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Said goodbye to the B and B in Cartagena with some relief. It was the cook's day off so the gardener prepared breakfast, which was a bit hit and miss. Everything went very smoothly at the airport. With some trepidation I checked my case in. The idea had been to travel with just hand luggage but this turned out to be totally impractical what with the 200 ml bottles of shampoo (none provided anywhere), camomile lotion for mosquito bites (all that the pharmacies here seemed to offer) and body lotion for my sore feet (cream for feet unobtainable here). It would also have helped if I had only taken one jumper and jettisoned the make-up!
Fears proved unfounded. Avianca did not lose my luggage. Established that a taxi from the airport to my area of Medellin would cost £15 so decided to take the minibus which cost just over £2 plus £2 for a taxi from the bus drop off point. (Asked the guy sitting next to me where to get off.) Was impressed that the bus driver gives you a receipt for your luggage which they tag, store away and then give back to you when you hand over
the receipt. They don't do this on the bus from Porto to Vigo. Was less impressed when a youth expected a tip for carrying my case two feet and putting it into the waiting taxi.
My hotel here is new, an anonymous business hotel which could be located anywhere in the world, but everything is clean, the shower has hot water and nothing has fallen apart yet ! Had to wait until 3 pm to get into my room which was a bit of a pain as by this time not much of the afternoon left. It gets dark around 6.30 pm here - all year round. Anyway decided to locate the nearest metro stop and have a look at the botanic gardens. A nice woman who I asked the way suggested that I wait a few minutes and she would take me in her car but felt that I couldn't possibly do this.
The metro is a lovely surprise after Bogotá's feeble apology for one. Very smooth, cool, easy to use and people are a lot politer here. Some people have even given up their seat for me! As most of it is above ground you also
get to see a lot of the city. Because it's set amongst hills with lots of green spaces it’s beautiful even though the buildings themselves are not attractive. The botanic gardens were jam packed with people enjoying themselves and the ubiquitous vendors of food and drink, not the sort of restful, soothing experience I had been hoping for but it is a Sunday.
In the evening I ventured out to get something to eat. The area where I am staying, El Poblado, is supposed to be very safe and is where most tourists stay. Perhaps I have not seen the best of it but the bit I did see was full of almost empty bars blaring out loud music - a bit like Chesterfield on a Saturday night! Rather incongruously there was a religious meeting going on in the square with speakers summoning you to God. I wondered why there were so many children in school uniform at that time of night until I realised that they had all bought white shirts which were on sale there presumably with some sort of religious motif. I am ashamed to admit that instead of hunting for traditional Colombian food I ate in an outlet belonging to a well-known American chain - am not going to say which one. All I wanted was a salad and I couldn't be bothered to go hunting for one!
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