An irrelevant aside...

[Bentley Bullet]

Where did you say you were?

Stainforth?

 

[BobG]

No. I assume you never learned to read?

BobG

[scawsby steve]

No. I assume you never learned to read?

BobG

Chill out, Bob, he's having a joke.

Mind you, I don't think Filo will be too pleased.

[Bentley Bullet]

No. I assume you never learned to read?

BobG

Only crystal balls.

I spent the rest of my time developing a sense of humour.

[BobG]

OK. My apologies.

But in what has been a thread whose intent was to inform personally I think schoolboy jokes are both unnecessary and pointless. It wasn't even funny.

Cheers

BobG

[BobG]

11am. It's 34 degrees.... Christmas has arrived.

[Nudga]

To be honest, looking at the photos and the people in them, food isn't in short supply lol

[BobG]

I'm starting to like Cucuta. Yes, as a gringo you have to be very, very careful. I got a right earful last night for wandering off alone. But outside what you might call the favela areas, the roads are broad, there's lots of open spaces, the public sports facilities make ours look utterly paltry, the shopping centres are many, the municipal efforts to include people and to jointly celebrate notable dates are all pretty damn good. The town centre is though massively overcrowded with both stalls and people. The driving is Colombian. The Venezuelans are many and the consequential risks are high.

To be honest I am more and more fearful for the future of Colombia. Rising inflation and the never, ever ending influx of Venezuelan refugees means most folk are poorer and getting even poorer. The consequences of that are obvious. Two years ago I wandered the streets of Ibague in safety entirely on my own. Ibague is in Central Colombia, hundreds and hundreds of miles from any border. But today? I've been warned very clearly. My local contact says I must not go out alone there now. Too many violent robberies, too many murders, too many guns. I suspect Colombia is losing control of its population. A different root cause this time, but if this continues to deteriorate it could end up being very, very bad.

BobG

[drfchound]

A big influx of refugees is almost always a problem for the countries they go into and a rise in crime is usually a consequence of that.
The host countries then have to find homes for them and fund their presence.
Interesting in the UK that in 2023 the most popular name for new born boys was Muhammad.

[BobG]

I didn't know that. Thank you.

It's tempting to suggest that a further few murders would halt Colombia's problems. With reasonable leadership in Caracas, plenty, though not all of course, of the refugees would go home. Of those I've talked with, well over half say they'd go home.

BobG

[BobG]

I've just been looking at the maths homework for a 7 year old. 4 questions. I can't write equations on here so it's a photo. Poor quality but I couldn't get better. Sorry. Try to take a peek though. And then imagine our 7 year olds faced with these....


BobG

[BobG]

To be honest, looking at the photos and the people in them, food isn't in short supply lol

Depends on your social and economic standing Nudga. Nobody is starving. Most are OK. Some, the bottom end, scrape by doing some pretty shit jobs for themselves - collecting waste and selling it for example. Insecure, filthy and low paid work. There's a lot of cam work done by teenage and 20 something girls. Some are well off. Some are nigh on destitute. The point is, there are millions of unemployed and under employed Venezuelans. Not only are they undercutting the locals so they can get the jobs but the result of that is wages generally are either falling or not going up. In a time of significant inflation that is bloody serious. It is underpinning the scary rise in crime and violence.  But, having said that, most folk are OK today. But they are scared of the future...

BobG

[BobG]

The main man in all of northern South America: Simon Bolivar. Pictured last night at the pleasant and prominent monument in Cucuta. Helluva man.

[BobG]

If I could upload a 5 second video I could show you a bloke opening a bottle of beer with a cigarette lighter. Brilliant. We're all sitting here, under the moon getting pissed. And at 6.15 pm it's still chuffing hot.

Cajeros, cash machines, here are bloody expensive. Around 5% added to the bill.

BobG

Later: he's opening a lot of bottles... My son has just told me we look like the gathering of a Mexican cartel.....

[SydneyRover]

Great photos Bob, we had a really good time in the south island of NZ, but as we had little choice but to hire a car and stay in motel type accommodation we hardly got to speak to anyone that lived there except of in the course of buying stuff.

Your trips really show how to do it and get to the essence of a place.

[BobG]

It's bloody brilliant Sydney. I discovered a while back I really don't like poncy hotels, isolated, exploring nothing, trying less. Yes. I'm sweating like a pig, the showers are crap and the risks are obvious. But truly, this is a fabulous holiday. The only snag is I have to go back to Bogota on Wednesday As it's 8,000 feet up, the temperature will be maybe 16 or 17 degrees. Lol. Got nowhere to stay yet!


And yes. We are pissed

BobG

[BobG]

More pissed....

[BobG]

Shit. Two blokes shot 10 minutes ago just down the road from here. Like pretty close.

What a world we have created....

BobG

[BobG]

Been out to a rather nice riverine glade in what's described as jungle but really is a more civilised version of that. It's about an hour outside Cucuta.

Couple of weirs have been built so jumping in for a soak is both possible - and essential. 34 degrees today. Equally good are the free to use BBQ facilities. We did while watching the local wild monkeys flitted about in the tree tops and pissing wherever they felt like. It was a nice day. A bit over 3kg of middling quality steak, loads of spuds, some chicken and lots of veg for a soup for 11 people and all for 30 quid. And now sitting under the stars drinking more beer - with 4 women and a small girl.

Few observations:

Although Colombian driving sometimes scares the daylights outta me, the one thing they NEVER do is lose their rag. The cutting up, the downright scary pushing in, the wrong lane turns all get me worried. But the locals all just slow down, let the miscreant through and then carry on. Absolutely no road rage at all.

Having got my calculator out I can tell you that a UK gallon of petrol costs £3.05 though they sell it here in US gallons. Diesel is about 25% more expensive

Bamboo thickets are completely and utterly impenetrable.

Colombian coal mines do not look like ours.

BobG

[BobG]

The river and lake in the 'jungle' outside Cucuta

And mossies are still utter swines

[BobG]

Packing up. Flying back to Bogotá tonight. I'll be glad of the coolness, but I'll miss the vibrancy of this place. Cucuta: I underestimated you.

BobG

[BobG]

Sunday morning in Bogotá.  Much cooler. A nice 15 degrees. Pleasant stroll around the nice area known as Chapinero. In the small parks that are such a noticeable feature of all Colombian towns and cities all sorts of activities going on. This one was good. An unofficial, mixed sex, volleyball tournament.  They weren't bad players either! Really nice atmosphere. People stopping by, chatting, watching. A good standard and the games all played in a good spirit. I watched for an hour or more - letting my morning tinto and breakfast go down. Lol
Airport later. Madrid and then home.
BobG

[SydneyRover]

Have a good flight Bob, thanks for the diary entries.

[Sprotyrover]

In the centre of Cucuta today. Very busy indeed. In one one of the 'Centro Commerciales' I saw something I've not seen since the late 1980's in Communist Czechoslovakia - paying an old crone to go to the loo and being given your niggardly few pieces of loo paper to take in with you.

 Oh. Saw 2 army types in one of the crowded streets. One was carrying a light machine gun....


BobG

It’s like that in the stores in Germany now, an old Oma set up in front of the Loos charging you one Euro!

[BobG]

Good Lord
Sydney: worst flight ever. Iberia flight from Bogotá to Madrid. Left 8 hours late. Not much info.... In Madrid now and staying the night cos there's no more Iberia flights to London. So, free night in Madrid. Snag is a super early start tomorrow.

[SydneyRover]

Bring on the time-tunnel, flying is right down the bottom of my list.

[drfchound]

Good Lord
Sydney: worst flight ever. Iberia flight from Bogotá to Madrid. Left 8 hours late. Not much info.... In Madrid now and staying the night cos there's no more Iberia flights to London. So, free night in Madrid. Snag is a super early start tomorrow.

I had five nights in Madrid a few years ago on a Polypipe golf trip.
Superb destination and good night time entertainment and eating places.

[BobG]

One of my favourite cities Hound, along with Medellín, Prague and Rome

BobG

[BobG]

It's 4.20am Spain time. Stupid o'clock back to the airport. Good hotel though. I got the biggest G&T of all time in the bar late on last night. I think I'm still asleep...

BobG

[Filo]

You can’t beat Spanish measures lol!