Another year granted to learn Spanish!

This is |Barichara at sunset, not far from my casa.

It took three days to get my visa finished, and the New DAS does not give out the government’s identity cedular cards for 20 days, so I shall have to retrieve that upon my return to Colombia.

If you want to read the updates on getting a ‘pension’ visa (retirement) then refer back to my posting here so I don’t have to bore you with that.

The hotel in Bogota was GHL’s Comfort Hotel El Belvedere (part of the Sheraton and Howard Johnson corporation it seems), located on the ‘Cien’ (100th Street), intersected by Carrera 16, very close to DAS. I would certainly choose to stay there again and probably will.

While in Bogota, I had the chance to have a wonderful Peruvian dinner with an American friend who works in Bogota that I met in Barichara last year and we had a lot of catching up to do. Bogota has a lot of fine restaurants... the biggest problem is choosing one. I was lucky to have someone to make the choice for me.

The workers used my garden for a dump as well... ugh!*

Upon finally arriving at the new rental, I was shocked to find everything moved around and covered in a variety of construction dust plus the work was still not completed. It was most upsetting and after two days of trying to get my point across in a ‘nice’ way, I told the young lady who was translating, “I am not angry at you, but at the landlady who has not kept her part of the contract, and I am ready to find someplace else to live.” With that real threat, things got moving and by the end of the week, the house was truly mine with no more workers or people coming in and out for any reason. *And the garden got cleaned up, too.

What I’ve learned from all this is that first of all, nothing really gets done on the schedule stated at the outset, so don’t expect that. Secondly, going along with things for awhile is OK, but at some point one must be ready to push back to get things moved forward.

With the assistance of my dear doctor friend, we went to San Gil on Wednesday and found a ‘deal’ on some new furniture which was delivered on the next day. (I wasn’t about to install new furniture with any threat of additional construction!)

Below you will see a picture I took last week of visitors to Barichara 'leaving their mark' and this is not a very pretty example of being a good visitor. I don't know why people feel they have to do these sorts of things, but I hope if someone recognizes them, they will remind them that this is a destructive act.

This is a bad tourist habit / very destructive.

 

Another beautiful sunset over the Andes...

Now, with the visa secured and the house settled, I am ready to get on with my painting, photography and a new project to be shared once it has gotten underway.

But I have to go back to the US to finish up some things, so all that will have to wait a couple more weeks. Meanwhile I am sending Reiki and Huge Intentions for healing to Lonnie Nesseler who is needing all our love, thoughts and prayers with his latest challenges... and this is definitely for the highest and best good of all concerned... so be it and so it is! Whooooooo to you, Lonnie!