It all worked out fine in the end! Diary of an older woman travelling solo in Colombia.

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Well, today was one of those days when nothing goes quite as it should. The plan was to go up the cable car to Parque Arvi in the morning and back to downtown Medellín in the afternoon. This was my only day for sightseeing proper here as am doing another bus trip tomorrow. To get to the park you take two separate cable cars from one of the mainline metro stations. The first, which is included in the 50p fare, was built to link poor people living high up on one of the hills to the centre of the city in the valley. (There are other cable cars serving other slopes, although slope is too gentle a word). The first ride gives you a bird's eye view of poverty whereas the cable car to the park takes you over forest/jungle with mountain peaks on either side. It's noticeable that there was hardly anybody on this one. A young woman who got off at the end of the first cable car stretch told me she had never been to the park. I shared my cabin on the second ride with a German-Australian gay couple who wrongly informed me that this Thursday was a public holiday. This put me into a panic as it's my day for taking a long bus journey into the Zona Cafetera (Coffee Region).

There were free guided walks in the Parque but decided the 40 min one, which went along the road, was too short and the two and a half hour one was too long. No other information was provided by the park ranger about what else was available. Perhaps should have spoken to her in Spanish. Opted instead to take a short ‘chiva’ ride (open sided minibus, more like a truck) to a lake which the picture on the side of the bus, and the driver, suggested was very beautiful. He was vague about when he would be coming back but when I suggested 12 noon he said fine. Moral: never go anywhere unless you are certain about how and when you can get back. The driver suggested that I hook up with a small group of about 10 who were going to the same place. It turned out that they were on a work away day intended to motivate them and also help with team building. They were very friendly so decided to tag along. However when I had spent about an hour with them in the butterfly house whilst an enthusiastic ranger explained all you could ever want to know about butterflies and a whole lot more and we then moved into the insect house decided I had had enough. The so called lake looked more like a muddy reservoir to me. The security guard /ranger assured me there would be a chiva along shortly - he was in touch with the driver by walkie talkie - but this turned out to be entirely notional. Fortunately I met up with a young woman who was struggling to find out from the guard how she could get back (equally pissed off with the lack of info) and we chatted for what must have been three quarters of an hour until a different minibus arrived. Felt sorry for the guard who kept saying that it would be here soon and was clearly doing his best. Anyway the young woman worked for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (sort of think tank which often provides pundits for Newsnight etc) . She had been helping to organise a high powered conference in Cartagena attended by ministers etc and was now travelling around a bit on her own. One of the conference themes had been about countries in post-conflict situations. She told me that the victims of atrocities committed by the insurgents were more willing than non-victims to accept that there might not be a proper justice process for the perpetrators - if this meant that lasting peace could be established more quickly.

We parted on the metro. She was staying in the downtown area of Bogotá for a few nights and told me she would be fine as the hostel had two armed guards on duty every night (this after the Hilton in Cartagena and Medellín - perhaps her work was paying for her there). As soon as I got out into downtown Medellín I wished I hadn't because of the noise and bustle. At this point a heavy downpour also started so I made a beeline for their main museum. More Botero! More interestingly they had juxtaposed some modern art, mainly sculpture and pottery, against examples of the indigenous pre-hispanic variety and there were clearly similarities.

Last on my agenda was a trip up a hill for more views of Medellín and a walk down through a sculpture park. Failed to do my homework and got off at a metro stop with the same name as the hill (Nutibarra) when I should have got off at one of the two earlier ones. Got a taxi up but should have realised that the views would not be good on such a cloudy, misty day. Sculpture park was mainly noteworthy for graffiti on the sculptures.

Next stop was the bus terminal serving the south of Medellín to check out bus times for my trip to Salamina on Thursday. Information sent me by the guest house where I will be staying bore no relation to timetables according to the ticket offices I visited and the woman at the information point sent me to one which did not do this trip. (I blame the companies and their out-of-date websites.) The woman at the first counter told me the trip would take four hours. The second said seven hours! I know the routes are different but still! Went back to the first and asked her how her trip could be so much shorter. She was sticking to her guns until fortunately the actual driver of this bus (or so he claimed) turned up and he said five and a half. And I have to be there for 6.30am!

Still raining so got a taxi back. Driver was quite chatty until I handed over a 50,000 peso note (about £12.50). 'Ésta mal' (It’s bad), he pronounced. I couldn't believe this as it had come from an auto-bank. Still sceptical I went into the hotel to ask them to check it. The receptionist identified it as fake immediately, produced a machine which can verify this beyond doubt and gave me and another European woman a lesson in how to recognise one. I shot off to the auto-bank and got him to check these too - fortunately they were fine. So welcome to Colombia where banks' cash machines dish out fake notes!

Treated myself to two glasses of wine with my meal after a somewhat trying day!

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