A day out with mamá

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Nini finished her nursing training in September and hopes to get a job in one of the hospitals here. But meanwhile, she works part-time helping organise childrens' parties but the pay is very poor. On Thursday 8th, she was off to work all day and the pay is 50mils. Divide by 3 and that gives you euros.

So it was arranged for me to spend the day with her mum and we went to Sta Rosa which is a town up in the hills close to thermal springs which we are due to visit later. The journey is very strange because there is one road going up and another coming down. The 8th was a fiesta so everyone was out in the main square. The bus dropped us off at the bottom of the town and, as we left the bus, a European guy warned me, "keep your eyes open", very draconian. I replied that I was with "her", meaning mum of course. The warning was not necessary, it applies to many parts of the world, including Girona Market where I had a pair of Bose headphones stolen.

I think many people are very keen to hear about how dangerous Colombia is. And the answer is very simple, there are places you don't visit. And that applies not only to foreigners but to people who live here. But it is very obvious. All the normal areas are like any other city, shopping malls for example. And all the taxis are official and painted yellow and are very modern. They are meetered. And maybe I said, a typical 20 minute journey is about 10mils, 3 euros.

We returned late afternoon to Pereira. On the road into the city there are many new buidings, offices, a shopping mall, maybe. Much evidence of investment.