Sandra’s flatmate, Felix, was kind enough to let me move in so we could spend time living together closely. He was in the middle of writing up his PhD thesis and preferred the peace of the countryside so the rent I paid allowed him to do that, which made for a win all round. Except for Mao, his cat, who missed the master that spoiled her terribly. Unlike Felix, we didn’t let her sleep on the bed with us, and we didn’t keep her food bowl topped up all day. She tried to combat this last by meowing in disgust and refusing to eat whenever she could see the bottom of the bowl. For all that we annoyed her, she did grace us with her company and some cute moments during the time I was there.

Sandra’s mother and her brother live in the same gated apartment complex in Bogota, and we spent a weekend with them around the time we all celebrated birthdays. Her mother shares her life with Ricardo, and her brother with another Sandra. My Sandra loves them both enormously, and it was great to meet such generous people. They played a game that looks very much like Ludo into the early hours of the morning, while Sandra and I turned in to recover from the one-hour flight. The next day they took us to a town in the surrounding mountains to have a local meal that would have stretched my stomach in my most ravenous days. Sandra’s cousin took us to Candelaria, an area where Sandra hung out a lot during her university days, which maintains a traditional feel aside from the amazing graffiti that adorns many walls. The morning that we left, Ricardo and Sandra’s mother sat me down to tell me how happy they were that I was in Sandra’s life and that she was now mine to spoil. It is my pleasure to do so, and I’m grateful to have been welcomed into her family so warmly. I only hope that I’ll be able to introduce her to my family and Australian friends in the near future.

I’d racked my brains for something to get Sandra for her birthday. She’s always so creative with her gifts, and I wanted to show how much she meant to me. In the end, I fell back on the gringo strategy of spending money. Our friends had been to a Hestonesque restaurant that Sandra was keen to try, and her birthday seemed to be the perfect occasion. It didn’t disappoint. The photos speak for themselves: chocolate exfoliation, fairy floss with syrup to taste, dishes made to be licked and a misty morning in the coffee plantations. I had almost as much fun as Sandra did.

If I am to stay in Colombia, I need to find something to keep me busy. I was lucky to find the Experimental Technologies group at the libraries, who welcomed me with open arms. My Spanish isn’t really up to the task, and I’m learning more than I’m teaching at this point, but I have been able to tweak the code on a braille keyboard to make it a bit more user friendly. The group took part in the Book Festival at the Botanical Gardens and Sandra came with me to check out their activity. We used a comparison table to read a message on a peg board and we impressed our own message using a braille writer. In the main part of the festival, Sandra bought me a gorgeously illustrated book of Dracula in simple Spanish, which we’ve been reading together.

Sandra’s friend / flatmate, Felix, was going to Jardin for a meeting and some research and offered to take us with him if we could catch a bus back ourselves. We readily accepted. The drive was longer than expected, so we ended up with only a few hours in the town, but we put it to good use. First, we took a rickety old cable car, that looked like it was hand built, across the valley next to the town, and enjoyed a refreshing juice in the restaurant on the other side. Then we walked back to town via the road, which ran past a waterfall. Needless to say, we ended up spending an hour or so sitting by the waterfall. There were some kids playing in the water, which made us jealous and gave us something to watch. Our last stop was a famous lolly shop where we each chose a less sugary item and shared them, then snuggled together in the bus all the way back to Medellin.