Until the Monkey Runs Out... travelling so you dont have to

Not Drunk

Can't drink, won't drink.

it is Wednesday and I haven't been out yet this week... guess that I am feeling the pinch of Sarah leaving already.

It is my second week back at work and I am knackered. I wasn't on the nine o'clock starts last week but this week I am. I hate the early mornings even though it is a lot lighter than it was when I went away. I am missing sleeping until my eyes pop open and then taking a siesta later in the day.

I am enjoying being back and catching up with everyone but time goes so quickly here. I find that I am wishing the week away just so I can get some sleep but when the weekend hits we have things to do so I don't get to spend all that lovely time in bed that I so crave.

Mind you, I was laid up for a while on Saturday as I slipped down the stairs on Saturday morning, scraping my knuckles along the wall and twisting my ankle. After limping round the supermarket in the morning I went to bed for the afternoon.

I still wasn't walking well the next day or indeed when I got to work on Monday. I had basically stopped limping on Tuesday but my ankle and heel still feel a bit dodge today.

No, I wasn't drunk.

Yes, it was the same foot that is a toenail down.

Now I am tired and a little depressed since my best mate flew off to Brazil yesterday... things will get better.. once this damn headache goes.

Take me back to Colombia! I looked so relaxed back then

This was taken in the pub when I had just arrived there from the airport. I don't think that I look too bad after the seventeen hours it took me to get there!

All change, all change

I got myself a new job this week. I reckon that it will pay more than the teaching and help me to lose weight. I will still get to meet people and have the bonus of being out in the fresh air.

Sarah is going to do it too for the summer.

Nah, sod that. It is Juan's rickshaw and he can keep it a far as I am concerned... it as bloody cold on that thing last night.

But it was Sarah's last night in London. Which means that these pages are going to be a bit empty from now on.. just lots of me talking about what I watched on TV last night and my latest knitting adventure. She is off to Brazil to be reunited with her other half and good luck to her. I don't know how well I would have settled back into life here if it hadn't been for her.

We have had a lot of fun this last year or so... and I am going to miss her A LOT!!

I am interviewing for new best mates this week...

I told you there was more

Seriously what do you do with all the other photos that are begging for attention? I took a scary amount while I was away and only a select few made it on here during the trip. Not always the best ones, sometimes it was more a matter of time rather than the best.

I promise that I am not spending all day moping through my photos remembering the trip. I am back at work and back in the pub. There is a lot of catching up to do. I have printed about ten photos to show people at work but you guys get the fuller experience here.

So here are some more, I hope that I am not repeating any!

Cartagena

The coffee plantation at Chinchina

Coffee

Playa blanca on the Islas del Rosario

Raquira near Bogota

Tagana near Tayrona

And the sunset in Taganga

The Botero statue park in Medellin

walking from the hostel to the town in San Agustin

And please guys.. it is ColOmbia, there is no U in the name... cheers

Why do we do it??

St Patrick's Night as a pretty quiet one. But Gustavo remembered the cool function on my camera

So that kept us busy for a while

Though I somehow managed to delete the good one of me and replace it with this one. But then things just got silly last night.

We went to the walkabout early but then I had to leave when two mates arrived and didn't want to stand in the snow in the long long queue

but we ended up back in the walkabout once the other pub had closed

And didn't leave until after two. Didn't get into bed until half two and up again at seven.

It is any wonder that a student asked me if I was OK as my eyes looked tired today! And only my second day back!

Good job that I was with some of the students last night

Random Shots

Ah yes, there are plenty of these babies left..

Thursday in Felixstowe

I am sure that you are waiting for the final few days of my time in Colombia but it ain't going to happen tonight. Well, a bit. I went back to Bogota for the weekend and met up with Camilo, my first Colombian student and the guy that actually invited me to Colombia in the first place.

I also met Natalia and we went to a concert in Parque Bolivar, of which there are no photos because the security guard took the batteries from my camera. So I could just spend the rest of the day watching people using their camera phones to take photos and video the proceedings while my own camera lay impotent in my bag.

And more annoyingly it meant that I didn't have the opportunity to take photos of the police swarming the streets the next day ahead of George Bush's visit to the capital. Reportedly there were 22,000 of them and I got photos of none.

I went to a salt mine with Camilo and Andrea before going back to Alex's family home for my last night in the country.

But details later.

Today just a few photos and these ones of Alex and Juan today- I took them to my home town and introduced them to my great aunt. They were certaily amused at the amount of old people in downtown Felixstowe on a Thursday afternoon.

We hit the beach for traditional fish and chips and an ice cream before going to my 'local' for a pint and then back to London.

It was a gorgeous sunny spring day and the boys seemed to enjoy being away from the bustle of London for a day.

Back to work tomorrow, just for three hours. I was going into town to go to the pub anyway so thought I might as well earn some spondulicks whilst there.

Wish me luck!

Oh yes, for those wishing a toe nail update... Camilo kicked it off accidentally in the pub on Friday night and I am now officially a nine toe nailed freak... just in time for sandal season, joy!

Hi Honey I'm home

I am indeed lying in my bed in my room and most definitely not in Colombia. The plane from Madrid was delayed by two hours which was annoying as hell. Not least because the only annoucement that they make in Madrid airport is to alert you to the fact that they don't make annoucements. OK this means that the airport is nice and quiet but that you have to keep jumping up and down to the departure boards to find out if your delayed plane is planning on leaving some this century.

In fact, I think that someone out there didn't want me home because when I checked in at Bogota they tried to convince me to stay another day. It wouldn't have taken much to persuade me to stay except that I had made plans for a night in the pub the moment I got home. So off I went.

I was still back in Blighty by five thirty and in the pub an hour later, delivering all the things that various Colombian parents had sent back with me for their babies.

Of course, I woke up too early this morning but it is a bit of a joy to just lean over and grab my computer rather than having to get dressed and go in search of an internet cafe. I know what you are thinking, this would be an ideal time to update with photos from the last week. And you are right except that my USB cable is somewhere in the depths of my backpack downstairs and I ain't moving.

So later then!

For now just content yourself with knowing that I am safe and well in the UK and back to work on Monday... life goes on and all that.

Photos when I make it out of my bed.... much later!

On my way

Due to leave Colombia in seven hours.. had a great last weekend only slightly marred that we had a dry Sunday due to Bush being here for the afternoon. But I will tell you all about it when I get home.. or possibly at Madrid airport if I get the chance.

Chao for now!

Stuff and Nonsense

Public phones in Colombia are particularly violent and liable to attack unless chained

I guess that is why people prefer the men that let you use their mobile phones for a small fee.

I left Cali yesterday morning and popped into Armenia for an hour or so

Then onto Manizales again. I have been here before but I like this city. It is spread across several mountains and the place where I am staying is up on a ridge that runs right to the centre of the city. The hills run down off both sides of the road. It is cloudy today so much of the landscape is obscured which gives the impression that we are actually on an island.

But I know there are mountains out there- where else would they be growing the coffee:

Or put all the houses for that matter.

Tomorrow I am doing my last big bus trip in Colombia, back to Bogota. I am going to miss so many things about this country. And some things I am not sure if I will miss them or not... like the people that juggle at the traffic lights to get some extra cash

Or the people that get on the bus every time it stops to sell you things from cakes to water to toothbrushes and friendship bracelets

I am going to miss the views from the bus windows though.

But not going to miss finding out that the kitchen preparing my food looks like this

Those are live chickens under the crate... and you can´t see all the guys pissing everywhere just off camera!

Certainly going to miss being called beautiful all the time.

But enough of this small trip down memory lane.. there are still a few days to go. So I am going out in the rain to live them.

Thunder and Lightning

Ok here it is.. the eagerly anticapated photo entry! I am back in Cali now. I arrived last night and am staying at the same hostel which is cool- loads of people to talk to. And I hope that it doesn´t say too much about me that the people in the pizza place around the corner recognised me(!)

So in no particular order.. the roundabout in Otavalo with tradionally dressed statues dancing on it. And taking it very seriously

This is the view from the cafe that we stopped at on the way from Pasto to Cali yesterday.. Colombia that is

Me up the top of a volcano overlooking Quito- the day that I remembered how to work the timer on my camera - ruko pichincha. Where Juan has just told me that he wrote his name but didn´t tell me before I went so I could look for it!