train tour must have been a very long time ago. The entire network for public transportation was closed down in the late 1980's I believe. Thatcherite economics. There was a weekend only service between Bogota and the impressive underground salt mine cathedral at Zipaquira on an exceedingly rickety old line. But Covid put paid to that. The only trains in Colombia nowadays are a few private industrial lines and a damn good mass transit system in Medellin - where I am heading back to this Sunday.

I would not have liked to be here in the early 80's. There is a very moving monument in Medellin now to the 10,000 police persons who were murdered during those Escobar years. Funnily enough my visit this time is to show my son, who has a silly fascination  with Pablo, all those sites, and the stonking great el Penoñ de Guatape about an hour away by bus. As a side attraction there is a beautiful lake close by where the current Colombian goalie lives within bow shot of a ruined mansion that had belonged to guess who... It's some sight.

Cracking place Medellin. I could very easily live there.

As for the fool who clearly has lost, if he ever had, the ability to read and employ thought, well, his consistent display of moral decrepitude and monomania displays once again how we have no need to pay any attention whatsoever to anything he writes.

BobG

[Iberian Red]

That was Mano Negra in the 80's Bob.
 They had huevos enorme to do that in the 80's during the time of the cartels

[Usher wide.]

For anyone who has never been to Colombia but would like a true taste of its people, culture, scenery, infrastructure & public transportation I can thoroughly recommend the film ‘Romancing the Stone’.

[SydneyRover]

Hate to be the one to break the news but it wasn't filmed in Columbia.

[Nudga]

For anyone who has never been to Colombia but would like a true taste of its people, culture, scenery, infrastructure & public transportation I can thoroughly recommend the film ‘Romancing the Stone’.

In your haste to take the piss, you've just conceded a huge own goal there.

If you're not interested in this thread, why are you trying to derail it?

A lot of us are genuinely interested in Bob's travels. Maybe just give this one a miss eh.

[Usher wide.]

For anyone who has never been to Colombia but would like a true taste of its people, culture, scenery, infrastructure & public transportation I can thoroughly recommend the film ‘Romancing the Stone’.

In your haste to take the piss, you've just conceded a huge own goal there.

If you're not interested in this thread, why are you trying to derail it?

A lot of us are genuinely interested in Bob's travels. Maybe just give this one a miss eh.

Fair do’s.

I’ll get into my caravanette & drive off into the sunset.

Don’t hesitate to give this post a like if you’d care to hear about my adventures as I head off to Cornwall.